Review: Mansome
Morgan Spurlock’s fame came with him eating a lot of fast food. From there he has fully crafted his art of the documentary and made films like The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and a TV show called 30 Days. Mansome comes as a wildcard mixed in the with the rest. A format that is completely [...]
Review: The Dictator
Sacha Baron Cohen brazenly flaunts politically correct sacred cows en route to a stirring political statement of his own in the often hilarious The Dictator. Cohen’s third film is nominally about a racist, sexist and egomaniacal dictator from Wadiya (a fictional Northern African nation) who becomes a fish out of water after taking up with [...]
Review: First Position
The true measure of a kids competition movie is how much do the little buggers stick to your craw? In the documentary First Position there are more than a couple standout aspiring ballet dancers, ages 10 – 17, as they prepare for the Youth American Grand Prix, a gala event that annually awards hundreds of [...]
Review: Dark Shadows
In Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, newly awakened vampire Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) pines not only for blood but for the good old days of the 1770s. The film’s finest moments cast the mod, earthy 1970s in stark relief against Collins’ steely aplomb as an 18th century gentleman who suddenly finds himself a stranger in a [...]
Review: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
If the notion of retirement-age Brits heading off to sunny India to decamp at a professed luxury retreat “for the elderly and beautiful” sounds a little worrisome, you may want to beware. Fraught with forays into only the most surface-level of India’s many complex wonders and ambiguities, John Madden’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is [...]
Review: The Avengers
I’ve seen a lot of films lately. More and more I’m catching up on the various films I’ve missed this past year that I really wanted to see but couldn’t. What I’m finding that is really disappointing is that most of these films are so bland that they didn’t really deserve my attention in the [...]
Review: Safe
In Safe, Jason Statham leaves you reeling as he lashes out nasty recriminatory punishment to both sides of a warring set of guttersnipes, and tacks on for good measure an added rancor towards a bunch of crooked cops. The cops who have it coming are former colleagues of Statham’s and they’re all on the take [...]
Review: Chimpanzee
Disney has had their Disney Nature series come out with a new film every year on Earth day and this year is no different. Chimpanzee is a new story-driven documentary that follows a baby chimp named Oscar grow up in the Jungle. Narrated by Tim Allen the story itself is much more focused than the [...]
Review: The Lucky One
The Lucky One, the newest airbrushed pseudodrama based on the umpteenth bestselling Nicholas Sparks novel, immediately raises cackles of disbelief. War veteran Logan (Zac Enron) walks from his native Colorado to Louisiana to find the previously anonymous girl whose motivating photo he found in the rubble of his third tour in Iraq. The photo pledged [...]
The Art of Remaking
It seems like there isn’t an original idea left in the universe. From last year’s Footloose to the rumored new American Psycho project to the Spiderman franchise reboot, it seems like recycling films is now more popular than ever. While most people loathe the idea of their favorite film becoming Zac Efron’s new project, it [...]
Interview: Louis Mansfield – Writer/Director of “Whom God Helps”
With the art of film going out the window (See any big blockbuster out in theaters) we are left with independent filmmakers giving us original and unique films. “Whom God Helps” is Philadelphia’s The Federal Film Reserve production companies new horror film that opened at the Fantastic Planet Film Festival in Sydney, Australia on March [...]
Review: Bully
“Fishface.” That’s what many of his classmates call the 12-year-old, wet-behind-the-ears Alex of Sioux City, Iowa, when they’re not slapping or smacking or stabbing him in the school bus, or in between episodes of sitting on his face (a feat which requires specially adjusting the school bus seat). Seems in Iowa and elsewhere oblivious school [...]
Review: Mirror Mirror
The hidebound traditionalist in me recoils at the numerous changes in Mirror Mirror, a remake of 1937′s Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. Better that you add something of substance than just throw a few new ingredients in for the hell of it. Before you rush to stream the the trashy 1961 remake, Snow White [...]
Review: Wrath of the Titans
When you take a film as “epic” and “classic” and… well… “culty” as the original Clash of the Titans and remake it you really have to be careful with what you’re doing. When Warner Brothers tried their hands at it they decided to take out the cheesy and made it a high-end CGI action film [...]
