| Critic |
Review |
Quote |
Analysis |
This Week's Verdict |
Manohla Dargis,
The New York Times |
Idlewild |
"On the rare occasions when the camera sits still long enough for you to get a sense of space and place, the editing invariably reduces the image to confetti-size bits. That's a shame because the choreographer, production designer and costume designer have done nice work, even if the women's nails tend to look more Beverly Hills contemporary than Southern period." |
This is why we love Manohla. She can eviscerate the aesthetic strategy of a film even while keeping one eye on the women's nails. |
|
Anthony Lane,
The New Yorker |
This Film is Not Rated |
"The movie's director is Kirby Dick, whose name sounds like one of those explicit details to which the M.P.A.A. objects, and his beef is that the ratings board lies somewhere between a cabal and a coven, whose inner workings ought to be unveiled...Everyone is familiar with the categories into which new releases are herded: G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17. Dick concentrates on the last two, and on the blurry border that divides them; this allows him to scrutinize the vexed matter of buttock thrusts, the precise number and visibility of which weigh heavily on raters' minds." |
Man, where are Beavis and Butthead when you really need them? They'd be giggling all through this review. Except for the part where Lane quotes H.G. Wells. Then they'd just be confused. |
|
Scott Foundas,
LA Weekly |
Beerfest |
"Connoisseurs of le cinéma de Broken Lizard can take modest consolation that this ode to 'cold, fresh joy' marks a distinct rebound for the Colgate University-spawned comedy troupe from the dregs of Club Dread and The Dukes of Hazzard. ... The Lizards are a likable bunch, but in the pantheon of pilsner-scented comic pleasure, Strange Brew's immortal McKenzie brothers could chug them under the table with one liver tied behind their backs." |
Has anybody watched Strange Brew again recently? Like, sober? Check it out. Apparently one can have beer-goggles with movies as well. Strange Brew is the "Milwaukee's Best" of film; you have to be sloshed in order to convince yourself it's halfway decent. |
|
Kyle Smith,
New York Post |
Invincible |
"As in Rocky, we're not only in Philly but also in 1976, before the invention of shampoo. Federal mustache regulations required virtually all adult males to install a Burt Reynolds lip topiary, and women wore shapeless rough-hewn man-shirts. These details make for an excellent atmosphere put together by first-time director Ericson Core. Perhaps he dabbed a rag in Pennzoil and wiped it all over every frame of the film, because the movie is fantastically grubby, all smokestacks and chipped paint, which is pretty much how I remember the '70s." |
He's giving director Core way too much credit here. We're pretty sure Philly and its inhabitants still look pretty much exactly like that. |
|
Armond White,
New York Press |
Snakes on a Plane |
"Snakes on a Plane must be the first Low-Concept film. Its disaster-movie premise...is so uncreative, it makes those calculated, High-Concept Paramount programmers of the 1980s like Flashdance and Top Gun seem almost Shakespearean...Samuel L. Jackson epitomizes the lowness of the film's concept...[He] is only here to certify degradation; he's as much an emblem of exploitation movie crassness as Aunt Jemima is an emblem of pancakes." |
What more can you say about a review that gives you an image of Tom Cruise quoting Shakespeare in a fighter jet and Aunt Jemima yelling, "Get these motherfuckin' lowfat buckwheat pancakes off my motherfuckin' plate!!"? |
|
