ph: Richard Bernardin
Saturday, June 8, 2013
First Lines: Mo Yan - Big Breasts, Wide Hips
(art: Jean Fouquet)
From where he lay quietly on the brick-and-tamped-earth sleeping platform, his kang, Pastor Malory saw a bright red beam of light shining down on the Virgin Mary's pink breast and on the pudgy face of the bare-bottomed Blessed Infant in her arms.
Friday, June 7, 2013
And Soon the Darkness (2010)
When two American girls on a bike trip in a remote part of Argentina
split up and one of them goes missing, the other must find her before
her worst fears are realized.
A mediocre horror thriller, consistently predictable and thoroughly unoriginal.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
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Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
An oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychedelic escapades.
This adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's cult classic is more of a pointless romp in the director's typical 'magical' style, it's a bit like an A version of Roger Corman's The Trip, but without the surreal touch.
Halliwell (no star): "A surreal trip into bad drugs makes for a queasy film that is unlikely to attain the cult status of the original book."
Maltin BOMB: "Excruciatin adaptation...The film, however, is simply one monotonous, painfully long drug trip - replete with close-ups of vomit and swooping camera movements at any and every opportunity. Perhaps Thompson diehards will find some value here; others beware."
[Nota Bene: The movie was a long-running success at my cinema.]
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Capt. Kirk and his crew must deal with Mr. Spock's half brother who hijacks the Enterprise for an obsessive search for God.
All the ingredients are there, but this time around it seems a bit half-heartedly pieced together.
And again: it's more like a blown up mediocre episode of the TV series.
Halliwell (no star): "Mystic moments, tamely rendered, that indicate it is long after the time when the series should have been laid to rest."
Maltin **: "Dramatically shaky trek starts off with a case of the cutes, and gets worse before it (finally) gets better. A weak entry in the series."
New Stuff: Little Annie
I saw Little Annie with Larsen as support for the Swans at the Feierwerk in Munich last Thursday and was instantly intrigued. I'll certainly be pruchasing more of her works.
Duplicity (2009)
A pair of corporate spies who share a steamy past hook up to pull off the ultimate con job on their respective bosses.
The convoluted plot twist of this spy love affair can't disguise the predictable ending.
On second view it does have its moments of humor as an espionage spoof.
Maltin **1/2: "High-toned hybrid of romantic comedy and espionage yarn...It isn't hard to recognize this as the work of the same writer-director who brought us MICHAEL CLAYTON, though his complicated flashback/flash-forward structure will keep you on your toes. The stars' chemistry - and a strong supporting cast - trumps the realization that the movie is really one long shaggy-dog joke."
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
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