TCM’s Road to Hollywood Tour Brings ‘North By Northwest’ to Philly
In preparation for the 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival, Turner Classic Movies took the show on the road to ten cities across the country and brought some classic films and their stars with them for special Q&A sessions. When they rolled through Philadelphia on March 15th, they unleashed one of Alfred Hitchcock’s signature movies on [...]
Review: The Hunger Games
I am happy, and honestly suprised, to inform you that The Hunger Games is more than worth your time. Smashing Twilight into Battle Royale you are left with a film that is highly entertaining, well-crafted, and still tends to cover the concept of exploiting violence for entertainment. In The Hunger Games, based off of the [...]
4 Reasons Why “The Hunger Games” Film Could Be Awesome
Suck it, Edward and Bella- a new “Young Adult” phenomenon is hitting the big screen. Suzanne Collin’s trilogy “The Hunger Games” releases its first film installment on March 24th. Here are Five reasons why “The Hunger Games” film has so much potential. “Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss” Katniss, our protagonist, is hardly the love sick Bella [...]
Review: Seeking Justice
Let’s not mince words here. Nicholas Cage recent work has been a smorgasbord of the cockamamie and overwrought. Returning to the New Orleans setting of Cage’s last quality film (2009′s Bad Lieutenant) Seeking Justice starts off with some promise and gradually fizzles. After his cellist wife (January Jones) is raped after a rehearsal, Cage’s English [...]
Editorial: Salmon Fishing in The Big Year We Bought A Zoo
Matt Damon. Ewan McGregor. Steve Martin. These three are pretty big stars. They’ve appeared as some of the most iconic characters in the realm of cinema and have all gained legions of fans worldwide. (Both under legions under the sea and above) However, despite falling somewhere on the “A-list,” these three men have found themselves [...]
Review: Casa De Mi Padre
It isn’t outside the realm of possibility that the enjoyment of Spanish-language soap operas, telenovelas and foreign schlock in general is an alien concept to our readership here at Cinedork. To those of you out there who don’t watch Telemundo, Zee TV, Venevision et al for the sheer masochistic enjoyment of their dramatic programming (warning: [...]
Review: Jeff Who Lives at Home
I’m a pretty big fan of Jason Segel. This love stems from the fact that Jason Segel portrayed one of my favorite television characters of all time- Nick Andopolis, the lovable, slightly childish drum obsessed stoner from the short lived Judd Apatow series Freaks and Geeks. It seems that the film industry sees Jason Segel [...]
Editorial: Oscar Double Features
Outside of that failed Tarantino/Rodriguez experiment, it seems that the double feature trend has, sadly, all but died in our neighborhood theaters. While you may not be able to go to your local theater, that doesn’t mean that you can’t create your own double feature movie night at home. With the latest award season favorites [...]
Editorial: Will Ferrell – Is Yelling Still Funny?
Is a man screaming his lungs out for no reason an adequate joke in and of itself? In 2012, can a comedian exclaim vocally, for its own sake, and get what those in the industry refer to as “the laughs?” If not, you could be forgiven for regarding comedy actor Will Ferrell with disdain. The [...]
Review: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
File this one under droll and partly quaint Brit arthouse-lite vehicle saved by an Emily. Blunt, that is. No, not the film, the Emily. Ever since playing the plain-Jane office assistant in Devil Wears Pravda, Emily Blunt’s been one to watch. As Young Victoria she was a convincing queen. Most recently she helped glide us [...]
Film in Philadelphia: March 9th Edition
In our new weekly segment we talk about what’s going on Film Wise in Philadelphia. What to look forward to Film events for Philadelphia and what is now playing in a theater near you. If you have any additions please email us @ info@cinedork.com or comment below! Events coming soon in Philadelphia: Saturday, March 10th [...]
Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin
When a child commits an act of violence, it is often the parents whom are judged. How much did they know about their child’s psyche? How little? In Lynne Ramsay’s haunting film We Need to Talk About Kevin, these answers are clear. Eva (played by the ever-excellent Tilda Swinton) is a city-slick career woman turned [...]
