NYC Film Critic

MacGruber!  The Saturday Night Live character becomes a major movie star.  MacGruber!  I was hoping it would be really funny but it’s only kind of so-so.  MacGruber!   My review is posted at Film Journal.  MacGruber!

After the Cup: Sons of Sakhnin United
Directed by Christopher Browne
***

One of the television highlights of the past year has been ESPN’s ambitious series 30 for 30, 30 documentaries covering 30 significant events in the past 30 years of sports history. The great thing about the series is that it doesn’t demand any familiarity with, or even a great affinity for, professional and/or collegiate athletics. Instead, almost every installment uses its specific subject as a jumping off point to explore larger, distinctly non-sports related issues.

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Robin Hood is back with an all-new (but not improved) origin story courtesy of director Ridley Scott. Read my review at Film Journal.

Metropolis
Directed by Fritz Lang
****

My first viewing of Fritz Lang’s landmark 1927 film Metropolis happened sometime in the early ‘90s via an unassuming VHS tape (remember those?) that lived in my family’s home video collection.  Presentation-wise, I couldn’t have asked for a worse way to see the film for the first time.  The transfer was sub-par resulting in images that were scratched and faded, the intertitles were barely legible and because it was one of those EP video cassettes (that’s “extended play” to anyone born after 1995) I was constantly fiddling with the VCR settings to get the movie to play at the right speed.

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There’s only one word for this poster: Awwwwww.  Judging the movie itself, on the other hand, requires about 700 words.  Read my review over at Film Journal.

Iron Man 2
Directed by Jon Favreau
Screenplay by Justin Theroux
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell.
**1/2

It’s been six months since Tony Stark revealed to the world that he’s the metallic avenger (not to be confused with the capital-A Avengers, but more on them later) known as Iron Man and in that time, much has changed.

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A Nightmare on Elm Street
Directed by Samuel Bayer
Starring Jackie Earle Haley, Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner, Thomas Dekker
*1/2

There are those horror filmmakers who have a genuine respect for the genre and always strive to craft distinctive movies that entertain and terrify, even if the finished product doesn’t always measure up to their ambitions.

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Behind the Burly Q
Directed by Leslie Zemeckis
**1/2

If nothing else, Leslie Zemeckis’ new documentary Behind the Burly Q functions as a lovingly made scrapbook for the memories of the men and women that populated the burlesque scene in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.
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A great cast is wasted in the sub-par comic book movie The Losers, based on Andy Diggle’s hugely entertaining series.  Read my review at Film Journal.

Writer/director Nicole Holofcener’s latest dramedy has the goods to be a modest spring hit before the summer move onslaught begins.  Read my review over at Film Journal.