As if “Daredevil” and “Elektra” never happened, writer/director Mark Steven Johnson has been allowed on the set of yet another superhero film. This time, he works his fractured magic on Marvel Comics’ hell-spawned biker series, “Ghost Rider.” One could argue that Johnson had strikes against him with “Daredevil” because of the absurd story. Admittedly, a…
“Hannibal Rising” is like “Muppet Babies” or “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,” but with more cannibalism. The film aims to expand the popular series about psychotic cannibal Hannibal Lecter by taking the audience back to the beginning. But like similar experiments, such as “The Exorcist: The Beginning,” it’s a storyline no one needed to know.…
A string of Hollywood-produced, Africa-based films throughout the past three years have reminded audiences of the sorrow and turmoil that exists across the continent. The results are a mix of informative, though not very uplifting, experiences. In the spirit of such films, “The Last King of Scotland” does to its audience what Idi Amin did…
The most popular World War II films are told from the perspective of the winners. Like the war itself, they’re epic, noisy and violent. No matter how much corn syrup is splattered around the set, at least audiences get to leave feeling good about the ultimate outcome. Enter “Letters from Iwo Jima,” an American World…
George Carlin is not stand-up comedy’s elder statesman. “Elder” and “state” imply a type of establishment, which Carlin has always successfully avoided. There’s the old adage that all comedians secretly wish they were rock stars. As such, maybe Carlin is the Jimi Hendrix of stand-up. The gold standard. The undisputed great one. And like a…
Though the faces and places have changed, the stoner comedy template hasn’t altered much in the past 30 years. The best ones require two things: lots of smoking, and an impossible trek to complete. Whether it’s halting studio production of “Bluntman and Chronic” (“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”), or just heading to White Castle,…
James Bond walks over to the bar at Le Casino Royale in Montenegro. Frustrated, perhaps about to lose millions in a high- stakes poker game, the world’s most famous secret agent orders his signature drink. A bartender asks Bond if he would like his vodka martini shaken or stirred. As the audience is about to…
