lance24 Reviews

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

Snail's paced, non-cinematic disappointment

[4/10 · 26 December 2018]

Loved Moonlight and was expecting a lot from this film. The basic problem is simple: this should have been a play. It doesn't work as a movie despite strong acting because the plot is thin and Jenkins' decision to slow the pace to a crawl exacerbates the lack of plot. There wasn't an original idea in the movie and the heavy reliance on stereotypes made it preachy. Potential viewers should ask why it took 44 years for this James Baldwin novel to make it to the screen before watching.

Jimi: All Is by My Side (2013)

Inexplicably inept motion picture

[2/10 · 23 January 2015]

The"2" rating is for Andre Benjamin. It's not his fault if writer/director Ridley wrote the role for an idiot savant guitar player who seemed at best dimwitted and spoke in cosmic idiocies. He played that part quite well. If I didn't know Ridley was involved, and just looked at this film's direction, writing, cinematography, editing and sound mix, I would have said it was an OK effort for a student film. Note to would be filmmakers: if you don't have music rights in a musical biopic--don't make the movie. The notion that we would be interested in competing girlfriends from 50 years ago (NOT INTERESTING AT ALL) and would somehow not notice the absence of scenes from Woodstock or Monterrey, is simply unacceptable. The next time I teach that part of my class in legal issues in the music business which relates to film and TV, I'm going to make my class watch this Razzie-worthy failure and I won't have to say a word about why rights are important.

Melancholia (2011)

Great film. One of the year's best.

[10/10 · 9 January 2012]

I just came home from watching this movie and am still numb. This is an exceptionally hard movie and I felt some of Kurbrick, Antonioni, Bergman and Tarkovsky throughout. This is a deep meditation on life, or rather the end of the world and how we choose to deal with it. There is a wonderful point-counterpoint between the two sisters, Justine (Dunst) and Claire (Gainsbourg). In the first half, Justine is helpless and can't function in any way; she is melancholic because she knows that the world is ending. Claire is her caregiver, and the only person who can tolerate her. In the second half of the movie, there is a complete role reversal--because Justine can see the truth so clearly she's learned to deal with it, while the usually responsible Claire, can't handle things at all. Strange things occur, particularly in the first half of the movie, at what has to be the oddest wedding in cinema history, truly worthy of Buneul at his peak. I should mention that this is not a cheap looking film shot on a shoestring. Instead it is beautifully shot and the detail throughout (costumes, cinematography, sets, and music) and world class. This is not a film for everyone (as always seems to be the case with Von Trier), but it is a great accomplishment at least as good as his seminal "Breaking the Waves". Be prepared for a stiff drink or anti=anxiety pill after the movie is over.

Margin Call (2011)

Great look at life inside the financial bubble and the corrosive effect of money.

[9/10 · 8 December 2011]

Terrific understated analysis of the mind-set of those in the financial community. Particularly good at conveying the thinking of those who get sucked into the business and wind up detached from the real world with no understanding that their only business is to create fake "profits". Great touches abound. Young kids get to ride around in chauffeur-driven cars which are available 24 hours a day; not one scene in which any of the leads interacts with a "real" person (they live in their own world and don't know, care or understand what anyone else thinks--yet deem themselves superior because of how much money they make compared to the little people). Contains the best-written scene of the year: Stanley Tucci describes how he used to be an engineer and quantifies what his building of one bridge meant to two small cities connected by the bridge. This scene sums up the point-counterpoint of the movie: those that add real value to society by creating something useful as opposed to those who simply create money (and almost always as a result of others losing theirs). Would-be writers should study this scene and then hope they will ever write one as good. Big strenght of the movie is that it isn't preachy and we see that the seduction of the life-style is simply too hard to resist even for people who otherwise seem decent, articulate and well-educated. Classic example of how hard it is to see outside the bubble when it's so comfortable inside.

