CLTV

By Matt Brunson

There are some movie debuts that stay with you permanently. Barry Levinson's 1982 Diner actually marked Mickey Rourke's fifth screen appearance -- amidst throwaway bits, he had previously been memorable in a small role in 1981's Body Heat -- but I will never forget the flush of excitement I felt as this intriguing new presence sauntered onto the screen. Speaking in raspy whispers, squinting with eyes that never seemed to miss anything going on, Rourke proved to be an instantly captivating presence, and Brando comparisons honestly didn't seem out of line. But after a brief reign of glory in the early to mid-1980s, Rourke's career went up in flames, thanks to personal problems as well as a tendency to pick dreadful material (Wild Orchid, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, etc.). A comeback via 2005's Sin City failed to take root, but no matter: Rourke now has the role of a lifetime -- and the critical acclaim to support it -- in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, a tremendous character study from the director of The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream (which topped my 10 Best list for 2000). Read the rest of this review here.

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Clint Eastwood has stated that Gran Torino might mark his final appearance as an actor (he plans to keep directing), and if he sticks to his guns, it's an appropriate way to end a magnificent career. In that respect, it brings to mind John Wayne's swan song, the elegiac Western The Shootist (directed, incidentally, by Eastwood's mentor Don Siegel), as both movies deal with aging men -- and we're talking about the actors as well as the characters they're portraying -- whose lifelong dalliances with violence finally lead to both an understanding and acceptance of sorts. Read the rest of this review here.

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By Matt Brunson

The landmark 1970s TV miniseries Holocaust and the 2002 theatrical release The Grey Zone both touched upon the topic, but Edward Zwick's Defiance might be the first celluloid outing to focus exclusively on the efforts of Jews to violently oppose their Nazi oppressors during World War II. Certainly, it's an overdue entry in the long history of Hollywood Holocaust flicks, but it's a shame that such an intriguing story didn't receive a more distinguished rendering. Read the rest of this review here.

By Matt Brunson

Last Chance Harvey is the sort of insipid romantic comedy that, had it starred a pair of 20-somethings or 30-somethings, would be instantly dismissed by one and all. But because it stars two seasoned performers -- Oscar winners, both -- it will be championed in some quarters as a sweet look at how older folks can actually -- are you ready? -- enjoy many of the same things as the young'uns. See them flirt! See them dance! See them fall in love! Truth be told, it's all a bit insulting -- a patronizing sop to an underserved movie demographic that doubtless was largely responsible for turning the equally torturous The Bucket List into a box office hit at this time last year. Read the rest of this review.

A winning formula for a successful family film gets reconfigured employing the lowest common denominator, and the result is a dismal effort that will fail with all but the most undemanding of children. As for their parents, it's hard to imagine any of them warming up to a picture in which Adam Sandler, as lowly handyman Skeeter Bronson, bonds with his niece and nephew by telling them that he'll always be around "like the stink on feet." Read the rest of this review here.

There's a perverse pleasure in taking down a bloated, big-budget Hollywood bomb that has managed to siphon away two hours of our precious time -- let's face it, attacking turkeys like Battlefield Earth and The Love Guru won't lead anyone to lose even a second of sleep out of guilt. But lambasting an independent feature made with copious amounts of dedication and hard work is another matter, yet that's the feeling stirred by the animated film Delgo. It's no fun playing the bully, but when the end result is as atrocious as what's on display here, it's even more difficult to remain silent. Read more...

The 1951 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still still holds up beautifully as a science fiction classic (see this issue's View From The Couch column for a review of the new DVD reissue), but I'll refrain from taking the usual route of using a cherished original to bludgeon a shoddy remake to death. In the case of the new Day, there's no need: The film mostly fails on its own terms. Read more...

The last time Will Smith teamed up with director Gabriele Muccino, the result was the box office smash The Pursuit of Happyness. With their latest collaboration, it seems as if the pair were engaged in the pursuit of crappyness. Read more...

No one can really blame Jim Carrey for returning to the same spastic well time after time. When the actor attempts to stretch, as in the woefully underrated Man on the Moon or the time-wasting The Number 23, audiences usually stay away in droves. So, yes, Yes Man finds the elastic comic working a variation on his patented routine from such hits as Bruce Almighty and Liar, Liar. The difference here is that there's a winning romance to go along with his hyperactivity -- for once, he's as sweet as he is sweaty. Read more....

I'm not entirely sure how a film in which a small boy gets permanently blinded by someone deliberately pouring hot liquid onto his eyeballs while he's unconscious ends up being hyped (by critics and audiences alike) as the "feel-good" movie of the year, but that's the strange case with Slumdog Millionaire, the latest from director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting). Read Matt Brunson's entire review.