Recent Film Reviews

Sorority Boys (2002)

By Todd R. Ramlow

If there is a movie that might make me agree with conservative pundits assailing the 'vulgarity' and gross-out humor of contemporary U.S. culture and much recent Hollywood teen fare, 'Sorority Boys' would be it.

Blade II (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

The Daywalker has his own agenda, still fever-dreaming and raging, but changed too.

Showtime (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

The trouble with 'Showtime' is that it never lets up on its self-congratulatory wink-winking.

Resident Evil (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

Alice's amnesia is Resident Evil's best trick.

Harrison’s Flowers (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

Goes at both war and romance from a decidedly oblique angle.

The Time Machine (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

[In 'The Time Machine',] Alexander decides to go look for an answer, but going into the future (why, we'll never know).

All About the Benjamins (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

'All About the Benjamins'... relies heavily on the considerable chemistry between Epps and Cube: sometimes it's just fun to watch them entertain one another, which they clearly do.

We Were Soldiers (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

'We Were Soldiers' is, above all, an earnest film, working overtime not to be a standard U.S. war movie where the good (white) boys fight against diabolical 'others'.

Trouble Every Day (2001)

By Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece

PULL.

40 Days and 40 Nights (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

'40 Days and 40 Nights' is a love story, yes, about a boy and his penis.

Queen of the Damned (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

Queen of the Damned (2002)

By Todd R. Ramlow

In 'Queen of the Damned', there's something more than a little obvious about the vampire Lestat as goth rock superstar.

Dragonfly (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

Belief is a big deal in 'Dragonfly', the latest entry in 2002's February Film Dump Sweepstakes.

Super Troopers (2002)

By Elena Razlogova

PULL.

Return to Never Land (2002)

By Tracy McLoone

Peter Pan is queer. We're all clear on that, right?"

John Q (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

After 'Collateral Damage', you might imagine that most every aggrieved father cliché has been unturned. But no. Here comes 'John Q'.

Hart’s War (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

Predictably, Hart's war ends up being his education, his route to noble manhood.

Crossroads (2002)

By Todd R. Ramlow

Unlike the audiences at most movie previews, these folks at 'Crossroads' were amped.

Rollerball (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

PULL.

Collateral Damage (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

As Schwarzenegger described the whole shebang to the guys on 'Fox NFL Sunday', 'There's some serious butt-kicking going on.'"

Slackers (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

Some movies just don't need to be made. And some movies work extra hard to educe comments just like that one, making the extra effort to gross you out, to annoy, alarm, or titillate you.

Birthday Girl (2002)

By Kirsten Markson

. . . a mildly enjoyable film, offering some giggles and even a few shocking revelations.

A Walk to Remember (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

PULL.

Metropolis (2001) - PopMatters Film Review )

By Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece

It's not so often that you see an anime as deliberately unsexy as Rintaro's 'Metropolis'.

The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

By Todd R. Ramlow

As John (Richard Gere) begins to question his own journalistic rigor and even his sanity, a number of inconsistencies in the stories of the mothman crop up.

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

It's exceedingly good to see Luis Guzmán looking so vibrantly out of place in Kevin Reynolds' 'The Count of Monte Cristo'.

Snow Dogs (2002)

By Tracy McLoone

In 'Snow Dogs', Cuba Gooding, Jr. is all giggles and slapstick. I lost count of the number of times he slipped on the ice or fell in the snow.

The Man Who Sued God (2001)

By Nikki Tranter

PULL.

What Time Is It There? (2001)

By Lucas Hilderbrand

'What Time Is It There?' presents what may be Tsai's most pronounced rendering of the impossibility of sexual intimacy and connection.

Orange County (2002)

By Cynthia Fuchs

More than anything else, 'Orange County' is mundane.

Charlotte Gray (2001)

By Todd R. Ramlow

The obvious reason for the glut of overly celebratory WWII films of the past few years is nostalgia for a time in American life when things like international politics and warfare were clear-cut.

Charlotte Gray (2001)

By Cynthia Fuchs

... challenges the national ideologies, nostalgia and idealization that have become so commonplace in popular cultural imaginings of the 'great war'.

Impostor (2001)

By Cynthia Fuchs

Based on a 1953 Philip K. Dick story, the film rehearses the usual Dickish concerns, namely, a male protagonist's loss of identity, confidence, and context in a dystopic SF future.

Kate & Leopold (2001)

By Cynthia Fuchs

Never mind that Leopold is clueless when it comes to actual labor or the concept of class; as long as he's upper, he has no need to know anything more.

Ali (2001)

By Cynthia Fuchs

Ali embodies a kind of car-wreck charisma -- arrogant and self-conscious, beautiful and fierce, even on twenty-year-old tape, he can take your breath away. This ability to mesmerize makes Ali who he is, or more accurately, who everyone wants him to be. He's a cipher and a screen onto which viewers might project themselves.