Film.com Movie Blog

Review: The Box is Uber Creepy Yet Interesting

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:23:00 PST

"Not an easy film to talk about, but one worth seeing."

The Box is not an easy film to talk about. Almost every description of the film will end up as a spoiler, it's fairly high concept, and it has a few glaring problems. However, The Box also presents huge moral dilemmas and is a genuine candidate for "cult-classic" status. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it, perhaps some amalgamation of confused and captivated. Yes, The Box confustivated me.

Borrowing from the synopsis:…

Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats is Good, Not Great

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:20:00 PST

"For those looking for something off the beaten path ..."

Almost 20 years ago director Roger Spottiswoode put to the screen an adaptation of an incredible book chronicling some of the crazy, unbelievable things our government, through the CIA, did during the Vietnam War. It was about a group of wild, unruly but brilliant pilots who flew stripped down civilian planes on military missions that NEVER HAPPENED. Drugs, money, weapons -- all to people we weren't supposed to be giving…

Review: A Christmas Carol Not Merry Enough

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:07:00 PST

"This version of A Christmas Carol has very little story and even less Christmas cheer."

The old aphorism goes "don't throw out the baby with the bathwater," but the makers of the latest iteration of A Christmas Carol have flipped the script; they've created a film that looks amazing and combined it with an appalling lack of story. In essence they've provided a lovely, piping hot bath, all the while forgetting to actually place the dirty baby into it. We're left with only a…

Review: Don't Bother Having an Encounter with The Fourth Kind

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:03:00 PST

"Not good, for sure, but at least it appears to have been attempting something intriguing."

When so many films are bad in lazy and ordinary ways, it's refreshing to occasionally see one that fails interestingly. The Fourth Kind is that sort of movie: not good, for sure, but at least it appears to have been attempting something intriguing.

Thanks to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (which it's strange no one in this film ever mentions), the common man knows about the degrees of…

Hey, Academy, How's About Nominating In The Loop?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:29:00 PST

I'm not entirely sure what to expect with this year's Oscar race. Throw everything you know out the window, because for the first time in a long time the nominees are too long a list to predict. It's just a feeling game at this stage. And here's what I feel so far:

Up in the Air
An Education
Precious
Nine
Up
Invictus

All the above movies are looking pretty strong right now. A Serious Man, Bright Star, and The Hurt Locker are all movies the Academy may or may not love as much as their strongest…

Eric's Bad Movies: Surf Ninjas (1993)

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:20:00 PST

Let's say you write a weekly column about bad movies, and that this column is extraordinarily popular and has made you beloved the world over. (LET'S JUST SAY.) Then let's say someone suggests as fodder for this column something called Surf Ninjas, which of course you have not seen, because why would you have seen a movie called Surf Ninjas? You'd be more likely to watch a movie called Your Parents Having Sex. So you watch Surf Ninjas, expecting it to be awful -- which it is -- but when it's…

Best Actress Front-runners

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:37:00 PST

So, as I sit down to write this, I've just come from a screening of The Young Victoria, in which Emily Blunt portrays the English queen at the beginning of her reign in the mid 19th century, with much pomp and pretty accents and costumes. And I'm glad I did, because it justifies my ~~laziness~~ ~~procrastination~~ prudence in holding off writing this for another day. Cuz it's one more flick I've got under my belt for awards season.

Best Actress front-runners? Geez, who can tell at this point? With…

Review: Black Dynamite Works

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:36:00 PST

"A genuinely good time at the movies."

Tired of the Man bringing you down? Tired of the government corruption bringing malt liquor, crime, and drugs into your neighborhood? Had enough of little orphan children becoming addicted to smack? OK, so maybe these issues were more relevant in the 1970s than they are today, but if they were still problems you'd look for a hero to clean up the streets with his fists, crazy nunchuck skills, flying side-kicks of fury, and classic…

Pixar: By The Numbers

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:28:00 PST

We get into arguments about Pixar all the time around the office. Why? When your average film garners approval from 95 percent of the critics there's plenty of room for disagreement. It becomes a bit like choosing your favorite spice. Can you really find the exact difference between red and white pepper?

So we decided to strip out all the emotion and focus on four crucial categories we could measure objectively. They are, in no particular order:

1. Fan reaction
2. Critical reaction
3. Box office…

Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin Will Host The Academy Awards, but Were They The Best Available?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:14:00 PST

So it looks like Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are set to host The Oscars this year. But who should have hosted? Here are five alternative takes to the Baldwin - Martin combo.

Craig Ferguson: When a TV network doesn't want to work too hard to come up with a host for an awards show, they usually just turn to the most convenient member of their late-night stable. Things didn't work out too well for Ferguson's boss David Letterman when he hosted back in 1995 (people are still rolling their eyes over…