Film & TV
spy vs. spy
In Breach, the weight of the movie rests on the shoulders of stars Ryan Phillippe and Chris Cooper. Unfortunately, only one of them delivers. Phillippe plays Eric O'Neill, a young FBI operative assigned to clerk for - and spy on - Robert Hanssen (Cooper), who is under investigation for sexual deviance.
Ghostly bad
The Messengers is an all-too-predictable scare flick that relies primarily on loud noises and sudden gruesome images for fright value. The story: a family moves to a deserted sunflower farm in North Dakota hoping to make a fresh start and a sufficient living.
Weighing the Options
It's officially that time of the year again. The weather's getting colder, the days are getting shorter and it's getting tougher to muster the strength to walk to class (or to Smoke's) depending on your proclivities.
Still nutty after all these years
Norbit is Eddie Murphy's favorite form of cinematic masturbation. By acting as a variety of characters, the comedian gets to showcase his chameleon-like ability to play to any stereotype thrown his way.
DON'T ASK ME WHY
"Happiness is a choice," says overbearing Daphne to her youngest daughter Milly in Because I Said So.
What's Gotta Give?
Everybody needs a passion. I have many - most of them somewhat irrational. For instance, I still believe I will end up with Lance Bass.
Bloody awful
In the ignominious tradition of Alone in the Dark, American actress Agnes Bruckner and German director Katja von Grenier have banded together to create one of the year's worst films with Blood and Chocolate. The plot is a simple boy-meets-girl, girl's-family-keeps-them-apart premise.
ACEs wild
There is so much blood in Smokin' Aces that Joe Carnahan makes Quentin Tarantino look like a pansy. Writer-director Joe Carnahan (Narc) weaves together a story about bloodthirsty, money-hungry hitmen trying to take down Vegas entertainer Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) before he can snitch on his Mob contacts to the Feds (Ray Liotta, Ryan Reynolds). The dialogue is as fast and dirty as the gunplay in a film that is darkly funny and, funnily enough, somewhat serious, too.
a-Maze-ing
The average audience of the average film will spend a few moments discussing it before dinner plans and traffic reports interrupt; By the next day, the movie-going experience is a distant memory.
WAWA-WEEWAH
Like Steve Nash or a fine wine, Clint Eastwood is getting better and better in his old age. A companion piece to October's Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima tells the story of the infamous World War II Battle of Iwo Jima from the point of view of the Japanese soldiers.
Throw it Back
Catch and Release is no work of art, and the filmmakers know it. In one scene, a character flat out remarks that mainstream flicks today provide more gimmicks and cheap thrills than commercials.
The Write Stuff
Freedom Writers, written and directed by Richard LaGravenese, holds no surprises. It tells a familiar story: a young, eager teacher enters an urban high school classroom full of poor kids with no futures.
2007 Golden globe awards recap
Since 1944, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has been doling out its luminous Golden Globes to overpaid filmmakers and TV stars.
Fertile Ground
To the question of whether the world would end in fire or ice, Children of Men offers a different answer: Quietus.
Meryl Street is my life
I love Meryl Street. No. Seriously...I kind of want to marry her. And we could live on a small ranch in North Dakota while I raised her children (Who cares if they're about my age?
Meryl Street is a Fucking Genius
Sometimes, I just like to shut out the world, slip into something slinky, and have a little me time, a little Meryl time.
Druggie Delight
In 2002's Adaptation, Meryl Street was her typical self: a leggy and lean, blond, prim New Yorker; a successful writer in a tall office building, middle-aged and respectable, even slightly untouchable for some of the other characters.
'Kramer vs. Kramer'
In an snafu which garnered much controversy recently, Seinfeld star Michael Richards caused an uproar after a racist rant at a comedy club.
That Meryl is one Fine Piece of Ace
I know what you're thinking. Does Meryl Street really have the kind of tits I'd like to see drunkenly bouncing around behind lime green triangles of Nylon Lycra?