Review: The Viral Factor
If a director took all the worst movies of the past 10 years, takes some of their worst components and then miraculously made a good movie out of all of them you would get The Viral Factor. Movie #1: The World is Not Enough: Remember how bad The World Is Not Enough was? Remember that [...]
Review: John Carter
Disney remade Avatar. Want me to keep going? Fine… In John Carter, a wild cowboy (Carter) is suddenly jolted to Mars. On the “Red Planet,” Carter is joined up (most unwillingly) with a race of 12-foot high creatures that are (directly comparable to a Navi with 4 arms?) part of a wild civilization stuck in [...]
Contest: Jeff Who Lives at Home
Is this you? Do you live at home and call people all day wishing for a better life? Do you play Wow more than you talk to girls? Do you thing the whole world is connected and all things happen for a reason? WELL THEN WE HAVE A GIFT FOR YOU!! We are giving away FREE!!!!! [...]
Contest: Footloose DVD
In a small town, where dancing is frowned upon, one boy goes against the grain to show them all that dancing started way before Step Up movies went 3D. It might not be Kevin Bacon, it might not be 1984, but the remake to Footloose homages all of that in a way that deserves to [...]
Interview: Ezra Miller – “We Need To Talk About Kevin”
In his latest film, the young Ezra Miller has grabbed Hollywood by the balls. As the role of Kevin, across from the great Tilda Swinton he plays a psycho killer (Qu’est Que C’est) who through the film shows his true character and intentions. His insanity comes across perfectly though a performance that rivals many of [...]
Contest: Casa De Mi Padre – Screening Passes
Will Ferrell has been in an extremely high (almost too high) amount of films spanning his career. But even with that he is still receiving less Razzies than Adam Sandler whom was nomiated for 12 razzies this year for his piece of shit Jack and Jill. Casa de ma Pedre is a film that goes [...]
Interview with Eric Wareheim – “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie” MovieFanFare.com
Guest Contributor – Irv Slifkin from www.moviefanfare.com From out of the trenches of Bat Mitzvah videos, the depths of the Internet and even the grimy street corners of North Philadelphia came Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. College friends since they met at Philly’s Temple University in the mid-1990s, the pair began cranking out DIY videos [...]
Interview with Justin Kurzel – Director of “The Snowtown Murders”
The Snowtown Murders is and will remain one of the years most raw and un-nerving films. Its gravitas cannot be described in words; only felt by watching this truly psychological horror masterpiece. Based on a true story and a real town with real local people as actors there is a haunting mood in this creepy, [...]
Contest: “Silent House” Screening Passes
With MMMM coming out on Blu ray and DVD last week we are honored to give out screening passes for Silent House at AMC Cherry Hill on March 5th Enter in the GOFO code “CINEDKV341” at http://www.gofobo.com/RSVP to win! (Passes are available at a first come first serve basis. Seriously… go get them now! Forget [...]
Review: Rampart
Hard as it is to believe, offscreen Woody Harrelson purveys an image of a loose, nearly slacker vibe, while onscreen he lays down a sense that he clearly knows how to get down to business. In the dark yet highly perceptive Rampart, Harrelson portrays the rogue cop Dave Brown, a misogynist, racist, intensely self-contained and [...]
Review: Act of Valor
This movie was made specifically for people who like accurate tactical fight scenes and people who play Call of Duty. If you don’t fall into those categories you should think twice about committing two hours of your life to this film. (Before I continue I must say that we support the troops in all of [...]
Review: Wanderlust
With a massively comedic cast and the backing of Judd Apatow, this movie had a lot of promise, so what went so wrong? Wanderlust ends up falling short on too many fronts. With writers Ken Marino and David Wain (Role Models) penning this, anyone walking into the theater expected a lot more. Don’t get me [...]
Contest: John Carter – Complimentary Screening Passes
How can you define a Dork? We love movies, we love video games, we love music, but in the most cliche way we love our science fiction. And what better to define us than John Carter. We at the Dork have some COMPLIMENTARY “Admit-2″ screening passes to give away for an upcoming screening of this [...]
