I remember going to the theater for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, the feature film debut of Guy Ritchie. Its U.S. release was in the spring of 1999, when indie-inclined screens were still wallpapered with all manner of gruff, … Continue reading The Unwatchables — The Gentlemen
Vacation (John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein, 2015). Like any Freaks and Geeks devotee, I’m rooting for Sam Weir as he transitions from actor to one half of a comedy filmmaking team, but this thing is hideous. A supposed continuation of the Vacation franchise, it’s more of a lazy remake of the 1983 Harold Ramis film, replacing what minor vestiges of wit it carried with hollow raunch. There’s nothing inherently wrong with raw, audacious comedy, but there’s still an obligation to actually structure humor. Instead, Daley and Goldstein have a kid hurl blue insults at his older brother and … Continue reading Daley and Goldstein, Dougherty, Letterman, Ritchie, Silverstein
Sherlock Holmes (Guy Ritchie, 2009). I fully expected that Ritchie’s first real stab at crafting a blockbuster entertainment would be an over-directed mess. Instead, it’s fairly drab, a generic exercise in filling the screen with bigger, louder, grander nonsense at every turn. Of course, it’s still a mess, a clumsy attempt at making the most famous detective in literary history relevant for a modern audience that’s more interested in quipping tomfoolery than feats of logic. Robert Downey, Jr. plays the title role with the sort of chomping fussiness that’s too often the defining characteristic of his acting, and Jude Law … Continue reading Eastwood, Kusama, Ritchie, Roeg, Vallée
The Women (Diane English, 2008). This remake of the 1939 George Cukor-directed comedy had been in development for so long that I swear we reported on it on the movie review radio show I co-hosted in college. That show ended in 1993. Watching the finished product, it’s easy to understand what inspired the reluctance. Similarly, the easiest explanation for the project finally coming to fruition is sheer attrition: Diane English must have simply outlasted the studio execs with sounder taste. As nice as it is to see the rarity of a movie filled with female characters, it would be nicer … Continue reading Theatre goddess, film destroyer, New York girls are sure to enjoy her
Coffee for Two 