THE GREY  (R)  1/2

"Once more into the fray...live and die on this day."

By Craig J. Koban

Joe Carnahan’s THE GREY is a cold, brutally desolate, mercilessly intense, and viscously efficient outdoor survival thriller that preys upon viewers’ worst nightmares: being stuck out in the middle of nowhere where you'll die in one of two ways (1) due to exposure to the harsh and unforgiving elements or (2) even worse, due to animals hunting you down and devouring you...

Posted February 8, 2012

MAN ON A LEDGE  (PG-13)  1/2

Film critic on the fence

By Craig J. Koban

The very specifically titled MAN ON A LEDGE is a new thriller that’s a P.W.P. effort, or a film that contains a premise-without-payoff.  It has a decent cast, economical and straightforward direction, and is legitimately taut, suspenseful and intriguing for about its first sixty or so minutes.  It also has a compelling narrative hook...

Posted February 8, 2012

CHRONICLE  (PG-13)  1/2

"Dude, is so cold up here!"

By Craig J. Koban

Every once in a blue moon there are films that manage to break through the lethargy of the genre they’re occupying and are able to subvert its increasingly stale and repetitive conventions.  Josh Trank’s – making a stellar directorial debut - CHRONICLE is just one of those diamond-in-the-rough efforts...

Posted February 8, 2012

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE

(PG-13)  1/2

Extremely contrived and incredibly exploitative

By Craig J. Koban

With the possible exception of the loathsome REMEMBER ME, there has arguably been no other drama that has used the events of September 11, 2001 as shamefully, artificially, and exploitatively as EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE.  The dread and terror of that fateful day in history continues to resonate for millions of people all over the world...

Posted February 1, 2012

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN  (PG-13) 

When an American screen starlet meets British acting royalty

By Craig J. Koban

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN concerns two past heavyweights of the movie world (Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe) and how these pair of hopelessly incompatible actors managed to work together on the 1957 film THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL.  At its most compelling, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN represents a clash of performance styles...

Posted February 1, 2012

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY  (PG-13)  1/2

The anti-James Bond spy-espionage thriller

By Craig J. Koban

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY is an espionage thriller that, unlike so many other examples of the genre, is not at all concerned with mindless action and ostentatious pyrotechnics.  There is not much in the way of fisticuffs, gun battles, car or foot chases, and other customary accoutrements of the spy film to be found here...

Posted February 1, 2012

RED TAILS  (PG-13)  1/2

"My God!  Those pilots are African!"

By Craig J. Koban

The George Lucas financed and produced (and apparently ghost co-directed) RED TAILS is history as told through the pages of a 70-year-old comic book.  There is no doubt that the flannel-shirted one’s production – his first since 1994 that does not have STAR WARS or INDIANA JONES in its title – contains his lifelong admiration for its subject...

Posted January 24, 2012

HAYWIRE  (R)  1/2

All men - regardless of size or might - should fear Gina Carano!

By Craig J. Koban

It has been said that Steven Soderbergh wishes to take a long sabbatical from film directing, largely because he has become disinterested and uninspired by the profession.  His most recent film, the pandemic thriller CONTAGION, revealed that he still had much to offer when it comes to subverting genre expectations with his avant garde flourishes, but now comes HAYWIRE...

Posted January 24, 2012

UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING

  (R)  1/2

Selene versus lycans versus mankind makes for a most tedious three-way

Craig J. Koban

UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING - the fourth film in the werewolf versus vampire horror series – is so mercilessly dead on arrival that feelings of depression swept over me within just a few scant minutes of watching it.  The film will most likely be considered required viewing for devotees of the franchise, but as for the rest of us non-UNDERWORLD fundamentalists...

Posted January 24, 2012

CONTRABAND  (PG-13) 

Smuggling away narrative logic and common sense

By Craig J. Koban

There are actually three definitions of ‘contraband’:  1.  Goods that are illegal to possess or trade.  2.  The name of a new action/thriller remake of a 2009 Icelandic film REYKIJAVIK ROTTERDAM.  3.  The name of a new Mark Wahlberg-starring film where he goes through his obligatory performance motions in a story that yet again retreads one of the oldest movie formulas in the books...

Posted January 16, 2012

THE IRON LADY  (PG-13) 

Not a compellingly ironclad biopic

By Craig J. Koban

THE IRON LADY is proof positive that an extraordinarily skilled and bravura lead performance can be wasted by an ill-focused screenplay that lacks any sort of compelling angle.   Here’s an overly stylized biopic about one of the 20th Century’s most prominent, powerful, and controversial female politicians that regretfully has very little – if anything – to actually say about this woman...