Review: The Secret World of Arrietty
Every few years I look forward to a new Studio Ghibli film. Beginning with my personal experience with “Spirited Away” I was mesmerized by the amazing complexities and unique worlds that Hayao Miyazaki creates in all of his films. This year the film community is blessed (Insert Torchwood reference here) with yet another brilliant work [...]
Review: This Means War
Valentines Day was this week which means we at the Dork are forced to watch a slew of new, hard to watch films that make us regret choosing a life of film critiqing. This Means War is only different in that it falls into a separate category one called…. “who the fuck does McG think [...]
Review: Safe House
One thing you quickly realize when you sit down to watch a Denzel Washington movie is he nearly always give the pleasurable illusion that whoever he is portraying, he is playing exactly himself. Whatever the scripted setup the spotlight is always on Denzel, the ultra-cool, can-do-it-in-his-sleep, nonpareil hero for all occasions. We’ve come accustomed to [...]
Review: The Vow
In a brief but tone-changing scene in The Vow, Jessica Lange plays things out with an attitude of “OK-I’ve-had-enough-of-this-fluff//pay-attention-now-if-you’d-like-to-see-some-real-acting.” In the scene the award-winning actress gives her daughter (Rachel McAdams) a passionate explanation for Lange’s ostensible weakness in her relationship with her alpha lawyer husband (Sam Neill). In this Romcom, specially served for Valentine’s Day, [...]
Interview: Jon Foy – Director of “Resurrect Dead”
Jon Foy has had a long road since winning Best Documentary Director at Sundance in 2011. He has toured with his unwavering film that looks into the mysterious Toynbee Tiles. This obsession turned film is not over with yet, with the films’ DVD release party this Monday at the Trocadero in Philadelphia (See ad to [...]
Interview: Andrea von Foerster – Chronicle Soundtrack
Andrea von Foerster may not be a household name, but her work as a music supervisor helped define the present generation’s teenagers and twenty-somethings from her work on The O.C., (500) Days of Summer, and most recently, the sci-fi action flick, Chronicle (opening in theatres Feb. 3). In this Cinedork.com exclusive, we chat with Andrea [...]
Contest: Mega Bad Movie Night – 2/9 @ The Academy of Natural Sciences
Fellow Dorks. I urge you to attend this fantastic Nerd/Geek/Dork event at the Academy of Natural Sciences on Feb 9th. Not only are they going to be playing the Incredibly Bad (for all the right reasons) The Lost World: Jurassic Park but they will be having an expert panel discuss how un-realistic the whole movie [...]
Review: Pina
Even If you don’t know modern dance from “Modern Family” you should make a beeline for the limited theaters showcasing this landmark 3D documentary of Pina Bausch’s work. Almodovar fans (count me in) know Bausch’s work from her breathtaking opening scene in Talk To Her. Waiting to see this film without the 3D aspect is [...]
Review: Man on a Ledge
Phone Booth came to mind the moment I saw the trailer for this movie. Colin Ferrell cursing his mouth off for an hour (Seriously it’s barely longer than an episode of Boardwalk Empire) was intriguing to me but it made me feel like this movie had been done before. Un-original January crap. Thank you Sam [...]
Review: A Separation
A Separation turns real-life conflict into a sociocultural masterpiece. It unfolds with bursts of familial tension and ends up an overview of a society whose conflicting ideals express themselves in dramatic disagreements. All before the watchful eyes of an often disinterested court. Setting out to dissect an Iran where there are often no good choices, [...]
Interview: Ti West – Writer/Director of The Innkeepers
Guest Contributor – Irv Slifkin from www.moviefanfare.com Although he is only 32 years-old, writer-director Ti West has five horror films under his belt and more in the planning stages. And while he is too old, perhaps, to be called a “wunderkind” West’s age and amount of realized projects are certainly nothing to sneeze at. West, [...]
