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Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
Reviews
Revolver
Call the script doc
By
TOM MEEK
|
December 5, 2007
REVOLVER
" alt="photo of 'REVOLVER'">
1.5
Stars
SCREWED UP: Ray Liotta in a Speedo?
Forget whatever you know about Guy Ritchie films (
Snatch
and
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
). The same goes for brooding Ritchie regular Jason Statham (
Transporter
), who instead of a shaven noggin dons a greasy, tangled mane. The premise of Ritchie’s 2005 oddity at first seems familiar as Jake, a vengeance-seeking ex-con played by Statham, stirs up trouble between rival crime syndicates. But Jake needs more than an Uzi — he needs a shrink. As the bodies pile up, he hears voices in his head, and he obsesses over the mind games the loan sharks covering his flank might be playing. The blood-feud fury has its Ritchie moments (Mark Strong is a treat as the Woody Allen–esque hitman who never misses), but
Revolver
ultimately spins its wheels into incoherent psychobabble, as Jake shouts it out with his id. Add to that Ray Liotta in a Speedo as an irate mobster and you have a screwed-up film in need of a couch and a script doctor.
106 minutes | Harvard Square
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,
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,
Review: Sherlock Holmes
,
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Smokin' Aces
Perhaps Joe Carnahan pitched his follow-up to 2002’s Narc as It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World by way of Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, and bad wigs. Watch the trailer for Smokin' Aces (QuickTime)
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In its own way an ideal holiday blockbuster for the moderately educated, the new light-footed overhaul of Sherlock Holmes is three parts self-satisfied mixer to one part hard storytelling, and if anything, the film's popular trailers should have deterred you from expecting strong drink.
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Smart girls
In its third year, Veronica Mars , late of UPN, joins the new CW network as the most critically praised show on its roster.
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Title a book Bad Cop and brain-basher types like Harvey Keitel and Ray Liotta spring to mind.
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One of these days, in a British crime movie, there will appear a gangland boss with a fetish for the Police.
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Review: Observe and Report
Jody Hill's ambiguous and unsettling film is a comedy about law enforcement in much the same way that Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy is a comedy about comedy.
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ARTICLES BY TOM MEEK
REVIEW: GOD BLESS AMERICA
| May 17, 2012
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture ( i.e. , Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, and American Idol ) and the indignity of being an office drone.
REVIEW: THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS
| April 24, 2012
Peter Lord, animator behind claymation staples Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run , directs this very British, very dry romp on the high seas during the time when Britannia did indeed rule the waves.
REVIEW: GOD BLESS AMERICA
| April 18, 2012
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture (i.e., Paris Hilton, the Kardashians and American Idol) and the indignity of being an office drone.
REVIEW: UNDEFEATED
| March 15, 2012
Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin's Oscar-winning documentary about an underequipped high-school football team competing against big-time programs across Tennessee offers a potent contemplation on race and opportunity.
REVIEW: DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX
| March 01, 2012
Regrettably, this team loses a lot of Seuss's quirkiness, though not the message about corporate greed and slash-and-burn imperialism.
See all articles by:
TOM MEEK
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