http://www.theparallaxreview.com/ en Copyright 2012 Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:00:00 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification two feces jokes, an embarrassing masturbation scene, multiple men obsessed with a beautiful blonde, and grown men acting like twelve-year-old morons).]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/hall_pass.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/hall_pass.html In Theatres Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:00:00 -0600 Darkman, it seems that every time I look up at the screen, there’s Neeson, doing good work in films that often aren’t worthy of his talents. Such is the case with Unknown, an otherwise soggy conspiracy thriller that Neeson practically horsewhips into watchability.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/unknown.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/unknown.html In Theatres Sat, 19 Feb 2011 18:00:00 -0600 I Am Number Four turned out. This could have been a dispiriting failure along the lines of The Vampire’s Assistant — a film that felt like one long first act setting up all the fun for films down the road. But Caruso is able to make John just an interesting enough protagonist and capitalize on a great performance by Olyphant, that I was willing to sit through the explanations and plot setups until the overblown, but rousing third act finally rewarded my patience.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/i_am_number_four.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/i_am_number_four.html In Theatres Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:00:00 -0600 Vanishing on 7th Street has so much going for it, I vacillate between feeling bad that I can’t quite recommend it and feeling enraged that it’s not as good as it should be. For most of its runtime, it’s a film of great style, great performances, and thoughtful explorations of well-worn character types. It punctuates intense dialogue scenes with thrilling moments of action and horror. It has one of the best opening sequences I’ve ever seen (even if it borrows a bit from the first Left Behind book — though, thankfully, it doesn’t slide into hokey fundamentalist propaganda). It’s the type of movie I’d enthusiastically recommend if not for two things: its shadow people, and its ending.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/vanishing_on_7th_street.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/vanishing_on_7th_street.html In Theatres Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_eagle.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_eagle.html In Theatres Sat, 12 Feb 2011 18:00:00 -0600 Romeo and Juliet when the characters can come back to life with a lot of time and a little glue, and by the tone, this loosely adapted version starring lawn ornaments really, really understands that basic fact. If only Gnomeo & Juliet were as imaginative in poking the ribs of its central storyline as it is about developing the silly cuteness of its background characters, the movie might have been on to something.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/gnomeo_and_juliet.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/gnomeo_and_juliet.html In Theatres Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:01 -0600 Just Go With It, which begins the former and, about halfway through, becomes the latter. Both halves are maddening in different ways: the first in how unlikely and illogical character decisions are, and the second in how monotonous the lack of jokes and predictable romantic comedy formula are.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/just_go_with_it.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/just_go_with_it.html In Theatres Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600 The Illusionist is the type of movie that sneaks up on you. I spent most of my time watching the film in a sort of pleasant trance. I marveled at the beautiful, hand-drawn animation. I smiled and chuckled quietly at a running gag about the titular character and his surly rabbit that hates being stuffed into a hat. I drank in the attention to character design that made it possible to tell the story with incredibly sparse dialogue. And then the film hammered me with such a bittersweet — and ultimately sad — third act that I was stunned when I realized how emotionally invested I had become in the slight story and eccentric characters.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_illusionist.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_illusionist.html In Theatres Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/sanctum.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/sanctum.html In Theatres Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:00:00 -0600 The Rite is the epitome of a two star movie.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_rite.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_rite.html In Theatres Sat, 29 Jan 2011 18:00:00 -0600 The Music Never Stops, based on a true story and Oliver Sacks’s case study, elicits those same emotions and feelings. After having a brain tumor removed, Gabriel Sawyer (Lou Tyler Pucci) returns to his parents, Henry (J.K. Simmons) and Helen (Cara Seymour), nearly twenty years after leaving them. Gabriel’s prognosis doesn’t look good as his surgery was very invasive, causing him to be in a vegetative-like state. After listening to The Beatles on a nurse’s Walkman (the film takes place in the ’80s), Gabriel seems to awake, but only when the music plays.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_music_never_stopped.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_music_never_stopped.html In Theatres Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:51:31 -0600 http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_mechanic.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_mechanic.html In Theatres Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/no_strings_attached.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/no_strings_attached.html In Theatres Sat, 22 Jan 2011 21:00:00 -0600 http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/blue_valentine.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/blue_valentine.html In Theatres Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600 The Company Men shares a number of common problems with another uneven, heavy-handed film about our country’s economic collapse: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. It forces us to spend most of our time with a lead character, Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck), with whom it’s nearly impossible to empathize. It fills out its story with a large, spectacular ensemble of actors with thankless roles representing archetypes — not fully formed characters — to address each facet of What’s Wrong With Corporate America. Then, it limps through a handful of resonant moments (and more than a handful of mediocre moments) toward an unearned happy ending without ever digging deeply enough into What Went Wrong in the first place.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_company_men.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_company_men.html In Theatres Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600