At the age of 72, when most of his peers no doubt contemplate the sunset of their lives and professions, Clint Eastwood obviously retains both his creative intelligence and, perhaps more surprisingly, his on-screen appeal. One of America’s most accomplished contemporary filmmakers, he has produced, written, directed, and starred in scores of motion pictures, […]
George Grella
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Circles in the corn, field of nightmares
Back in the 1950s, the
heyday of the alien invasion flick, it really meant something when those
saucers hovered over great cities, zapping buildings and disintegrating people
with their death rays, and uniting the world in opposition to defeat the
otherwise superior beings from outer space, who of course filled in for the Red
Menace.
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The triumph of the juvenile
It seems a shame that Ian Fleming, whose James Bond novels — which nobody (including the screenwriters and directors) seems to read these days — couldn’t live long enough to witness the full impact of his creation on world culture and the visual arts. The Bond movies have transcended their literary originals to become a […]
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‘K-19’: a fascinating, refreshing blockbuster
Judging by the fact that it’s lasted so long and surfaces so frequently, the submarine movie should be plumbing the dark depths of the megaplexes for many years to come. Even in these times, its necessarily narrow set and limited cast make it a relatively economical project, and its concentration on complicated machinery, underwater photography, […]
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1930s-style gangsters, without the pace or pulse
Paul Newman and Tom Hanks star in Sam Mendes’s “Road to Perdition.” Perhaps because it constitutes just about the only adult movie (in the old sense of the term) of the summer so far, Sam Mendes’s Road to Perdition has provoked almost as many raves as his previous hit, the wildly overpraised American Beauty. Mendes […]
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They’re back and in black again
In its own accidental, absurd, and strictly for-profit way, Men in Black II provides something of a service for the movie audiences of today, suggesting some perhaps unsuspected truths and a continuing metaphor for its time and place. Following the amazing success of the first film (it was the biggest hit of 1997), the second […]
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John Sayles tries Robert Altman
In the course of his relatively long but somewhat subdued career in the cinema, John Sayles has pretty much done it all, and now and then even, as they say, had it all. Beginning, like a lot of filmmakers of his generation, with an apprenticeship with the legendary schlockmeister Roger Corman, he may not have […]
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The last of the old thrillers
Because motion pictures require a good deal of time to plan, finance, produce, edit, publicize, and release, The Bourne Identity, a typical espionage thriller dealing with violent international intrigue, lags far behind current events and contemporary awareness. Although calling the picture “a 21st century spy film,” the folks who put the whole complicated, expensive project […]
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Chance, fate, and infidelity
Whether through clever marketing, corrupt arrangements, or sheer dumb luck (all of which operate in the film industry), the producers of Unfaithful probably benefit as much from its positioning as from its considerable publicity. Sandwiched between last week’s smash hit Spider-Man and next week’s guaranteed boffo, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Adrian […]
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The fantasy of the other self
After 40 years of comic books, generations of readers, and as much publicity as the hypemeisters, assisted by their kind friends in the media, can generate, and even after a long, unexplained, but politely ignored delay, Spider-Man simply cannot fail. It doesn’t really matter whether the picture is particularly good in any way, only that […]
