Film

Dickie Roberts Former Child Star In his early 30s Dickie Roberts (David Spade) is at the end of his rope. Once the child all America loved, thanks to a wildly successful sitcom and a catch phrase on par with Gary Coleman’s “What you talkin’ about?”, Dickie has hit rock bottom. Now parking cars and appearing […]

My Boss’s Daughter Tick . . . tick . . . tick . . . That’s the sound of Ashton Kutcher’s 15 minutes of fame quickly (and mercifully) reaching an end. With two hit television series (including the MTV reality show Punk’d), a high-profile romance with 40-something Demi Moore, and the threat of more important […]

Spellbound Documentary filmmaker Jeffrey Blitz follows 8 of the 249 finalists in the 1999 National Spelling Bee. Nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary, the film lost out to Bowling for Columbine, which partly focused on students of another ilk. Though I was an admirer of Columbine’s power, Spellbound has so much more to offer. […]

Open Range More than once the death of the Western has been greatly exaggerated. Whenever critics are ready to hammer the final nail in the genre’s coffin, someone comes along to remind us of why it is the most American of movie types. The Western has always served as a reflective template for whatever social […]

Seabiscuit The story of champion racehorse Seabiscuit and the three men who shaped his destiny sounds like the worst sort of Hollywood hokum. Tragedies affect all of the characters and seem designed to pull at our heartstrings. Yet the story behind the Laura Hillenbrand best-seller and this fine adaptation by director Gary Ross is true. […]

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen “I’m waiting to be impressed,” says Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery) when confronted with the concept of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And, frankly, so was I after the negative buzz about the project, including a notorious on-set physical confrontation between Connery and director Stephen Norrington. This cross between “Classics Illustrated” […]

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde If a comedy falls in a theater and nobody laughs, is it still a comedy? Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde–the sequel to the surprise 2001 hit starring Reese Witherspoon as a dumb blonde who gets into Harvard Law School–sure looks like a comedy. It contains bright, […]

Terminator 3:Rise of the Machines Yes, Ah-nold is back as the Terminator. This third time around, Schwarzenegger is a bit more willing to make fun of his character, which has become an indisputable icon of our pop culture. The irony is aided by director Jonathan Mostow’s breezy pacing, which plays up the laughs. In Terminator […]