http://www.theparallaxreview.com/ en Copyright 2012 Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Regarding Henry’s sincerity is at once the movie’s crutch and its downfall. It is the story of a man of loose moral sensibilities who awakens to the recognition of treating his fellow human beings with decency, and all that has to happen to him to come to this realization is that he’s shot in the head.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/regarding_henry.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/regarding_henry.html On Cable Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600 Flirting with Disaster finds the farcical in the emotionally fragile events surrounding a man’s search for his biological parents. At a crossroads in his life — new son (for whom he can’t decide upon a name), a fading sex life with his wife, and the culmination of a lifelong identity crisis arising from his adoption as a baby — Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller) or his need to feel a part of something he’s felt he has been missing is never the butt of any of the film’s jokes.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/flirting_with_disaster.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/flirting_with_disaster.html On Cable Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:04 -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 Gattaca seems a bit quainter than it did upon the film’s release fourteen years ago. What was a revolutionary premise about chiseling away the façade of a false utopia based upon the structured discrimination of people deemed genetically inferior (the passage of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 appears almost a direct, if belated, response to the film’s scenario) is now simply the basis for an intelligent display of plotting an intricate con.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/gattaca.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/gattaca.html On Cable 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 40 Days and 40 Nights is all the more tedious for its one-track mind.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/40_days_and_40_nights.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/40_days_and_40_nights.html On Cable Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -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 CQ wears its influences and homage on its sleeve.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/cq.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/cq.html On Cable Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, which revolves around — you guessed it — a duffel bag full of eight decapitated heads and figures that alone is enough.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/8_heads_in_a_duffel_bag.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/8_heads_in_a_duffel_bag.html On Cable Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/barneys_version.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/barneys_version.html In Theatres Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/man_of_the_century.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/man_of_the_century.html On Cable Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:01 -0600 The Green Hornet doesn’t do much to improve the hero’s stature, turning him into a spoiled, buffoonish publishing tycoon who knows as little about journalism as he does about crime-fighting and feigning to be criminal, and demotes the sidekick’s far more effective tactics, making them secondary to slow-motion, effects-laden brawls with a video game aesthetic.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_green_hornet.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_green_hornet.html In Theatres Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:01 -0600 The Dilemma, and the rest of the time is spent with a character waiting for the opportune time to tell his best friend that the guy’s wife has been cheating (that he finds the least opportune and appropriate time to do is not mandatory for comedy or drama but certainly a cheap way to try to force both). That situation in a feature-length comedy, of course, means that there must be transparently contrived obstacles on top of transparently contrived obstacles.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_dilemma.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_dilemma.html In Theatres Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600 Home Alone are so ingrained in my memory that I noticed my brain filling in lines of dialogue before they were spoken on screen. Take into consideration that I didn’t watch this movie repeatedly as a child, either, and honestly, I don’t recall the last time I saw it. It’s simply that the script by John Hughes is either memorable or predictable, and I’d rather not make such a sweeping judgment one way or the other.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/home_alone.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/on_cable/home_alone.html On Cable Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:01 -0600 The Tempest, though late in his life and career, is not one of Shakespeare’s problem plays, but writer/director Julie Taymor does much to turn it into one. Indeed, at the end of her visually and thematically rambling (the former being far more worth the trouble than the latter) adaptation, we are left simply wondering as to the point.]]> http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_tempest.html http://www.theparallaxreview.com/in_theatres/the_tempest.html In Theatres Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:01 -0600