'The Vow' Will Stink Up Theaters Even Worse Than a Tub of Buttered Popcorn
February, 09, 2012 11:15 am | Comments On #Channing Tatum, Leah Rozen, Movies, Rachel McAdams, reviews, The VowThe strong stench from “The Vow” is likely to overwhelm the smell of popcorn in movie theaters this weekend.
This stinker of a romantic drama is “inspired by” -- those coverall weasel words so beloved by studio legal departments -- the true story of Kim and Krickett Carpenter. Shortly after marrying, the couple was in a car accident in 1993. Krickett suffered a major brain injury that wiped out, permanently, her memory of Kim and their life together. He had to woo and win her all over again.
Fans hoping to wallow again in the same, high-class romantic mush they so eagerly embraced in "2004's"...
Read More'Big Miracle': Feel-Good Whale Tale's Appeal Is No Fluke
February, 02, 2012 11:06 am | Comments On #Big Miracle, Leah Rozen, Movies, reviewsAt this time of year, when the studios mostly schedule generic programmers and dump the turkeys for which they once had higher hopes, it’s a pleasure to find a movie that’s a couple notches better than it had to be.
That would be “Big Miracle,” a family-friendly drama inspired by the true story of highly publicized efforts in 1988 to free three gray whales trapped inland by ice in Alaska near the Arctic Circle.
One doesn’t want to oversell the movie -- no one is going to be mentioning this one come Oscar...
Read MoreReview: Katherine Heigl IS Snooki in Flaccid 'One for the Money'
January, 27, 2012 9:03 am | Comments On #Katherine Heigl, Leah Rozen, Movies, music, one for the money, reviewsFolks from New Jersey are used to having their home state insulted. Other than Bruce Springsteen, New Jersey is best known for being home to Tony Soprano, Snooki and her boorish buds, and all those spectacularly ill-mannered, big-haired gals on Bravo’s "The Real Housewives of New Jersey."
Katherine Heigl is now adding insult to injury for Jerseyites. In “One for the Money,” a flaccid comic crime drama which she also produced, she plays a Jersey girl with an...
Read MoreReview: George Lucas-Produced 'Red Tails' Crashes and Burns
January, 19, 2012 10:08 am | Comments On #Movies, Red Tails, reviews
Though it tries hard, “Red Tails” never becomes an updated “Glory” with wings.
“Glory” was the stirring 1989 film based on a true story about a group of black Union soldiers during the Civil War who battled prejudice both inside and out of the Army. (Denzel Washington won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role.)
“Red Tails,” produced by George Lucas and directed by feature first-timer Anthony Hemingway (TV’s “The Wire,” “Treme” and “CSI: NY”), is about the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black Army pilots...
Read MoreReview: Peter Facinelli's Vanity Project 'Loosies' All Smoke, Little Fire
January, 19, 2012 9:28 am | Comments On #Leah Rozen, Loosies, Movies, Peter Facinelli, reviews
When an actor’s career is stalled or they’re not getting the kind of or size of roles they want, some are able to write their way out of the rut.
Sylvester Stallone famously took the screenwriting route with “Rocky,” Matt Damon and Ben Affleck did it with “Good Will Hunting” (and Affleck did it again a dozen years later with “The Town”) and Billy Bob Thornton made “Sling Blade.”
Trying it with less success in “Loosies” is Peter Facinelli, an experienced, handsome and likable actor with more than a touch of a resemblance to Tom Cruise in his sharply...
Read MoreReview: 'Beneath the Darkness' a Thriller Beneath the Abilities of Dennis Quaid
January, 05, 2012 10:01 am | Comments On #Beneath the Darkness, Dennis Quaid, Movies, reviewsFor an actor, some roles are a challenge, some are Oscar bait, some have personal meaning, and a few are mostly just a paycheck.
One can only assume the role of a deranged mortician in this lackluster teen horror film falls into the latter category for star Dennis Quaid. Or maybe the attraction was simply that “Beneath the Darkness” was shot within spitting distance of Austin, which he calls home these days.
Ely Vaughn, Quaid’s loopy undertaker -- he dances nightly with the embalmed corpse of his...
Review: Meryl Streep's 'Iron Lady' Is Margaret Thatcher as King Lear With a Wink
December, 29, 2011 11:08 am | Comments On #iron lady, Leah Rozen, Meryl Streep, Movies, reviewsIn interviews, star Meryl Streep and director Phyllida Lloyd (“Mamma Mia!”) have joked that “The Iron Lady,” their film about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is the girl version of “King Lear.”
It’s not a bad comparison. Not that anyone will confuse “Iron Lady,” essentially a TV movie blessed with a brilliant and deeply felt performance by Streep, with “Lear.”
The movie may lack the eloquence and depth of William Shakespeare’s drama about an aging king heading...
Read MoreReview: 'Extremely Loud' and Incredibly Healing
December, 22, 2011 5:18 pm | Comments On #Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Max Von Sydow, Movies, reviews, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks
Oskar Schell is on a quest. The boy has found a key belonging to his father, who perished in the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. The key was in a small envelope on which the word “Black” was written and Oskar believes, if he can just find the lock to which the key belongs, he will discover a secret message from his dead dad.
He spends long months traveling far and wide across New York City’s five boroughs, methodically tracking down persons named Black, hoping to find the one who will know where the key belongs and Oskar’s father’s connection to it.
That’s the basic plot of...
Read MoreReview: Angelina Jolie's Wartime Romeo & Juliet Tale Long on Earnest, Short on Art
December, 22, 2011 9:51 am | Comments On #Angelina Jolie, In the Land of Blood and Honey, Movies, reviews
When actors decide to direct, it’s often a dicey proposition. Some are naturals (Clint Eastwood) but others turn out films that are unwatchable, self-indulgent hokum (anyone else sit through Nicholas Cage’s “Sonny” in 2002?).
So how does Angelina Jolie do with “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” which marks her feature directing-screenwriting debut and landed her on the cover of Newsweek? It’s a respectable first effort, longer on earnestness than art, though much of that is due to her choice of topic material.
“Blood and Honey” is a drama set in Bosnia during and...
Read MoreReview: Madonna's 'W.E.' Should Have Been Called 'Whiny Wallis'
December, 08, 2011 12:09 pm | Comments On #Madonna, Movies, reviews, W.E.
No matter her audacity, the Material Girl is only as good as her material, and Madonna has only half a movie here.
“W.E.” is the second film that the singer (and sometime actress) has directed. It’s a definite leap forward from 2008’s “Filth and Wisdom,” her mangy maiden directorial effort, but suffers from a faulty structural conceit that undercuts and fatally weakens the movie.
(“W.E.” opens tomorrow, Dec. 9, in Los Angeles for a one week, Oscar-...
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Description
Leah Rozen was the film critic at People Magazine for thirteen years, until she decided that seeing six to eight movies a week was cruel and unusual punishment. She has also written for the New York Times and such still lamented though long departed publications as Spy, Manhattan Inc. and New York Woman.
