Articles tagged "dustin hoffman"

Film DVD Review

Last Chance Harvey

by Stephen Snart

[4.May.09] :. Seemingly designed for in-flight viewing, this film is the equivalent of a competently written paperback, or a leftover helping of Ma’s comfort food.

Recent DVD reviews

Short Ends and Leader

The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

by Bill Gibron

[5.Apr.09] :. As a rule of cinematic thumb, in the CG genre, there’s Pixar…and then there’s everyone else. Or sure, some studios - Fox, Dreamworks - can claim massive commercial success, and the...

Short Ends and Leader

Film Review

Last Chance Harvey

by Cynthia Fuchs

[16.Jan.09] :. Last Chance Harvey is a movie about starting over.

Recent Film reviews

Film Review

The Tale of Despereaux

by Cynthia Fuchs

[19.Dec.08] :. The movie starts with a cute sleight-of-handy gimmick, the sort that assumes a canny audience who’s a step ahead of regular narrative conventions.

Recent Film reviews

The PopMatters Fall 2008 Movie Preview Feature

Talk, Talk, Talk: December 2008

by Bill Gibron

[12.Sep.08] :. Just like the end of an inspiring speech that may or may not succeed in making its point, these final four weeks before 2009 tend to define or defeat the entire awards season purpose.

The PopMatters Fall 2008 Movie Preview

Film Review

Kung Fu Panda

by Cynthia Fuchs

[6.Jun.08] :. Big and bouncy, Kung Fu Panda is another powerhouse Family Entertainment that means to pummel its young viewers into adulation.

Recent Film reviews

‘Panda’ Stays True to Its Kung Fu Confines

by Bill Gibron

[5.Jun.08] :. It’s been interesting to watch the youth-ification of martial arts. Sure, kids have always been the major market when it comes to karate lessons, video games, and other media oriented kung...

Dustin Hoffman is the voice of authority in ‘Kung Fu Panda’

by Rick Bentley [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[5.Jun.08] :. BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Dustin Hoffman seems to be picking roles that show great wisdom comes with age. In “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” he played a wise and slightly mystical...

The Return of the Popcorn Circus: June 2008

by Bill Gibron

[29.Apr.08] :. If May almost tent-poled itself out of existence, June will be even worse. After all, are audiences really ready for 13 major release in less than two months -- with more to come?

Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium

by Cynthia Fuchs

[19.Nov.07] :. The adults aren't fully to blame for their dreariness, as they are saddled with a cumbersome script that too plainly emulates Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The Graduate

by Mehera Bonner

[3.Oct.07] :. Forty years after its original theatrical release, The Graduate is still extremely timely and its themes and message are relevant whether in the context of 1967 or 2007.

Part 2: The Changing Face of Filmmaking

by PopMatters Staff

[19.Jun.07] :. Every staid situation needs shaking up, none more so that the labored Hollywood studio system. The titles chosen for this section stand out as reasons why things had to change, the results of those seismic stylistic shifts.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

by Jack Patrick Rodgers

[8.Mar.07] :. Stranger than Fiction isn’t sure if it wants to be a comedy that relies on stereotypes in order to accentuate the humor, or a drama with the absurdities played as deadpan as possible.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[2.Jan.07] :. That Grenouille is also utterly symptomatic -- that is, not an individual so much as a representative of what ails his cultural milieu -- is hardly news.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[10.Nov.06] :. Maybe Professor Hilbert knows exactly how right he is, given the film's relentless archness: it knows that you know that it knows it's meta.

I Heart Huckabees: 2-Disc Special Edition (2004)

by Bill Gibron

[23.Mar.05] :. The Special Edition is loaded with so much self-referential material and 'oh so clever' concepts that they threaten to make the movie into its own cult object.

Finding Neverland (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[23.Mar.05] :. 'Play' is a means to define childhood, to prolong mythic innocence, to grant nobility.

I Heart Huckabees: 2-Disc Special Edition (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[28.Feb.05] :. As hard as he tries, Albert can't quite keep up with the Jaffes' questions, let alone their answers.

Meet the Fockers (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[22.Dec.04] :. Streisand brings her own potent barrage to this company of self-interested men, not to mention the melt-away women.

Finding Neverland (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[19.Nov.04] :. As James Barrie, the Scottish-born playwright most famous for imagining Peter Pan, Johnny Depp appears the consummately charismatic child-man.

Straw Dogs (2004)

by Brian James

[27.Oct.04] :. Perhaps David's decision is heroic, given the circumstances, but the accumulated images of his passivity remind the viewer that better choices.

I Heart Huckabees (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[1.Oct.04] :. Albert is again faced with basic questions: Are we really 'all connected'? How can 'everything be the same even if it's different'?"

Runaway Jury (2003)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[16.Oct.03] :. Besieged by John Grishamish plot twisties, the actors in Runaway Jury do their best to fashion an emotional coherence.

Hook (1991)

by Jesse Hassenger

[15.Sep.03] :. Hook is thoroughly watchable, often amusing, fitfully entertaining.

Little Big Man (1970)

by Elbert Ventura

[17.Jun.03] :. It didn't just dispel the cloudless America of Westerns past -- it dismembered the genre, threw the parts in a trench, and spit on the tombstone.

Confidence (2003)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[24.Apr.03] :. They meet at King's club, where he's auditioning strippers: Dustin Hoffman, big pimping.

Moonlight Mile (2002)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[3.Oct.02] :. Fits a little too neatly with the recent popularity of media considering grief and death rituals.

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)

by Beth Armitage

Early on in the very long Luc Besson film, The Messenger, John Malkovich (playing Charles, Dauphin of France) wishes he could be someone else. It was the one and only time that I identified with anything in the film - I wished I could watch him be someone else! Like himself in Being John Malkovich. The Messenger is an unbelievably dull movie, which is a startling achievement given that the legend of Joan of Arc lends itself pretty well to storytelling of any type.