Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Reviews

Untraceable

Delivering the goods, especially if you like to watch a man submerged in acid

By MARK BAZER | January 23, 2008

2.5 Stars

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Untraceable.

The least-satisfying detective stories tend to be about serial killers. The chase to prevent the next murder can thrill, but the killer’s ultimate motivation — he’s a psychopath — is pretty dull, no matter how monstrous or intricate his technique. That said, this film directed by Gregory Hoblit (Primal Fear) and starring Diane Lane is a smart, if gruesome, addition to the subgenre. Lane’s Jennifer Marsh is an FBI agent on the cyber-crimes beat, where the Internet is treated as the modern-day equivalent of the depraved streets detectives used to walk. Even she, however, is shocked by a new Web site featuring live executions — that is, if enough people log on. Despite knowing the consequences, people visit in droves, a cynical notion that has the film dipping into moral-lecture territory. But Untraceable does deliver the goods, especially if you like to watch a man submerged in acid. 100 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Circle/Chestnut Hill + suburbs

Related: Nights in Rodanthe, The medium is the movie, Snakes on a Plane, More

Nights in Rodanthe
Diane Lane has become typecast as the older, disenfranchised woman who runs away to find solace but instead rediscovers romance, or at least sex.
The medium is the movie
In almost every movie you go to these days you’ll see another screen — a television, a computer, even another movie screen — within the screen you’re watching.
Snakes on a Plane
I don’t know who had more fun at this Frankenfilm’s first showing: a fellow critic (who was frequently stomping his feet), the audience (who were frequently on their feet), or myself (my feet planted firmly in my mouth for ever doubting this film would fly). Watch the trailer for Snakes on a Plane (QuickTime)
Flashbacks: November 3, 2006
These selections, culled from our back files, were compiled by Dan Peleschuk, Ian Sands, and Eva Wolchover.
Summer cleaning
Alas, summer flew by, and we have some apologies to hand out to the awesome schlubs we couldn’t get to. Below, ten more, in this, the final installation of our Summer of Schlub.
The plot thickens
This article originally appeared in the December 20, 1991 issue of the Boston Phoenix .
Review: Surrogates
Some day in the future — or is it right now? — people will be replaced by surrogate robots, superhuman automatons who live out big-screen fantasies while their hosts, with their greasy hair and bad skin, sit back in wired-up La-Z-Boys.
Trudell
One small line from Native American poet and activist John Trudell’s 17,000-page FBI file flashes on screen in Heather Rae’s biographical film: “He’s extremely eloquent . . . therefore extremely dangerous.”
What John did and saw
In anticipation of the July 1 release of Michael Mann's Public Enemies with Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, and as part of its week-long "Classic Gangsters" series, the Brattle is screening two rarely seen films this Sunday: John Milius's 1973 Dillinger and W.S. Van Dyke's Manhattan Melodrama.
Hindsight
“I’m not much on rear-window ethics,” quips Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 masterpiece.
Left behind
SPACE Gallery’s annual Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival, now in its sixth year, is the rare local film event as essential to movie buffs as it is to concerned citizens.
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Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Movies, Federal Bureau of Investigation, More

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ARTICLES BY MARK BAZER

REVIEW: EXTRACT | September 02, 2009
I'm hard-pressed to say, though, whether Extract is a significant leap forward for Judge in terms of story or just not as funny as his earlier work.

SOUL MEN | November 05, 2008
Mac especially is a joy to watch, and a counterpoint to the humor elsewhere, as he breaks out Temptations-style moves with just the right mix of sly fun and respect for the music.

FILTH AND WISDOM | October 27, 2008
As the lead character narrates his “filthy” story, and those of his London flatmates/neighbors, we hit upon boredom long before wisdom can arrive.

CITY OF EMBER | October 15, 2008
Kids who see the truth when adults cannot is a central idea in children’s stories, but today’s kids would hardly recognize the grown-ups in Ember’s totalitarian society.