Allied
BB.5 (out of 5) A Canadian spy (Brad Pitt) working for the British forces during World War II is sent to Casablanca, where he plays house with a French agent (Marion Cotillard) until they… Continue reading
Tag Archive: Brad Pitt
0 Comments
Smash His Camera
BBBB (out of 5) The current era of tabloid photography owes a lot to the career of Ron Galella, a photog for whom no potted plant was too small from which to get… Continue reading
The Big Short
BBB.5 (out of 5) The creation of Mortgage-backed Securities began a legacy of years of profit and greed that resulted in the economic bubble that, in 2008, collapsed the world economy. Ryan Gosling… Continue reading
Fury
BBBB.5 (out of 5) The feeling that you have already seen every possible take on World War II is forgotten within minutes of this exceptional drama, one whose scenes of graphic war violence… Continue reading
Exit Through The Gift Shop
BBBB (out of 5) The world of street art (graffiti has such a negative ring, doesn’t it?) is a demimonde all to itself, one that captured the fancy of obsessive enthusiast Thierry Guetta… Continue reading
Legends Of The Fall
BBBB (out of 5) Three brothers grow up with their father on a sprawling Montana ranch, living wild, boisterous lives until tragedy strikes each of them (and all of it brought about by… Continue reading
The Mexican
BBB (out of 5) Odd but often entertaining comedy that features humorous performances from its stars, though they hardly share any screen time together. After a very shaky start of watching odd couple… Continue reading
Kick-Ass
BBB (out of 5) Strange, hyperviolent comic book movie about an eager young man (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who longs to be admired and decides to don a wet suit and make himself a superhero… Continue reading
Kalifornia
BB.5 (out of 5) David Duchovny and Michelle Forbes are travelling the country visiting the sites of famous American murders. He is presumably working on a book about the subject, but the matter becomes something… Continue reading
A River Runs Through It
BBBB (out of 5) Poetic and touching, this is a good film for those who love movies about fly fishing. All five of you. For the rest, it’s a fantastic drama about two… Continue reading
12 Years A Slave
BBBB (out of 5) A rarely told tale is that of Solomon Northup, a free musician from Saratoga who was hired by two men for a performance gig and then drugged and sold… Continue reading
The Favor
BB.5 (out of 5) A married woman (Harley Jane Kozak) asks her best friend (Elizabeth McGovern) to sleep with her ex-boyfriend (Ken Wahl) in order to find out if he’s still the hot… Continue reading
Running With Scissors
BBBB (out of 5) The Addamses are Kooky, the Tenenbaums are Quirky, but these people are just plain Fucked Up. Augusten Burroughs’ heartbreaking memoir has been turned into a savagely funny and heartrending… Continue reading
Moneyball
BBB (out of 5) With the Oakland Athletics soon to suffer the loss of star players and the ball club not in its pinkest years, general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) has to… Continue reading
The Tree Of Life
BB.5 (out of 5) The generic title of Terence Malick’s family epic reveals generic content as Sean Penn works a highly successful but, presuming from the few scenes at his wealthy mansion, alienating life… Continue reading
Mr. And Mrs. Smith (2005)
BBBB (out of 5) Ah, if only more couples took the Kurt ‘N’ Courtney approach to solving their marital difficulties, they’d end up looking as healthy and gorgeous as the stars of this… Continue reading
Sleepers
BBBB (out of 5) Four young boys go to juvenile detention for a street prank that gets way out of hand, then suffer through years of sexual abuse from their prison’s supervisor (played… Continue reading
Across The Tracks
BBB.5 (out of 5) Two brothers compete on the race track as much as they do in daily life: Ricky Schroder is the wayward son who comes back from reform school and takes to… Continue reading
Less Than Zero
B (out of 5) Bret Easton Ellis’ novel about rich kids living in the fast lane is given an atrocious screen treatment. Andrew McCarthy comes back to his hometown of Los Angeles after his… Continue reading
Babel
BBBB (out of 5) It sure is a tough day when being American catches up with you. A random, careless act of violence has repercussions that span the globe when two children in… Continue reading
Spy Game
BBB (out of 5) Tony Scott continues his reign of mediocrity with this difficult but sometimes rewarding thriller. It’s about a retiring CIA operative (Robert Redford) who is forced to go above heads… Continue reading
True Romance
BB (out of 5) Quentin Tarantino wrote the screenplay for this excessively violent road picture directed by Tony Scott. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette are excellent as lovers on the lam who are trying to… Continue reading
Troy
BB (out of 5) How to stretch a segment of a Greek epic to three hours of cinematic junk: avoid the dramatic character development that, say, Euripides brought to ancient legends and instead… Continue reading
A Mighty Heart
BBBB (out of 5) True-life story of Daniel and Mariane Pearl is given solid treatment by director Michael Winterbottom. The Pearls (Dan Futterman, Angelina Jolie) are journalists stationed in Karachi, Pakistan who have… Continue reading