Review: Haywire
In Hollywood there are many different types of action movies. From the huge blockbusters with tons of money and lots of CGI. Then there are the independent-ish type of action films. Still large-budget action films that push a creative spin on things. (Hannah, Kick-Ass) Then there is Haywire, a film that feels like you are [...]
Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Welcome to the hammy 9/11 fable about a real swell 11-year-old boy, Oskar, who deals with the loss of his likeable, earnest father (Tom Hanks) in the tragedy. A nerd of nerds, he conjures up a compulsive game on which to channel his grief into grandiosity. He finds a mysterious key hidden in a vase [...]
Review: Contraband
As much as you would expect me to pan this movie, it’s really quite the opposite. This film is a solid, highly-entertaining popcorn flick. That in itself is a huge feat nowadays (especially for Universal). Most of these big budget action films are just so hard to watch it almost makes you wanna walk out [...]
Review: Carnage
Those poor parents! Who are none other than John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster, whose 11-year-old son was slugged in a playground by the son of Kate Winslet and Christopher Waltz. We start out in Reilly and Foster’s Brooklyn apartment with an overly-cordial and cozy (mmm), above-the-fray march toward making amends despite the victim’s damaged [...]
Review: Joyful Noise
I don’t mean to be a nitpicker but when a modern gospel movie needs to enlist Dolly Parton and Jeremy Jordan to annie up the box office you might expect inconsistencies in tone and intonation. (“ba dum dum ching”). In the annals of musicals out to sweep the widest commercial swath, Joyful Noise is particularly [...]
Review: Pariah
A film that will surely be missed by the masses but is a film that everyone should see, Pariah will make you laugh as easily as it will break your heart. Alike (Adepero Oduye) plays a young child prodigy who is coming to terms with her sexuality. She hangs with her best friend and confident [...]
The Land of Blood and Honey – Host a Live Q&A with Angelina Jolie – Tonight!
FilmDistrict is proud to present Angelina Jolie in a Live online Q&A on Thursday Jan 12th at 8pm EST / 5pm PST to discuss her writing & directorial debut, In The Land of Blood and Honey. This exciting and interactive event gives fans the chance to ask Ms. Jolie questions about the film LIVE! We [...]
Review: In The Land of Blood and Honey
“I don’t need to see things like this,” a disgruntled viewer was overheard commenting in the lobby after the screening of Angelina Jolie’s “In The Land of Blood and Honey.” Well disgruntled audience member, Jolie is strictly writer and director of this Bosnian language-English Subtitled film about the horrors of the Balkan conflict in the [...]
Top Cinedork Articles of 2011
Top ten lists are all over the place so here at Cinedork we decided to take our Top Ten List and make it all about ourself (how narcissistic of us). Below are the top visited articles of 2011 on Cinedork.com! 10. Interview with James Wan and Leigh Whannell for “Insidious” – We sat down with [...]
Contest: Free Contraband Screening Passes
Vibrations good like Sunkist. Many wanna know who done this! Marky Mark and I’m here to move you! Rhymes will groove you! Marky Mark in a badass Oceans Eleven knockoff with Kate Beckensale as his hot wife. Sign us Up!
Contest – Free Screening Passes – “In The Land of Blood and Honey”
Welcome back to the land of the living! Happy New Year! We are back! And starting off strong with a contest for Admit-2 passes for the new Angelina Jolie film “In the Land of Blood and Honey” The screening will be… This Wednesday – January 4th – 7:30PM – Ritz in Philadelphia Email “Info@cinedork.com” with [...]
Don’s Best (and worst) Films of 2011
The Best: The Artist (France, Michael Hazanavicius) This nearly totally silent, black-and- white film is a sizzling masterwork that celebrates not just the silent film but the film medium in general–both as a whole and as two very distinct halves separated by the breakthrough of sound. Simultaneously amusingly and poignantly, it portrays the emotional turmoil [...]
Review: War Horse
Steven Spielberg’s latest, War Horse, welds the boy-and-his-horse tearjerker with the isn’t-war-senseless gripping depiction of World War I battle scenes. Benign film manipulation rarely gets this good. Plumbing the depths of wretched hand-to-hand trench warfare, the film’s calm eye of the hurricane is equine Joey, who we first meet in a tranquil Devon just before [...]
