 Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Romance
Opens locally April 1st, 2011 (exclusively at the Maple Art in Bloomfield Hills) Run Time: 1 hour 46 minutes, Not Rated Starring: Juliette Binoche, William Shimell Written & Directed by Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry, Through the Olive Trees) "Certified Copy" is certifiably pretentious. That's not to say that I didn't like it, I did. It's the kind of movie though, that can be viewed like a work of art. To some, it signifies brilliance, and artistic mastery. To others, you just stare at the canvas and think, "what the heck is that?"
0 Comments
 Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Coutroom Drama, Thriller/Suspense
Opens locally Friday, March 18th, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour, 59 minutes, Rated R Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy Directed by Brad Furman (The Take) Product placement has been a growing trend in films and movie over the past decade, but none that I can recall have been more blatant than "The Lincoln Lawyer." You may read reviews of this film that describe the plot as "A lawyer conducts business from the back of his Lincoln town car...", but this is totally irrelevant to the plot of the film. See the posters for this film? There's a Lincoln Continental in it. And in every trailer. Does the main character, Matthew McConaughey have a Lincoln in the movie? Yes. Does this matter at all? No. It would be like renaming it "A Clockwork Sunkist Orange" or "Reese's Pieces E.T." I fear that this may be the future, where we'll get films like "Fried Green Heinz Tomatoes," or similar titles pushing product even before we reach the theatre.  Rating: 1 out of 5 starsGenre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Drama
Opens locally Friday, March 18th, 2011 Starring: Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, James Duval, Chris Zylka Directed by Gregg Araki (Smiley Face, Mysterious Skin, Splendor) Theres no good words, or catchy phrases, that will describe the awful experience that is "Kaboom," a new indy movie that is suitable for no one.  Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Comedy, Sci-Fi
Opens locally Friday, March 18th, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour, 44 minutes, Rated R Starring: Seth Rogen (voice), Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader Written by Simon Pegg & Nick Frost Directed by Greg Motolla (Superbad, Adventureland) I'll start very short and simply: If you are a fan of anything science-fiction released in the last 60 years, be it movies, TV, comic books, radio, or novels, by all means go see "Paul." For those on the fringe (no sci-fi pun intended), "Paul" still works as a clever, but overly absurd buddy comedy that appeals to the geek in all of us.  Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Documentary
Opens locally Friday, March 18th, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour, 18 minutes, Not Rated Directed by Julia Bacha The best entries in the Documentary genre often open our eyes to a little known way of life, and put a spotlight on a portion of humanity that we are not always well-educated on. They uncover the harsh realities of the world we live in while at the same time leaving us with a sense of hope and inspiration to actually get off our butts and do something. In the new documentary “Budrus”, all of these are directives are accomplished, leaving us with one of the better documentary films in quite some time.  Rating: 1 out of 5 starsGenre: Animated, SciFi/Fantasy
Opens locally Friday, March 11th, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour, 28 minutes, Rated PG Starring (voice & motion-capture): Seth Green, Dan Fogler, Mindy Sterling, Joan Cusack Directed by Simon Wells (Balto, The Prince of Egypt, The Time Machine) Animated films aimed at kids are a tricky topic: I mean, kids will watch Baby Einstein, or any other slew of mindless "entertainment" on TV. It's one thing to plop your child down in front of the television, as some of these types of shows (Baby Einstein again for example), are educational and helpful in the growth of a young mind. But in a children's movie, a different level of entertainment is required, since the parent must sit through the movie alongside their child in the theatre. So with that in mind, there is a wide spectrum of "kids movies" that are thrown at us. On one hand, you get great family movies that include humor for kids and adults alike (think Lion King, The Little Mermaid, or more recently Tangled), that not only keep us entertained but include valuable lessons important for children to learn and for adults to remember. And on the other hand, you get movies like "Mars Needs Moms", a painfully unfunny and unimportant "family film" completely void of any redeeming life lessons. It will likely make you wish you had been abducted by aliens on the way into the theatre.  Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Action/Adventure, Horror
Opens locally Friday, March 11th, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour, 39 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Virginia Madsen, Julie Christie Directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Lords of Dogtown, Thirteen) It's been a rough stretch for movies the past few weeks, as I don't think I've even handed out the mediocre "3 out of 5 star" rating in over a month. This incarnation of "Red Riding Hood" looked like it had promise to be an entertaining and dark spin on the classic fairy tale. But unfortunately, it is just another serving of slop in the long line of winter films being flushed from the studio's system.  Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Spanish (sub-titled)
Opens locally Friday, March 11th, 2011, exclusively at the Main Art in Royal Oak Run Time: 1 hour, 44 minutes, Not Rated Starring: Luis Tosar, Gael Garcia Bernal, Raul Arevalo, Karra Elejalde Directed by Iciar Bollain "Even the Rain" is a compelling drama set in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It was Spain's entry into the Best Foreign Language Film category at this year's Oscars, making the short list of 9 but failing to land a nomination. It deserved one, and is definitely a film worth seeing, especially with the horrendous, awful films released by the major studios in the past few weeks (think Hall Pass, Red Riding Hood, Take Me Home Tonight, and Mars Needs Moms to name a few).  Rating: 1 out of 5 starsGenre: Comedy
Opens locally Friday, March 4th, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour, 37 minutes, Rated R Starring: Topher Grace, Teresa Palmer, Anna Faris, Dan Fogler Directed by Michael Dowse The 1980s seem to be the hot thing right now…most recently brilliantly spoofed in last year’s “Hot Tub Time Machine” amongst other films. With “Take Me Home Tonight” we get a comedy that wants to be an 80s teen throwback movie, in the vein of “Fast Times”, “Ferris Bueller” or “Weird Science.” It’s a throwback all right…a forgettable teen comedy that is embarrassingly bad, even by back-then standards. Before we get to the review, if you missed my interview with stars Topher Grace and Demetri Martin, you can find it here.  Rating: 1 out of 5 starsGenre: Sci/Fi, Action/Adventure
Opens locally Friday, March 4th, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour 46 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie Written & Directed by George Nolfi (directorial debut) Obviously, when a movie is categorized as “sci-fi”, there is a part of us that must suspend disbelief and as Adam Sandler would say, “just go with it.” Once we learn the rules of the sci-fi/fantasy world we are immersed in, all’s we want from it is to make sense within the realm of it’s own rules. “The Adjustment Bureau” is the latest excruciatingly painful science fiction film that fails specifically because it doesn’t make sense. |
Looking for a specific movie or review?
Search Below: Categories
All
Archives
December 2024
|
tom santilli movie reviews
Tom Santilli is a professional film critic, TV personality, host and
the Executive Producer of Movie Show Plus.
He also is the featured film critic appearing on WXYZ Channel 7 Action News in Detroit,
and appeared weekly on FOX-2 in Detroit from 2016-2020.
Feel free to use the "search" below to find your favorite titles.
TOM'S GRADING SCALE:
B- and above: Thumbs Up
C+ or below: Thumbs Down
RSS Feed
Currently Airing:Check Local Listings
|
For more information on Movie Show Plus, Email: |