Love & Other Drugs (2010)

Movie that tries to do too much and fails at everything

[3/10 · 4 January 2011]

Ed Zwick is a good director with an admirable body of work and Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhall can both act, particularly Hathaway. How did these elements go so wrong? Falsely marketed as a comedy about a viagra salesman and a beautiful woman, the movie is about a charismatic salesman who falls for a woman with a debilitating illness. We've seen it all before. Having worked at a big studio, I could feel the hands of the creative executives and their "notes" all over the screenplay: suck us in in the first thirty minutes with laughs and sex and then try to get us to buy into the drama of beautiful woman who is going to live a horrible life. Oh, don't forget that vulgarity is in vogue, so throw in the obese, sophomoric, internet-rich brother, to bring the sophistication level down to the worst Judd Apatow movie and let's throw in a totally unnecessary role for Oliver Platt. This seemed more like the first draft of a novice's screenplay than a professionally crafted effort. The screenplay (and the director) never could figure out where to go next. My biggest problem was that the Gyllenhall character, whose "arc" moves form a charming womanizer to a committed man. He was never a jerk or a bad guy and never did or said one thing in the movie that the audience could dislike him for; hence his transformation to a guy who loves a fantastic, beautiful, sexy woman wasn't that big a step or, rather, not an impressive arc. This movie needed a page one rewrite as it moved from rom-com to dramady to expose of big pharma, to vulgar for no reason andfailing to succeed anywhere. No red blooded man will ever complain about seeing Anne Hathaway nude but after a while it seemed like a gimmick--we get the fact that she was sexually liberated. Ten nude scenes didn't make the movie any better.

Greenberg (2010)

A boring film about an angry guy.

[2/10 · 18 August 2010]

A tedious study about an angry, depressed, bored guy, Greenberg starts slowly and goes nowhere. It's always hard to figure out what movies with such unlikeable protagonists are about and, for that matter, why they get made. When these characters appear in better films ("Hud") is a perfect example, there is a charisma that the character has that makes us understand why people who know better, would be attracted to them, particularly when they are as handsome as Paul Newman. Unfortunately, Stiller is not Newman, and everything about Stiller's character is an advertisement for running as fast as possible in the opposite direction. Not an iota of charisma; in fact, anti-charisma would be a better description. I guess it could be said that the message is that if you bring nothing to your life, you get nothing out of it. Do we need a long, boring, movie in order to receive this message? There was absolutely no rhythm to this film and filmmakers take note of the intentional fallacy. e.g., if you believe life is boring, make a boring movie. While Greta Gerwig lightened up the movie somewhat, I couldn't tell whether she was a competent personal assistant, or someone with limited mental abilities. It was never clear what her attraction to Greenberg was or why she kept letting him back into her life. Baumbach has made some good films but, alas, this is not one of them.

Vincere (2009)

Poorly conceived and poorly executed

[3/10 · 3 August 2010]

Despite the inexplicable gushings from other reviewers, this is simply a bad movie; the directing, writing, acting, photography and music all bad in their own way. The first 45 minutes of the movie are confusing with no purpose; the movie jumps back and forth from different years making it almost impossible to get rolling and impenetrable to understand. By the time, Giovanna Mezzigiona is confined to a mental hospital (the last half of the movie) we just don't care, and nothing is added to the film. The film could have worked much better as a chronological story; how she met Mussolini, their subsequent relationship and should have ended with her confinement. The end credits could have told us that she never saw Mussolini again. There was absolutely no drama in the hour of the story during which she is confined. The movie tried (and failed) to do too many things: History, world wars, journalism socialism, Fascism, romance, betrayal, to name a few, and did them all poorly. The movie starts chaotically and never gets into any rhythm. The beginning was so bad that it resembled a student film. I hated the idea that the first part of the film was shot in such dark colors (it wasn't as if this was about a journey to light); in fact, it would have been better to start with a lighter palette and grow darker as both Mussolini rise and Mezzagiona's commitment follow. The music was way too intrusive and only added to the pain of watching this movie. The acting was also poor. (Mezzigiona is a major Italian actress and yet has a persistent habit in recent films of failing to connect with the audience and getting us to care about her character) Fellow IMDBers beware! This is a big whiff.

Righteous Kill (2008)

Worst movie of the year.

[1/10 · 17 September 2008]

Don't be misled by any other comment on this site--simply put, it could not have been worse. Not one element of the film rises above an F; the writing, directing, acting are all time lows. Avi Lerner has pioneered a genre unto himself: get big name stars, sell foreign rights and hope for the best in the U.S. No film element seems to matter. The end results are films like this. Pacino and De Niro are cartoon characters and, without "spoiling" the ending, it was a gimme 20 minutes into the film. I've probably seen well in excess of 30,000 films in my life--this one is in the bottom 1%; sad and laughably inane at the same time. BEWARE! Grade F-.

