The Queen of Versailles

By admin On August 20th, 2012 in Bill's Review /

This begins as a documentary of the Siegels, an immodestly rich Florida family building themselves a home to rival the Palace of Versailles, and it focuses on the mother – the “Queen” and most spoiled of them all. Then the credit crisis of 2008 wipes them out, and the film becomes a documentary on the effects of this sudden reversal of fortune, which makes it more entertaining (although it’s a guilty pleasure).

Grade: B-


 

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The Campaign

By admin On August 13th, 2012 in Bill's Review /

The Campaign is a timely, cynical and gleefully raunchy political comedy. It doesn’t always work, but the funniest scenes come when stars Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis push their candidate characters way, way over the top.

Grade: B-

 

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The Campaign

By mcarpenter On August 13th, 2012 in Mark's Review /

The first hour of The Campaign is more bold, raunchy and ferociously funny than any political satire of the last 10 years, with scalpel-sharp attacks on the feckless idiocy of American elections in 2012. Sadly, the movie completely deflates in the last 30 minutes as it tries to crash-land a happy ending into a story that shouldn’t have one.

Grade: B-

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The Dark Knight Rises

By admin On August 6th, 2012 in Bill's Review /

Director Christopher Nolan’s ending to his Batman trilogy (after Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) is high-class and dark, with terrific action and a twisting plot. I enjoyed the colorful characters, especially Tom Hardy’s Bane, a villain who’s both evil genius and bad-ass thug, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s earnest cop Blake, and Anne Hathaway’s nimble Catwoman, who often steals the show from Christian Bale’s ever-snarling Batman.

Grade: A

 

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Beasts of the Southern Wild

By admin On July 30th, 2012 in Bill's Review /

This is a terrific indie film about a 6-year-old girl, her father, their Louisiana bayou community, Hurricane Katrina and the beasts – prehistoric oxen called aurochs – that roam through the girl’s dreams. Beasts immerses you in the mud and poetry of its world, and unlike many artistically ambitious movies, it’s as emotionally moving as it is visually dazzling.

Grade: A

 

 

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Ted

By admin On July 23rd, 2012 in Bill's Review /

Raunchy comedies about 30-somethings who won’t grow up are common, but there are two reasons Ted is better than the standard Judd Apatow flick. One is writer/director/Ted voice Seth MacFarlane, the comic virtuoso who created TV’s Family Guy (where he voices Peter, Brian and Stewie Griffin), and the other is Mark Wahlberg, who’s such a good actor he can make us like a guy who’d snub Mila Kunis to get stoned with his teddy bear.

Grade: B


 

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The Amazing Spider-Man

By admin On July 17th, 2012 in Bill's Review /

The action and special effects are very good, but the cast really lifts this superhero movie above the rest. Andrew Garfield is terrific, both as the tormented teen Peter Parker and the athletically enhanced Spider-Man; Emma Stone is a fine brainy girlfriend; Denis Leary is good and gritty as the skeptical cop (and girlfriend’s father); Rhys Ifans glitters as the cagey one-armed scientist; and Martin Sheen and Sally Field are lovable as Peter’s fretful uncle and aunt.

Grade: A

 

 

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To Rome With Love

By admin On July 17th, 2012 in Bill's Review /

Woody Allen uses a big cast – Alec Baldwin, Judy Davis and Jesse Eisenberg are especially good – to tell simultaneous stories about love and betrayal, fame and ambition, getting lost and finding your way. The stories work well together (better than in most multiple-plot movies) and the lush Italian music and beautiful locations all help to create a cinematic love letter to the Eternal City.

Grade: A

 

 

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Moonrise Kingdom

By admin On July 9th, 2012 in Bill's Review /

Director Wes Anderson uses his distinctive style – dry, whimsical, quirky – to tell a sweet love story about two 12-year-olds and their families (biological and otherwise) on a New England island in the 1960s. Excellent in details and in overall effect, the movie has joined The Royal Tenenbaums and Fantastic Mr. Fox on my list of all-time favorite flicks by Anderson.

Grade: A+

 

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The Amazing Spider-Man

By mcarpenter On July 8th, 2012 in Mark's Review /

What makes The Amazing Spider-Man so vastly superior to Sam Raimi’s mediocre 2002 original can be summed up in two words: Andrew Garfield. The brilliant, emotive young British actor (last seen as Mark Zuckerberg’s best friend in The Social Network) makes the web-slinger and his alter ego so much more vital, believable, sexy and FUN than the glum Tobey Maguire, it made me forget there were three Spider-Man films before this one.

Grade: A

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