Review: We Bought a Zoo
How do you take the sexy out of Scarlett Johansson? You put her in the role of a Zoo-keeper. Essentially We Bought a Zoo is exactly what the title entails. Matt Damon buys a zoo. What they don’t tell you in the previews is why, that why is the exact reason the movie has a [...]
Review: The Artist
The Artist, the nearly totally silent film shot in black-and-white, is, paradoxically, a joyful noise that will delight your senses and leave you, no pun intended, speechless. If you decide to skip it based on either its silent or black-and-white characteristics, you’ll be doing yourself a major disservice. Director Michel Hazanavicius has constructed no less [...]
Review: Tinker Taylor Solider Spy
What’s long and complex and has the best British acting cast ever assembled? Tinker Taylor Solider Spy. This Christmas season you get to choose to see a movie about a Horse that goes to war, a man who buys a zoo, a kid who thinks he’s Indiana Jones, a movie about women abuse, and this [...]
Review: The Adventures of Tin Tin
What’s been missing from the movies all year? Fun. And “Fun” is exactly what The Adventures of Tin Tin is full of. 2011 has been a year of reboots, remakes, sequels, and just a whole lot of average films. Most movies I see never actually go beyond telling an average story with average visuals and [...]
Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the first volume in Steig Larsson’s immensely popular Millennium Trilogy, is essentially about Lisbeth Salander’s response to the perpetration of violence against women, including herself. It’s original Swedish title translates as “Men Who Hate Women,” euphemistically changed to what long-time Larsson companion Eva Gabrielsson calls a title which sounds [...]
Review: Sherlock Holmes 2 – A Game of Shadows
Once upon a time Robert Downey Jr.’s considerable talent and moxie was enough to protect even the most insipid project from total abomination. Alongside his numerous achievements (Iron Man, Chaplin, Tropic Thunder, and the underrated Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Two Girls and a Guy), Downey has been able to buffer numerous lesser films from [...]
Review: Young Adult
The trouble with a flawed film, whose good parts and core “feel” are head and shoulders above most movie fare, is viewers with limited moviegoing time are tempted to dismiss it. Take the case of Young Adult, the new Charlize Theron film directed by Jason Reitman (Up In The Air, Juno) and written by Diablo [...]
Review: Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Tom Cruise is old. But thankfully he’s still insane enough to make yet another ridiculous action film. Mission Impossible kicks it up another notch, from the already far and beyond belief notches it has made in the previous Mission Impossible films. This time it’s cut so close at the end that even Tom Cruise is [...]
Review: New Year’s Eve
Is the stress of ludicrously manipulative films getting on your nerves? Had it up to here with the canned, filtered and processed holiday dreck that is a Garry Marshall movie? By all means stay away from his latest, New Year’s Eve, unless you’re able to make a deal with the movie theater and allow them [...]
Review: Shame
Michael Fassbender can act himself out of a box. He is brilliant in everything his face has graced in 2011. But Shame is a creature upon itself. I’ve been having trouble describing Shame to people. Is it an Anti-Erotic film about sex? Is it a film about two tortured souls? Is it just a film [...]
Review: The Sitter
Vanilla. Plain Vanilla. This movie never sparkles… it never shines… it’s not technically bad… It’s just not good either. Jonah Hill plays a babysitter that takes the children he is babysitting on a road trip to have sex with his girlfriend. It’s a simple concept, very much like Pineapple Express was back in the day, [...]
Review: Hugo
I don’t really see who would like this movie…. From start to finish you have a 3D film that takes advantage of the newest, latest, and greatest things you can do with 3D. The depth of the picture is brilliant as it brings out elements (like snow) that are safe to say some of the [...]
Review: My Week With Marilyn
To quote a phrase: if you look up “sex symbol” in the dictionary, a photo of Marilyn Monroe would stand alone. (And Probably take up the whole page) Her myth endures despite the nearly 50 years since her death of an overdose of sleeping pills. Part indomitable goddess, part vulnerable child-woman, nifty actress, insoluble enigma. [...]
