Reviews HANNA. Consummately played by Saoirse Ronan, Hanna is being homeschooled with a vengeance; perhaps for vengeance would be more accurate. In a finely shot opening sequence, we watch Hanna stalk a deer in the snow with a bow and arrow. She shoots the deer but not immediately fatally and must run after it. As […]
John J. Bennett
Posted inArts + Scene
A Reliable Source
Reviews SOURCE CODE. As in his debut, Moon, *Source Code* finds director Duncan Jones (aka Zowie Bowie, son of rock star David Bowie) working within a sort of deconstructed genre framework, then allowing his protagonist to become the prime mover, thereby humanizing what could easily become a boilerplate popcorn movie. In this case, US Army […]
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Boring Aliens, Momish Aliens
BATTLE: LOS ANGELES. I would not recommend Battle: Los Angeles to anyone. Not that it’s especially unlikable or hard to watch, there just isn’t really anything to hold a viewer’s attention for more than a few minutes. Hard-bitten, battle-scarred Marine Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) is but days away from retirement when duty calls, […]
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Stay Home and Adjust Yourself
Reviews:TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT. Essentially another retelling of the “last big party of the season” teen flick, Take Me Home Tonight centers on Matt Franklin (Topher Grace), a nerdy high-school outcast/math genius/recent M.I.T graduate in the summer following commencement. Having taken a job slinging VHS tapes at the mall, he’s foundering, without any notion of […]
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Farrelly Well
By John J. Bennett Previews: HALL PASS. This one came in completely under my radar. I hadn’t seen a trailer or cast list, and didn’t find out it was a Farrelly brothers (Dumb and Dumber) picture until the opening credits. I had heard vague rumblings it was a sex comedy about a husband’s reprieve from […]
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Nine Bucks on Secretariat
Previews RED. Based on a DC graphic novel about a former black-ops CIA agent marked for assassination, this shoot-’em-up stars Bruce Willis as Frank Moses, a “retired, extremely dangerous” spy who reassembles his old crew (Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren) to fight the power. Directed by Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler’s Wife). 111 […]
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Stone, Cold
Previews THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Since almost everybody’s on Facebook now, a movie about the guy who got it going seemed inevitable. Director David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room) knows how to create tension; Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing, Charlie Wilson’s War) seems more in tune with liberal politics. Usually likeable […]