http://www.grouchoreviews.com/ Tue, 15 May 2012 22:51:14 GMT Film/DVD reviews, interviews and features. http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4333 /reviews/4333 Cohen‘s act wears thin...still, The Dictator has several memorable moments... Tue, 15 May 2012 20:11:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4328 /reviews/4328 By asking the audience to take far too much on faith, Dark Shadows can only be an interesting failure. Fri, 11 May 2012 15:14:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4327 /reviews/4327 Currish...the film‘s niche audience is indiscriminate aging dog lovers; people lovers should look elsewhere.     Thu, 10 May 2012 15:42:40 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4326 /reviews/4326 “Eat Gray Love“...the whole enterprise [is] too platitudinous, but with powerhouse actors like Dench, Nighy and Wilkinson, even a critic can agree it‘s better to be plucky than a sour stick-in-the-mud. Thu, 10 May 2012 15:36:26 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4316 /reviews/4316 It‘s quite possible that The Avengers has more action than any movie ever made...[but] for all its thrill-ride clutter, The Avengers is just about as simplistic as them fightin‘-robot pictures... Wed, 02 May 2012 00:31:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4315 /reviews/4315 Pessimism, sweetness, raunch and loopiness make for a pleasantly offbeat blend. Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:15:15 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4314 /reviews/4314 Eighty-eight minutes of sublime silliness...should appeal in equal measure to adults as to children. Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:41:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4313 /reviews/4313 Decide for yourself if the narration is a necessary concession for kids: it‘s a take-it-or-leave-it proposition that doesn‘t make but also doesn‘t quite break Chimpanzee. Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:34:19 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4312 /reviews/4312 A sensitive and fairly subtle work, with the deceptive simplicity of a well-honed short story. Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:29:28 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4306 /reviews/4306 A next-generation Scream, a self-referential horror film that tongue-in-cheekily deconstructs its own genre. Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:47:16 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4305 /reviews/4305 Since the halfwitty Damsels in Distress wants to have it both ways, its satire is about as cutting as a plastic knife through a porterhouse. Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:39:55 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4304 /reviews/4304 Predictability is the fatal flaw of any American sequel, and while this one comes closest in tone to the original film, that‘s a decidedly double-edged sword. Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:53:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4301 /reviews/4301 This exquisite realization is as vital as can be in depicting the timeless tortures of the romantically damned. Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:40:52 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4300 /reviews/4300 By toning down his excesses for a mass audience of largely children, the self-billed Tarsem hits his sweet spot, serving up lavish sets and costumes to create a fantasy world that doesn‘t make us want to scratch our eyeballs out. Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:33:28 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4298 /reviews/4298 If The Hunger Games on screen doesn‘t exactly catch fire (as does its hero Katniss Everdeen), its savvy pop culture mash-up and the charge of teens in life-and-death peril remain intact. Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:16:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4299 /reviews/4299 Largely concerned with the prickliness and delicacy around legacy, and the attendant patrilineal complications...But it‘s as much about the egotism and dysfunction of academia, reflected in the complex personalities of Eliezer and Uriel. Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:11:23 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4297 /reviews/4297 It‘s simply difficult to throw in with the film‘s reality-if not its essential story, then its details: Being Flynn feels indie art-directed instead of observed. Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:25:34 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4296 /reviews/4296 The haunted House may be a built on a shaky foundation, but its scare tactics are sound, and its gimmickry is enough to stand out in a crowded genre neighborhood. Sat, 10 Mar 2012 07:24:47 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4295 /reviews/4295 An annoying provocation with too little to say, a serious credibility deficit, a whiff of misandry, and a miscalculated, unseemly gusto for abusing its hero. Instead of having catharsis, the audience just gets had. Fri, 02 Mar 2012 19:10:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4294 /reviews/4294 That relaxed pace allows the story to breathe…forget the franticness of most American animation…and along with the gorgeously detailed art, lush color, and swoony music...the film is all but guaranteed to entrance children. Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:06:05 GMT Peter Canavese