CrAiGeR's

pick of the week

THE PRESTIGE

(PG-13) 1/2

"...intricate, absorbing, complex, and an eerily atmospheric and opulent period mystery."

SALT (PG-13) 

Jolie's action hero is grounded and believable, unlike its absurd narrative

By Craig J. Koban

There are very few screen performers – female or not – that are able to combine a believable hybrid of soulful vulnerability, animalistic physicality, and raw sex appeal better than Angelina Jolie.  She displays all of these ample attributes in spades in the new espionage mystery/ thriller SALT....

Posted July 27, 2010

THE RUNAWAYS (R) 1/2

The Runaways were true rock star trendsetters; the film about them...not so much

By Craig J. Koban

THE RUNAWAYS, a new rock/docudrama about the 1975 formation of one of the first all-female rock bands, tells a story about a very radical and influential group that paved the way for the success of so many female artists over the last 30 years.  The main problem with the film is that it ultimately does not do their important legacy justice....

Posted July 27, 2010

INCEPTION (PG-13) 

Nolan triumphantly dreams up an audaciously original  sci-fi mindbender

By Craig J. Koban

Despite the rich diversity of Christopher Nolan’s films, two themes in particular are constant throughout all of them: obsession and perception.  His first feature, MEMENTO, concerned one lonely man’s driven quest to find his wife’s murderer, all while desperately trying to make sense of the world around him while suffering from perpetual short-term memory loss... 

Posted July 21, 2010

THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE 

(PG) 1/2

Beware of the spell cast by Nicolas Cage's hair piece and his preposterous dialogue 

By Craig J. Koban

THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE is the English name for a poem by Goethe, DER ZAUBERLEHRLING, written in 1797.  The basic story of an old sorcerer and the apprentice he leaves behind in his workshop to perform chores was, of course, fondly recreated in the 1940 Disney film, FANTASIA...

Posted July 21, 2010

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO  (no MPAA rating)   

A bravura Swedish film noir/detective yarn that introduces a new feminist anti-hero for the ages

By Craig J. Koban

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is a Swedish crime noir, murder/mystery thriller that is as evocatively stylish as it is finely plotted and impeccably acted.  The film also does something with a confidence and efficiency that many standard, run-of-the-mill Hollywood suspense films fail to do...

Posted July 15, 2010

DESPICABLE ME  (PG) 1/2

Despicably evil people that love doing despicably evil things

By Craig J. Koban

DESPICABLE ME, a new computer animated film from Universal Films, has a character that’s one pure bred baddie.  Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) is evil.  Make that very evil.  Like many terribly evil villains that do evil things, Gru is absolutely convinced that the social atrocities that he commits are not evil...

Posted July 15, 2010

THE LAST AIRBENDER  (PG) 

zero stars

Sucking the air and life out of filmgoers

By Craig J. Koban

If Ed Wood Jr. were given nearly $300 million to make a fantasy than I am quite sure that THE LAST AIRBENDER would have been the end result.  This film is joyless, misshapen, confusing, dull, incomprehensible, and incompetent…a family/fantasy effort of mammoth awfulness.  It's based on a very popular and critically appreciated Nickelodeon anime series of the basic same name...

Posted July 8, 2010

THE CRAZIES  (R) 1/2

A surprisingly and crazily effective remake of Romero's 1973 horror/thriller

By Craig J. Koban

THE CRAZIES is an uncommonly tense, disturbing, and lean and simply directed horror/thriller.  This is a welcome thing.  Too many modern splattergoriums of visceral mayhem and carnage seem more prone to wowing us with bombastic sensory overload.  The great thing about THE CRAZIES is how low key and efficiently directed it is...

Posted July 8, 2010

TOY STORY 3  (PG) 

A tender and action-packed curtain call to Pixar's most famous creation

By Craig J. Koban

The small miracle of the TOY STORY trilogy is how it takes characters that – under a normal plane of existence – are inanimate objects and creates emotive personas out of them that feel tangible and relatable.  There are human characters that lurk around the toys in these films, but they really are just secondary and less interesting than all of the plastic and wooden playthings that occupy the frame...

Posted July 8, 2010

KNIGHT AND DAY  (PG-13) 1/2

...or the difference between this film's star power and its overall quality

By Craig J. Koban

What do we got in this film?  We have attractive and charming mega-stars, glamorous and exotic locales around the world, action and mayhem galore, and a nifty MacGuffin for good measure.  That’s essentially what the pitch to studio executives must have been like for KNIGHT AND DAY, a new romantic spy-thriller/action comedy that, to be fair, gets a considerable amount of mileage out of its two appealing and likeable lead actors...

Posted June 30, 2010

GROWN UPS  (PG-13) 

A maturity-free comic dead zone

By Craig J. Koban

GROWN UPS – co-written and staring Adam Sandler - is not only unfunny, it’s antagonistically unfunny.  Very few films assault viewers with their feeble attempts at generating chuckles, but this one certainly deserves dishonorable mention.  GROWN UPS is a very ironic title:  this is not a film for grown ups, but rather one made by a bunch of grown ups with infantile minds... 

Posted June 30, 2010

JONAH HEX  (PG-13) 1/2

A gunslinger that sees dead people...and Megan Fox's sweaty, corseted cleavage

By Craig J. Koban

I remember many days of my childhood and early adolescent comic book reading days when I glanced over issues of DC Comics’ Jonah Hex on newsstands, but generally ignored them altogether (my youth was spent focusing on the adventures of Batman and Spider-Man)... 

Posted June 22, 2010