Review: The Muppets
It’s time to raise the curtain. It’s time to light the lights. Thank god for Jason Siegel for bringing The Muppets back tonight. In a complete surprise that shocked the world (kinda) we now have another Muppet movie! YAY! Just the concept of another Muppet movie brings joy to the world! Or at least it [...]
Review: Happy Feet 2
Who doesn’t love Penguins that can dance and sing? In a highly unsurprising sequel, Happy Feet 2 takes the best things about Happy Feet one and cuts out all the rest. In a journey to save his family and friends Elijah Wood, I mean Mumble, is forced to combine forces with his friends and neighbors [...]
Review: The Descendants
In the The Descendants the line between comedy and pathos forms a perfect tightrope that has stretched through all of Alexander Payne’s films from “Election” to “Sideways.” George Clooney, Hawaiian shirt and boat shoes in tow, faces a dilemma: his self-professed role as “backup parent” is about to swiftly change. His wife is suddenly in [...]
Review: Tower Heist
A little way into Tower Heist you are lulled into feeling you’re watching a pretty good funny movie. Eddie Murphy’s actually back in a groove reminiscent of his heyday. Alan Alda plays a Bernie Madoff-type character. Ben Stiller, Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Tia Leone, and Judd Hirsch are all around for good measure….Then the baloney [...]
Review: J. Edgar
As historical enigmas go, none can top J. Edgar Hoover for sheer cuckoo quotient. The story of how an insecure, repressed man who transferred his neuroses onto an entire country ought to make a grand story. In Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, what we get instead is an occasionally well wrought study that tiptoes around its [...]
Review: A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
I love the Harold and Kumar movies. I love Christmas. Putting the crude and rude with the joy and merriment of Christmas is… Well.. Fucking Brilliant. This movie was made for 3D. Take Final Destination (The newest one) where the gags and tricks take use of the fact it is in 3D. This film takes [...]
Review: Puss in Boots
When you take a franchise like Shrek and make 4 movies it all starts to feel old. That’s why there is Puss in Boots, a film that takes the original Shrek formula and places a cat with a lot of sexual innuendos in it. Puss goes with Humpty Dumpty (a very dull Zack Galifianakis) to [...]
Review: Martha Marcy May Marlene
First-time director Sean Durkin has created one of the year’s most beguiling films, which is not to say it is free of bewilderment. MMMM is a moving portrait of the mental and emotional disintegration of a refugee from a rural “cult” of young people (mostly women) drawn into the clutches of an older, tyrannical male [...]
PFF – Review: The Women in the Fifth
The Women in the Fifth Is a french Fight Club drama piece-of-crap gone horribly wrong. If you want to see a movie where Ethan Hawke is really depressed and has sex with lots of women to try and compensate for it this is the film for you. Ethan Hawke’s performance in this is comparable to [...]
Closing Night Costume Contest and Party – Philadelphia Film Festival
Who doesn’t love Halloween? A night where you can dress up to be whomever you want! You can be a princess! (Enchanted) A mountain climber! (127 Hours) A Storm Trooper (I’m not helping you with that one) A Doctor (Who?) Anyone! You can even look like a bitch (Pulp Fiction) Well get ready because the [...]
Interview: Lizzy Olsen and Sean Durkin – Martha Marcy May Marlene
I was sitting in the Sofitel Hotel (which is such an amazing name for a Hotel in the first place) waiting to meet an Olsen sister (fulfilling some childhood dream of mine) when the ground began to shake. I knew at that exact moment that God was giving me a sign. A sign of what? [...]
PFF – Review: The Kid With a Bike
- You’re an 11-year-old boy living in a home for orphans. – You’re insistent on finding a way to ecape at every turn. – You’d do anything to find your father who abandoned you. – You stumble on a local hairdresser willing to take you in on weekends. So begins the latest heartwrenching odyssey from [...]
