CrAiGeR's

pick of the week

CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY

(R)

"...[Michael] Moore has successfully blended teeth clenched moral outrage and despair with nail biting and scathing comedy."

ALICE IN WONDERLAND  (PG) 

Lewis Carroll through the muddled haze of 2D converted to 3D

By Craig J. Koban

Lewis Carroll’s 1865 literary classic ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND has been adapted, in one form or another, so many times that I’ve lost track over the years.  Arguably, the most notable version is the cheery and pleasurable 1951 Disney animated effort.  Adult readers of Carroll’s original work always seem to respond to its satirical energy and twisted undertones...  

BROOKLYN'S FINEST  (R) 1/2

Corrupt cops dealing with morally dicey dilemmas: been there, done that

By Craig J. Koban

So much of Antoine Fuqua’s new cops n' crime thriller BROOKLYN’S FINEST works so well:  It has universally strong and empowered performances quarterbacking the whole enterprise, a tangibly tense and gritty atmosphere and tone, and its direction is slickly consummate.  Its storyline is also epic and tragic in scope and feel as it chronicles three cops on personal journeys that all coalesce towards conclusions that seemed doomed from the very beginning...

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF  (PG) 1/2

I didn't realize that the Greek gods were absentee-parents

By Craig J. Koban

To fully quote its ridiculously long-winded title, PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF opens with a scene that is played with such uproarious solemnity by the actors that it approaches high camp... 

COP OUT  (R) 

A take of two dicks that's a very non-lethal weapon as a buddy/cop film

By Craig J. Koban

There are more hearty laughs to be had reading one of Kevin Smith’s potty mouthed Twitter rants against Southwest Airlines than there is during the entirety of COP OUT.   His hilariously scatological diatribes against the airline that recently booted him off of one of their planes due to his sizeable girth highlights his main asset as a filmmaker that is not on display his newest film...

TEMPLE GRANDIN 

  (no MPAA rating) 

Autism as an unlikely source of personal strength and perseverance

By Craig J. Koban

HBO’s extraordinarily immersive new film, TEMPLE GRANDIN, is an endlessly compelling biopic about a most unlikely genius.  It tells a modest, but thoroughly intriguing, tale of its title persona, a woman that was born in the late 1940’s and diagnosed with brain damage by the age of two.  By 1951 she was further diagnosed with having serve – but high functioning – autism, so bad that she completely abstained for all physical contact with others, not to mention that it left her incapable of speaking until she was four-years-old...

Posted March 2, 2010

SHUTTER ISLAND  (R) 

Scorsese channels Hitchcock, Kubrick, and Lehane in a finely crafted psychological thriller 

By Craig J. Koban

There are very few film auteurs that can successfully dive head first into decidedly big budget, commercial genre efforts while still maintaining a decent semblance of their aesthetic proclivities.  Martin Scorsese is one of those filmmakers...

A SERIOUS MAN  (R) 1/2

A seriously dark, seriously funny, and seriously personal Coen Brothers film

By Craig J. Koban

The opening scene of the Coen Brothers' A SERIOUS MAN is as audacious as it is brilliant and darkly funny.  It’s a prologue – performed completely in Yiddish – that appears to have zero correlation to the rest of the film that transpires after it, but inevitably does bare some influence near the end of the overall story...

THE WOLFMAN  (R) 1/2

This hairy movie monster is appealingly ferocious, but its overall story lacks bite 

By Craig J. Koban

Joe Johnston’s remake of the 1941 Universal Horror classic THE WOLFMAN does one thing absolutely correct: it knows that period monster movies feel spookier and have richer atmospheres.  Aside from one successful attempt to modernize this very famous movie creature by placing it in a contemporary setting...

CRAZY HEART  (R) 

A sublime and commanding Jeff Bridges rises above Crazy Hearts' familiar elements

By Craig J. Koban

Before going into CRAZY HEART I have read many pundits that seem to have simplistically labeled the film as “this year’s THE WRESTLER,” but with a  country music singer.  As much as I usually loath such comments that tend to compartmentalize films, I am sort of in agreement...

AN EDUCATION  (PG-13) 1/2

When illicit romance serves as a portal to self-actualization and discovery

By Craig J. Koban

AN EDUCATION has a premise that many, at face value, may find unnerving: it concerns a young, virginal 16-year-old girl that becomes the target of a 35-year-old sophisticate that eventually romances her over and gets her into bed.  Yet, the small miracle of the film is that it never once makes this potentially disconcerting relationship one that is tawdry and sensationalistic...

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE  (R) 

A big, sloppy, and tasty "Royale With Cheese" of a buddy- action film

By Craig J. Koban

I want to thank-you, John Travolta…for being cool again.   

After I sat through last year’s terminally dreadful and unfunny OLD DOGS I thought that the actor had hit his cinematic Waterloo...

WHEN IN ROME  (PG-13) 1/2

An unromanticized Rome that looks suspiciously like a New York backlot.

By Craig J. Koban

You know you are in trouble when the very first laugh in a romantic comedy does not occur until 15 minutes into it…and is not derived from one of the human participants.  Yes, the only modest chuckle to be had in WHEN IN ROME occurs dangerously late into the film courtesy of a cell phone ring tone going off at an inopportune time during a wedding...

Posted February 10, 2010

The first decade of the 21st century is over (well...sort of), so CrAiGeR now has the dubious task on unveiling his ten best film-going experiences of the last ten years.

Posted February 3, 2010