The Devil’s Own
BB (out of 5) Much publicity was given to this Irish-American drama upon its release because of production delays escalating the costs to unreasonable proportions ($90-odd million dollars, ridiculous at the time for… Continue reading
Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas
BBB (out of 5) For all the effort that was put into making and marketing this grand adventure, the end result is disappointing. While the animation is some of the most beautiful drawing… Continue reading
Twelve Monkeys
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Based on Chris Marker’s terrifying experimental short film La Jetee, the deliciously weird narrative of this film follows Bruce Willis as he travels back in time from the future to… Continue reading
No Way Out
BBB (out of 5) Gene Hackman plays a high-ranking Washington politician who covers up the accidental murder of his mistress (Sean Young) by spreading a story around that it was committed by a… Continue reading
Killing Them Softly
BB (out of 5) An action film that subverts expectations by focusing on the inability to commit actions is a tempting prospect; when it comes from the filmmaker who inverted the myth of… Continue reading
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
BBBB.5 (out of 5) The best way to perk up the sagging spirits of Americans embroiled in a flailing war and waning economy: take a look back at one of the most potent… Continue reading
Full Frontal
BB (out of 5) A group of characters spend their day in various complications until they are all (or most of them anyway) united at a Hollywood producer’s birthday party. A neurotic Human… Continue reading
Thelma and Louise
BBBBB (out of 5) So much has been said and written about this film and its politics since it was first released in 1991 that it’s a relief to watch it again and… Continue reading
Interview With The Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
BBBB (out of 5) Marvelous vampire horror film adapted by Anne Rice from her popular novel. A modern-day reporter (Christian Slater) in San Francisco sits down with a 400 year-old vampire (Brad Pitt)… Continue reading
The Departed
BBBB (out of 5) Martin Scorsese returns to the mean streets of Gangland (this time in Boston) for a riveting action drama that is as rich in character as it is in torrid… Continue reading
Seven
BB.5 (out of 5) Skillful editing and a decidedly menacing tone are to be commended in this serial-killer thriller, but the film also has the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman… Continue reading
Fight Club
BBBB (out of 5) Edward Norton overindulges himself in the consumerism of 1990s corporate America and finds himself joining a savage, underground boxing club to let it all go and return to nature’s way… Continue reading
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
BBBB (out of 5) Southern-style tall-tales, genuine romance and a rich sense of nostalgia permeate this highly engrossing, free adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story of the same name. Benjamin Button (Brad… Continue reading
Meet Joe Black
B (out of 5) Anthony Hopkins stars as a rich man who is about to have a visit from everyone’s favourite party animal, Death. Unfortunately, Death is in the mood to experience a… Continue reading
Ocean’s Thirteen
BBB (out of 5) Elliott Gould gets screwed over by business partner Al Pacino and ends up near-comatose in bed after a heart attack. His friends, led by suave George Clooney, decide to get revenge… Continue reading
Ocean’s Twelve
BBB.5 (out of 5) After having robbed Las Vegas’s Bellagio hotel of over a hundred million dollars, the eleven slick thieves of the first film are visited by the casino’s owner, Andy Garcia,… Continue reading
Inglourious Basterds
BBB.5 (out of 5) There’s a scene, relatively early on in this picture, when a member of the titular special elite force of Jewish American soldiers secretly operating in Germany finishes his killing… Continue reading
Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind
BB.5 (out of 5) Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell) made quite a career for himself: a published songwriter, television game show producer, and CIA hitman all in one lifetime. According to his autobiography, Barris… Continue reading
Ocean’s Eleven
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Of the three heist films to come out in 2001 (the other two being The Score and Heist), this is far and away the king of them all. An… Continue reading
Cool World
B (out of 5) Gabriel Byrne plays a comic book artist whose little world of ‘doodles’ and ‘humanoids’ turns out to actually exist! After a scientist finds a way to bridge the human world… Continue reading
Burn After Reading
BBB (out of 5) After getting fired from a relatively low-level job at the CIA, irate former agent John Malkovich decides that the best plan of action is to write a tell-all memoir about… Continue reading
Seven Years In Tibet
BB (out of 5) You’ll feel like you’ve been seven years in Tibet by the time you’re halfway through this execrable film. Brad Pitt plays the real-life Heinrich Harrer, a model Nazi who leads… Continue reading