Miami Vice

What I find interesting about movies, other than the fact that 85 percent of them are crap, is that many directors seem to think they still need to sell the film with a flashy title sequence in the first 60 seconds after people have already hired a babysitter, bought tickets, spent $97 at the concession [...]

Clerks II

(L-R)Jeff Anderson as Randal Graves and Brian O’Halloran as Dante Hicks in “Clerks II.”A Warner Independent Pictures release.
There is a fine line between love of cinema, and pseudointellectual masturbation. “Clerks II” is certainly not the first film to walk the tightrope between the two… but it may very well be one of the few [...]

A Scanner Darkly

Robert Downey Jr. as Jim Barris in A Scanner Darkly.
A Warner Independent Pictures release.
The glassy twinges of the soundtrack as the movie begins set a scatterbrain tone that gives one a frame of reference for Bob Arctor’s (Keanu Reeves) frame(s) of mind. Like his friends, Bob is addicted to Substance—a refined narcotic that seven [...]

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann and Jack Davenport as Navy Jesus,
a.k.a. James Norrington, in Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”
If the words “Lesbian Spank Inferno” mean anything to you, you’ll understand precisely what’s lacking in this film. We’re reunited with the principals, Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), James [...]