Leatherheads (2008)

Bad idea poorly executed

[3/10 · 14 April 2008]

The fifteen years that elapsed since the first draft of the screenplay until release of the film, certainly was not used to make a good film. What exists may, in fact, be better than what was, but was is, isn't good. Everything about the film goes wrong starting with the conceit that a screwball comedy about the dawn of pro football in 1925 is a good arena for a screwball comedy. It isn't. I'm guessing that the credited writers (two sportswriters) had some good source material but, as we all too frequently discover, not every arena makes for compelling cinema. The basic problem with the movie is that is doesn't ever find a rhythm. The three leads are likable enough but the story isn't. At some point, you can't even tell what historical plot points are real, if any. Clooney is a legitimate movie star but he needs to do better than his small movies (like this) as a means to legitimize the Ocean's 11,12 and 13 embarrassments. Definitely a fumble here.

Shine a Light (2008)

When outlaw rockers and directors get too old and respectable...

[5/10 · 13 April 2008]

Once upon a time, the Stones represented everything about the rock and roll heart--they were bad boys; used and got arrested for drugs; were pan-sexual and even appeared on Ed Sullivan's famous variety show wearing sweatshirts. Scorcese was making milestone movies outside the mainstream; he even contributed the great "The Last Waltz" concert film. Fast forward 30 years to "Shine a Light": the Stones are rich beyond belief; are introduced by a former U.S. President, after kissing his mother-in-law!!, to an audience of politicos and celebutards; they change the non-P.C. lyrics to "Some Girls" and deliver a Medicare performance (Marty is already eligible and Mick and Keith will be later this year) worthy of 65 year olds. And, Scorcese has traded in his outsider status for a well-coiffed, well-tailored image worthy of his Kennedy Center honors. "Shine a Light", when compared to the Stones other concert films and the ton of footage available on them when they once ruled the rock world, is a cautionary tale for all aging rockers: Let the myth live. The thing most people forget about "The Last Waltz" is that the Band retired in its prime and all the guest artists were in their respective primes. Not the case here. When bands age, the arrangements change to make sure that their songs can still be sung and played--but all are changed for the worse. Throw is a three guest artists, two of whom (Aguilera and Jack White) have no connection to the Stones, and voilà, here's a movie showing the wear and tear on Mick and Keith's faces (rough road indeed) with songs about 30% as good as they once were. Keith Richards once famously said that "the greatest rock and roll band in the world is playing in some bar tonight". A quote to always remember and, one which should have been observed before making this nostalgic movie about what once was. Scorcese, who knows more about contemporary music than any other director, (and has used music so well in his great flicks) never seems to catch a rhythm here. Seems like every other shot is Mick preening or Keith playing guitar with scary-looking fingers. (He looks as scary as always but those fingers!!!) A big miss by a great director and, sad to say, an embarrassment for rock's greatest band.

21 (2008)

Slow paced, predictable movie we've seen before

[5/10 · 29 March 2008]

You know the studio is nervous about a film when the publicists are leaking stories about the "steamy" love scene between the stars. (As it turns out there was a harmless 10 second scene that had no steam and no passion). "21" is an unusually slow paced drama loosely based on a card counting scheme pulled off (at least for a while) by some very smart MIT students. The fingers of the development executives are all over this film--an unconvincing love story about a nerd who gets the hot chick; the devious professor masterminding the kids for reasons that are murky; the security team worried about how advancing technology is impacting their careers, once based on gut and guile. The film meanders to find a real theme and the conceit that the single smartest student at MIT had to count cards in Vegas to pay for Harvard Medical School (according to the movie only one scholarship per year is granted and the last recipient was a Korean with one leg!!) is preposterous. Apparently, student loans are a thing of the past. Instead of a fast paced story about greed (which is what this film should have been about), we get a meandering drama that fails to convince at any level. The acting was generally good considering some of the ridiculous dialog that the actors had to embrace. Kate Bosworth has lost any sex appeal she may have had--anorexia ain't sexy. Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne get a chance to ham it up a bit. In the end, the film is too driven by a need to please all quadrants and ends up pleasing none.