Posted January 16, 2012

A DANGEROUS METHOD  (R)  1/2

A Cronenberg/Merchant-Ivory psychoanalytic sandwich

By Craig J. Koban

David Cronenberg's endlessly captivating A DANGEROUS METHOD provides a portal into the past and gives viewers an intimate glimpse into the two preeminent psychiatric minds of the last 100-plus years.  Mixing dramatic speculation and historical fact, Cronenberg collaborates with Oscar winning screenwriter Christopher Hampton...

Posted January 16, 2012

WAR HORSE  (PG-13)  1/2

The horrors of the Great War through the eyes of a very lucky animal

By Craig J. Koban

Steven Spielberg’s WAR HORSE tells a story of youthful friendship that’s not too unlike his E.T.- THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, only this time it involves a young man and his beloved steed.  Like Spielberg’s SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, WAR HORSE tells a story of the brutality of war, but this time around he delves into the Great War instead of World War II... 

Posted January 5, 2012

MELANCHOLIA  (R)   

Lars von Trier's haunting and majestically rendered apocalypse

By Craig J. Koban

Lars von Trier’s MELANCHOLIA has one of the great introductory scenes of the movies; it contains images of uncommon and transfixing power.  It opens with the chillingly beautiful musical cues from Wagner’s TRISTAN AND ISOLDE and then shows a montage of disturbing apocalyptic visions done with achingly slow moving, but almost lyrically stunning photography...

Posted January 5, 2012

WE BOUGHT A ZOO  (PG) 

I didn't totally buy this movie

By Craig J. Koban

Cameron Crowe’s WE BOUGHT A ZOO is a sweet and pleasing film experience.  It certainly does not lack heart or compassion in the right places.  Yet, the real problem with Crowe’s first feature film in six years (if you exclude his Pearl Jam documentary) is that, despite its inherent warmth and humanity, it just didn't feel dramatically genuine throughout...

Posted January 2, 2012

THE DARKEST HOUR  (PG-13)  1/2

A lights out affair when it comes to generating scares or tension

By Craig J. Koban

THE DARKEST HOUR is an alien invasion sci-fi thriller that can’t seem to do anything correctly with its fairly novel premise.  Worse yet, the film manages to take proven actors like Emile Hirsch and Olivia Thirlby and saddle them with horrendously one-note characters to play and even more inanely wooden dialogue to utter for 90 minutes... 

Posted January 2, 2012

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN 

(PG-13)  1/2

Great snakes!  Herge's classic comic is channeled through the uncanny valley.

By Craig J. Koban

On paper – and to quote its full and official title – THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: SECRET OF THE UNICORN has it all.  We have Steven Spielberg as director, Peter Jackson as Producer, Weta Digital providing the computer animation, John Williams lending his hands for its musical score, and, most crucially...

Posted December 28, 2011

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL 

(PG-13) 

An 'impossibly' exhilarating and action packed sequel

By Craig J. Koban

The job of the film critic is to report on what they have  seen and how well an individual film accomplished its prescribed aims.  MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL - as far as action-thrillers go -  is a rare breed for how it genuinely astounds us as a non-stop, adrenaline-induced, and feverously gripping genre picture...

Posted December 28, 2011

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO 

(R) 

A slick, well crafted, but somewhat flawed 'feel-bad movie of the season'

By Craig J. Koban

The original 2009 Swedish THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO - directed by Niels Arden Oplev and based on the novel by the late author and journalist Stieg Larsson – was one of the most effective and memorable crime noir thrillers of its year.  It was evocatively stylish, impeccably acted, contained a fascinating murder mystery, and, most crucially, it introduced filmgoers to the unforgettable Lisbeth Salander...

Posted December 28, 2011

SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS

(PG-13)  1/2

Shadowy and ponderous plotting is afoot here, Watson!

By Craig J. Koban

SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS is paradoxically an accomplished and an unsatisfying sequel.  The film has a broader and more epic feel than its predecessor and has an even stronger set of production values (it takes great pains to recreate not only Victorian London, but also Paris and Switzerland).  It contains a villain that is far more diabolically ambitious...

Posted December 28, 2011

YOUNG ADULT  (R) 

"I think I may be an alcoholic."

By Craig J. Koban

Mavis Gary was once one of those prototypical prom-queen high school girls that apparently had everything going for her when she was a teenager.  She was attractive, popular, and seemed destined to go far in adulthood.  What Jason Reitman’s YOUNG ADULT ostensibly hones in on is how this once promising young girl never managed to attain the type of notoriety that everyone pinned on her...

Posted December 28, 2011

THE TRIP (no MPAA rating)  1/2

A comedy about food, travel, friendship, and dueling Michael Caine impersonations

By Craig J. Koban

Michael Winterbottom’s THE TRIP is one of the most hilarious movies that I have ever seen involving two characters that, for the most part, do very little throughout the story.  Just how little, you may ask?  Well, its two main stars pretty much drive, eat, and talk (a lot of the latter) during the film’s 107 minute running time...

Posted December 28, 2011