PFF – Review: Melancholia
Everywhere you look these days new films are tackling mental illness, the end of the world, or both. Leave it to provocateur, Hitler commentator, and visual poet Lars Von Trier (Dogville, Antichrist, Breaking The Waves) to tie the two subjects together with an uncanny verve and a vision which, while pitch-dark, contains more than a shred [...]
PFF – Review: La Havre
It’s not that Aki Kurismaki’s Le Havre uses the director’s trademark deadpan humor to escape from life’s harsh realities. Rather, Le Havre’s exquisitely offbeat style and genuinely believable, quirky characters stand up as a commonsense solution to the film’s theme of the ethics surrounding illegal immigration. Andre Wilms is wonderful as a shoeshine man who [...]
PFF – Review: Butter
A movie about butter sculpting. Ha! As in not-so-funny…. While exhibitng a handful of moments of sharp satire, Butter is largely a toned-down send-up of a Sarah Palin/Michelle Bachman-esque character (Jennifer Garner) smack in the middle of Iowa. The film is far too schmaltzy to effectively hold up a mirror to the timidity and insipidness of [...]
PFF – Review: Miss Bala
According to the new film Miss Bala, the bizarre level of corruption in response to Mexico’s drug cartel violence infests every nook and cranny of the country’s society. Director Gerardo Naranjo offers a searing peek into this harrowing, topsy-turvy world in one of the year’s most inventive films (Mexico’s official entry into this years Academy [...]
PFF – Review: A Dangerous Method
There’s a memorable and telling line in A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg’s intellectually stimulating film about psychoanalysis pioneers Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud and the affect a young female patient turned psychiatrist has on their relationship. Freud, happy to finally meet his younger disciple, is also careful to instruct him to stick with rigid scientific [...]
PFF – Review: Underwater Love
This parody of sorts is probably the strangest thing you could possibly see at the Philadelphia Film Festival, or ever maybe…… A tale of a factory worker who is about to get married to her kind yet sex-crazed, husband when she meets a Kappa. This…. part duck-part turtle-part human creature is a reincarnation of her [...]
Philadelphia Film Festival – Must see Films with Special Guests
LIKE WATER followed by Q&A with Director Pablo Croce Sunday, October 23; 5:10pm Ritz East Inspiring, exciting and often absolutely hilarious, this incredible portrait of Anderson Silva follows the UFC champion through the training for the most important fight of his career. Many people know of Anderson Silva as one of the greatest mixed martial [...]
Review – Johnny English Reborn
I was up late the night before I saw Johnny English reborn and while flipping through the channels on the TV I found Mr. Bean playing on HBO. For the next hour or so I was reminded of the fantastic simplicity and hilarity of a turkey on the head of a man. But everyone has [...]
PPF20 – Review – Like Crazy
A good chunk of Like Crazy is so minimal you’ll need a magnifying glass to find it. Director Drake Doremus (2010′s Douchebag, and no he didn’t win the snag award) valiantly tries to emulate masterful British director Mike Leigh by going essentially scriptless. About all this film has in common with Leigh (Another Year, Secrets [...]
PFF20 – Review – The Artist
The Artist, the nearly totally silent film shot in black-and-white, is pure stunning. If you decide to skip it based on either of those two unique characteristics, you’ll be doing yourself a major disservice. Director Michel Hazanavicius has constructed no less than a sizzling masterwork celebrating not just the silent film but the film medium [...]
Contest: Rum Diary – Pre-Screening Tickets
Who can resist Johnny Depp and Hunter S Thompson together again!? NO ONE, that’s who. We here at the Dork have a few screening tickets to see The Rum Diary next week on Wednesday October 26th at 7:30PM the Ritz Five in Philadelphia. To win all you need to do is comment below your favorite [...]
20th Annual – Philadelphia Film Festival (Our Staff Picks)
This Thursday kicks off the 20th Annual Philadelphia Film Festival (Oct 20th through Nov 3rd) and it looks to be a very interesting few weeks. We will be covering every bit of the festival that we can even if that means we will be insomniacs (or falling asleep during the bad movies….) Don’s Picks: Casting [...]
