items tagged with Michael Rapaport

BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2

Let’s face it: There was plenty of built-in expectation with the arrival of Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, and the expectation was that the film would suck. Those who loved The Blair Witch Project, as I did, would miss that film’s cinéma vérité style and simplicity, and rail on about how Book of Shadows was exactly the kind of dumbed-down splatter flick that Blair Witch rebelled against. Those who hated the original, which seems the more common response (at least among my acquaintances), would have their beliefs confirmed that the whole Blair Witch “mythology” is lame, and that we’ve been hoodwinked by marketing and Internet paranoia into making these movies hits. Wouldn’t it be great to report that this sequel had defied its skeptics and emerged as smashing entertainment?

SMALL TIME CROOKS

Woody Allen's latest offering is such a light and enjoyable work that it's bound to be underrated, to be seen as a throwback to the “early, funny” movies that Woody fans hold such a fondness for. And yes, it has some of the go-for-broke spirit that energized movies like Sleeper and Bananas, and some of the same slapstick silliness, too.