Snow Angels (I) (2007)

Pointless and depressing slices of life

[3/10 · 15 March 2008]

The first thing I said to my friend, who has worked in the movie business for 30 years, after we exited the theater, was "What was this movie about?" I still don't know. Here's what I do know. You won't see a more depressing movie this year and, as the film lacks any meaning, you won't find a more fatal combo. This ensemble piece would have us believe that every adult living in the small town in which the film takes place, has nothing but problems causing endless unhappiness. Story primarily follows Beckinsale and Rockwell, high school sweetheats, who are now separated. Rockwell is a totally unlikable character who moves between alcoholism, depression, self-hatred and religious foibles. I could never figure out why Beckinsale was with him. She's the type of girl who always escapes this small town dreariness and winds up in LA or NY, usually on the arm of some millionaire. That being said, anyone paying the slightest attention could even see the tragic end coming from the first or second scene. Also, the happy relationship between the two teenagers gives us a hopeful ending that contradicted everything else in the film and was dishonest. The only thing we could reasonably expect is that they, too, would wind up as unhappy as every adult in this picturesque, yet miserable town. The acting was the only thing that saved the film from being a total disaster. Sometimes I wonder whether the indie film movement exists so that films like this can get made. While it is true that some of the great films of the last 20 years have come out of the indie scene, there needs to be some limits on uber-depressing films that illuminate nothing more than misery. Don't be misled by some of the comments that you've read on this site and elsewhere. A total bummer.

Rendition (2007)

Poor film of important subject

[3/10 · 7 March 2008]

Poorly written, acted and directed, Rendition is a perfect example of a filmmaker taking on an important subject but failing to do it cinematically. The positive reviews on this site have focused almost all their attention on the importance of the subject matter and very little on the film. Unfortunately, a bad film doesn't get better because it's on the right side of a political issue--it just becomes a bad film about an important issue. Such is the case here. Directed at a snail's pace and acted with no emotion, the film never gets out of the box and seems endless. Conventional wisdom is that people stayed away from the movie because it was too close in time to the war in Iraq. The truth is that this is a bad film and there is no reason to see it.

Rambo (2008)

Unintentional Comedy off the charts

[3/10 · 23 February 2008]

Posing as an action/adventure sequel in the famous "Rambo" series, "Rambo" is much more a spoof of itself than a drama. Our story starts when John Rambo is living in abject filth and poverty, earning a living by going up-river in what looks like the same boat used in "The African Queen." He earns his living by capturing snakes and selling them to a local entrepreneur who does some form of snake show. As has been the case in other sequels in this franchise, Rambo has lost all faith in life; that is, until a comely do-gooder (Julie Benz of "Dexter") convinces him to take her do-good posse to war-ravaged Burma. They get captured and mercenaries are hired to determine if they're still alive and to get them out. Rambo joins the mercenaries. No need for spoilers here--anyone who's read this far knows the ending already. Replete with dialog that could sink the Titanic, the unintentional comedy never stops. Highlight of the the spoof is when the mercenaries synchronize watches. All have standard issue military watches. Not penniless John Rambo--he's suddenly sporting a Panerai Luminor!!! I started laughing so hard in the theater that I thought I would get thrown out. I am amazed at the positive reviews this film has received on this site. You can enjoy the film only if you properly manage expectations.

Freedom Writers (2007)

Worst movie of the year.

[1/10 · 21 December 2007]

Horrifyingly bad. The movie is the 25th installment of the "white person teaches inner city students" theme. And, while no one should trivialize the plight of these kids, there's only so much territory to cover. There's not even one scene in the movie that you haven't seen before. The writing is atrocious and the direction is beyond-belief awful. One has to wonder about Hillary Swank. Two-time Academy Award winning actress and attractive to boot; yet chooses bad material between awards with uncanny reliability. Hyphenate director/writer, Richard LaGravenese, has yet to show any real skill as a writer and has no ability behind the camera whatsoever.

