17 Feb 2013

Caster Roiled: "Beautiful Creatures" and "A Good Day to Die Hard"

By Mike Schulz

Viola Davis, Alice Englert, and Alden Ehrenreich in Beautiful CreaturesBEAUTIFUL CREATURES

As it concerns a sensitive high-schooler who enters a world of trouble after falling for a moodier version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, it should come as no shock to learn that the supernatural romance Beautiful Creatures is based on the first in a series of popular young-adult novels. But while I'd never argue that the YA-lit genre is completely humorless, surely the gender-reversed Twilight knock-off by co-authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl can't be as legitimately, intentionally hilarious as this big-screen adaptation, right?

09 Sep 2012

Writer Wrong: "The Words" and "The Cold Light of Day"

By Mike Schulz

Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana in The WordsTHE WORDS

Three separate narratives dovetail in The Words, a modestly engaging morality drama by writers/directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal. Yet ironically enough, the one narrative I never bought into was the one that's meant to be the most believable, though heaven knows the other two aren't exactly models of cinematic authenticity.

12 Feb 2009

Eyes Wide Shut: "Coraline," "Push," and "The Pink Panther 2"

By Mike Schulz

CoralineCORALINE

Employing extraordinarily supple, nearly tactile stop-motion animation and 3D effects, the children's film Coraline is filled with visual magic, and just about corners the market on unsettling imagery. A grinning pair of parental doppelgängers, with buttons sewn into their eye sockets, serve a dinner composed of mango milkshakes and chocolate beetles. Two morbidly obese British dowagers unzip their skins and emerge as lithe trapeze artists. A feral alley cat talks, and a theatre full of mutts attends a vaudeville, and it's all strange and clever and tantalizingly designed. Is it ungrateful, if not downright senseless, to admit that I could hardly wait for this movie to end?

08 Oct 2008

Happy, Grumpy, Dopey, Sleepy, Sleazy, Blissful, and Dog: "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist," "Religulous," "An American Carol," "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," "Flash of Genius," "Blindness," and "Appaloosa"

By Mike Schulz

Hollywood, in its infinite wisdom, chose to open a whopping seven wide releases this past Friday, and since the market apparently wasn't glutted enough, also expanded distribution of the Ed Harris western Appaloosa from 14 theatres to 1,045. As business strategies go, this one was a bit of a head-scratcher, but it was refreshing to see a weekend when there truly was something new for everyone - the only people screwed in the deal, it seems, were movie critics without access to press previews.

Oh hey, that's me!

19 Apr 2000

Loonies and Drunks: "American Psycho" and "28 Days"

By Mike Schulz

Chloe Sevigny and Christian Bale in American PsychoAMERICAN PSYCHO

Do you know what movie I was reminded of during American Psycho? The Bridges of Madison County.

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