The new “X-Men” film opens up with a slam dunk, a surprisingly wonderful scene where a younger Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Eric “Magneto” Lensherr (Sir Ian McKellen) visit a young girl Jean Grey and her parents. It sets up three important things in the film, directed by Brett Ratner: one of the film’s central characters will be a newly ressurrected Jean now calling herself Phoenix; the rivalry between the two friends renewed and that the film’s CGI and makeup effects are top of the line. Sadly, a new exciting character to the X-Film universe, Angel, is introduced, and as the film progresses, will hardly appear in the picture. Which is the biggest problem with this otherwise lively film: so many characters, so little time, about 97 minutes to be precise.
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After the raving success of Dan Brown’s book -almost 50 million copies sold- many have been eagerly awaiting the adaptation to the big screen. I enjoyed the book, but for me there was little news to it, as I have been reading extensively about the book’s subject for many years. I was disappointed to hear that Tom Hanks would play Robert Langdon and with Ron Howard at the helm my enthusiasm further dwindled. For I am not a particular fan of Howard’s work, which I deem too straightforward, going for easy sentiment and overall ball-less, overproduced drivel. Apollo 13 was bearable due to the story itself, but his last two movies with Russell Crowe, A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man, were annoying and pretentious. When I heard that Jean Reno and Ian McKellen were on board, my mood changed somewhat and I was up for an enjoyable screening. But I did bring my critic hat!

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The 2006 remake of When a Stranger Calls has been updated with cell phones, security devices and a high-tech house that serves as the setting. Although there are many improvements made from the original, director Simon West and screenwriter Jake Wade Wall make new blunders as well.
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In the interest of full disclosure, I think it’s important for me to first explain that I’m a huge sucker for J Lo. Last weekend I watched Anaconda in it’s entirety on mute just because I liked catching glimpses of her walking around half dressed. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth. So, when someone mentioned this week that Out of Sight was actually a pretty decent movie I rushed out to rent it. And let me tell you, the Clooney-Lopez chemistry was so hot I was drooling.

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We all know a handful of urban legends. We’re all familiar with alligators living in the sewer. What happens when we mix pop rocks with soda. And of course, the babysitter who gets phone calls from a stranger who happens to be in the house! Gasp! When A Stranger Calls starts off just like the classic urban legend, with Carol Kane playing the babysitter. Having a killer making phone calls to a babysitter is great tabloid fodder or even worthy of a thirty minute episode of horror-suspense anthology like Tales from the Crypt or the Twilight Zone. On a cinematic scale, however, a filmmaker can only go so far.
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I would think that after making such films as Das Boot in 1981 and ‘The Perfect Storm’ in 2000, director Wolfgang Petersen would feel right at home on a uneeded remake of the 1972 diaster pic “The Poseidon Adventure’. But it turns out by the end of “Poseidon’ my thoughts turned another angle: I think, after doing these kinds of pictures in the past, Petersen is bored making diaster pictures on the high seas. Not to completly worry: at least production designer William Sandell, the CGI and pryotechnics people had a ball.
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Leaving Las Vegas falls under same banner of modern tragedies such as Brokeback Mountain and Million Dollar Baby. These films can be difficult to sit through. Adapted from the novel by John O’Brian, Leaving Las Vegas isn’t just a film that challenges its audience emotionally, but acts more like a vignette on the unconditional love shared by the two main characters.
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Pain comes in many forms. One of the most painful things is watching a gifted actress, in this case, Anna Paquin (the second youngest Oscar winner in history), performing in such a dim-witted production. Darkness is an atrocious horror movie on multiple levels.
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The third film in the ‘Tales From The Crypt’ series, “Ritual” had been put on a shelf for almost four years, and only now has cropped up on DVD. See, the previous Crypt film, ‘Bordello Of Blood’ made Universal a mere handful of pennies, so the third Crypt film -this one- was given to a rival studio, Miramax/Dimension which isn’t a real surprise to me, given the way they treated most of thier genre films in the past. The odd thing about this voodoo thriller is that in between 2001 and 2005, all Tales From The Crypt references were, as the Cryptkeeper would say, axed. Until now.
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I am hardly ever enthralled by action-packed features that lack any decent story whatsoever and I could give endless examples of those. However, sometimes, if you set aside your prejudices, an action flick can turn out to be quite amusing. So it is in that state of mind that I decided to approach the third installment of the cinematic translation of the Mission: Impossible television series. Although the events portrayed in it are highly unlikely – sense the euphemism – I had a thoroughly enjoying evening.
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