Children of Men (2006)

Slick production of pretentious claptrap

[4/10 · 6 January 2007]

This well directed first rate production can't overcome the film's pretense that it is "deep" or "meaningful"; in fact, for all it's production value, the movie is, at its core, meritricious. Those reading the astonishing number of positive reviews beware--this is a classic example of viewers bringing preconceived expectations to a movie and then agreeing with their own pre-assessments even though the film they watched sorely missed the mark. At heart, the story is simple: the world has been infertile for unknown reasons for 18 years. As a result, everyone is in a bad mood for the entire film, except Michael Caine, who looks like a refugee from the 60's, growing marijuana, and giving avuncular advice to Clive Owen while getting high. Clive Owen, one of our great actors, is perfectly cast as an angry man working at a meaningless job while an apparent perpetual riot is ongoing in London, the last of the world's major cities not to have been destroyed. Ener Julianne Moore, divorced for 20 years from Mr. Owen. Nonetheless, she has him kidnapped to assist in a critical mission--the delivery to safety of a Young black woman (symbolically and obviously named Kee) who is about to have the world's first infant (obviously a woman) in nearly two decades. While one could think of twenty important issues raised by the premise of the film (religious, social, philosophical, etc.) the great failure of the film is that is doesn't deal with any of them--content to watch Owen scowl, Caine fart and various lunatics babble in foreign tongues. In any event, Owen undertakes this mission and effectively delivers the mother and child to safety. Left behind, however, is a nightmare of war, riot, lunacy, rival factions, and general mayhem. Are we supposed to believe that the birth of one child will transmogrify the "end of days" world she's born into? Who knows and who cares? The director's job is to make the issues surface--and not supply a story from which we can create our own meaning. As far as I'm concerned, the film was an equivalent of a blank canvass and the viewers are supposed to supply meaning to it. This ain't art history, it's film. In the end, I couldn't help comparing this film to Sam Mendes great failure "Road to Perdition"; while it was technically superior, it painted a small story on a big canvas and, ultimately, had nothing to say to me. Potential viewers are on notice!

Bobby (I) (2006)

A could have been film.

[4/10 · 19 December 2006]

The problem with any movie, where the viewer knows how it's going to end, is how to keep our interest until then. The basic problem with this film is that it wants to be a documentary and use the "in between" time to follow individual stories. This could work if AND ONLY IF, the stories are meaningfully tied to the concluding event. Unfortunately, there seems to be no tissue connecting the characters other than the fact that they were all at the Ambassador Hotel on that terrible night. Some act better than others but it makes no difference. The only moving part of the film is Bobby Kennedy's voice-over speech at the end---but this only proves the point that the documentary aspect of the film is not enhanced by any of the individual acting. A screenwriter relative of mine once invented the concept of "genuflection art"--the essence of which is that if one takes a noble work of art or historical event and makes it into a film, critics "genuflect" to the concept that such a high-minded film got made instead of asking whether a good film got made. The genuflection art theory is much more complicated, but suffice it to say, that critics or readers falling over themselves about this film should really be asking not whether the subject matter merited a film but whether we got a good film. Unfortunately, this film joins many others on the scrapheap of genuflection failures.

The Black Dahlia (2006)

A disaster. The Titanic without a band. Razzies sure to follow.

[1/10 · 16 September 2006]

If you're hoping to get the Brian DE Palma of "The Untouchables" and "Scarface", be prepared--this is from DE Palma's "Femme Fatale" period and it's not as good. How did one of our greatest directors; one of our greatest writers (James Ellroy) and a top-notch cast team up for such an epic failure? I guarantee that when they hand out the Razzies at the end of the year for the worst cinematic performances of the year--this film will win a bundle.

What went wrong? Basically, everything except Mia Kirshner. The movie stumbles out of the gate and never gets a pace or rhythm. There is a long opening which teams up Aaron Eckhart and Josh Hartnett that makes no sense and takes takes up at least 20 minutes of screen time. One could say that so much has been written about the Black Dahlia case that nothing new can be said. Ellroy, who wrote the book on this subject, must know that. The screenplay is no Ellroy novelistic masterpiece; he is clueless writing for the screen. The acting is so bad one would think that it came from an SNL skit rather than the otherwise good actors in the cast. Particularly inept are two-time Academy Award winning actress, Hillary Swank, who never is convincing for one second in an over-the-top vampy turn. This is also Scarlett Johansson's worst work to date. Was she just lucky in "Lost in Translation"? Everything she's done lately stinks and this is the worst of her recent performances.

The movie starts bad and, over time, degenerates into an incomprehensible story which tries to be noirish but is plain laughable. Ellroy tries to weave several themes into the film and none works. Viewers should rent "True Confessions" which, despite its flaws, manages to work meaningful symbols and metaphors out of the same Black Dahlia case. While it, too, failed to come close to the fantastic novel on which it was based, no one laughed at the effort.

Considering the aspirations this movie had and the talent involved, this is the worst American movie of the year.