Category: Hollywood Movie Reviews

Starring: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Michael O’Keefe, Sydney Pollack,
Director: Tony Gilroy

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is an in-house “fixer” at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. A former criminal prosecutor, Clayton takes care of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen’s dirtiest work at the behest of the firm’s co-founder Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack). Though burned out and hardly content with his job as a fixer, his divorce, a failed business venture and mounting debt have left Clayton inextricably tied to the firm.

Synopsys

From the imaginations of best-selling author Neil Gaiman and director Matthew Vaughn cones “Stardust,” the enchanting tale of a fallen star sho chases into a magical kingdom – and turns out to be no ordinary meteorite at all, but a beautiful, imperiled woman chased after by an incredible array of seekers who want or need her secret powers. From wicked witches to power-mad princes, from flying pirates to dueling goblins, each person who encounters the star has his or her own agenda, but they all desire just one thing: her heart.

Review

For anyone who has grown weary of this season’s many soulless special effects blowouts (”Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” and “Transformers”), the whimsical “Stardust” is just what the doctor ordered. A grown-up fantasy with imagination to spare and a mind to go along with it, the film has a welcome sense of humor, engrossing visuals, endearing protagonists, and a bittersweet undercurrent that is thematically rich in its ideas about immortality, the nature of love, and gaining the courage to show your true stripes despite the judgment of others.

Hollywood.com Says
I Know Who Killed Me is an unpleasant shocker. Who killed who isn’t important. What is important is that the movie’s not worth seeing.

Story
After losing an arm and a leg to a deranged serial killer–as if there were any other kind–all-American teenager Aubrey Fleming (Lindsay Lohan) is discovered in a ditch outside of town. Trouble is, she’s not Aubrey–at least that’s what she says. She claims to be Dakota Moss, a hard-edged stripper whose vocabulary proves how hard she is. Through flashbacks, we see she’s no goody-goody, but she’s determined to get to the bottom of the mystery while everyone around her waits for her to “remember” who she really is. But if, indeed, the killer is still at large, then this baffled babe might still be on the hit list, which is where the story’s ostensible suspense is supposed to emanate from. Is all of this a figment of Aubrey’s–or Dakota’s–imagination, or a by-product of the trauma she’s suffered? If it were, there wouldn’t be a movie. As it is, there’s not much of one, anyway.

Acting
As if she didn’t have enough to deal with already, Lohan seems particularly ill at ease here. She has yet to really distinguish herself as a strong actress, and she’s certainly not strong enough to do much with the material she’s given here. Her character simply isn’t likable–and she’s the whole show. There’s a slightly uncomfortable, if blackly comic, irony in watching Lohan, at various points, take pills, drink alcohol, pole-dance and swear up a storm. Oh yes, and she’s also bloodied, bruised, terrorized and tortured–for those who care. Most won’t. If this is what passes for character development in horror movies these days, then we–and the genre–are in trouble. As Aubrey’s parents, Julia OrmondNeal McDonough and stand around, mostly looking confused, as well they should be. At least, Brian Geraghty, as Aubrey’s jock boyfriend, doesn’t embarrass himself. But no one else is around long enough to make much of an impression. Then again, as a whole, I Know Who Killed Me doesn’t leave much of an impression. Just a bad aftertaste.

Just when you thought you’ve seen it all in terms of action movies this summer, along comes “The Bourne Ultimatum” — the best installment yet in the popular franchise that has grossed more than $500 million worldwide. Adapted from the third in the series of spy novels written by the late Robert Ludlum — following 2002’s “The Bourne Identity” and 2004’s “The Bourne Supremacy” — “Ultimatum” successfully caps off a trilogy of intelligent, adrenaline-fueled espionage thrillers that raised the bar for the genre and made an action hero out of Matt Damon.

D’oh!

After 18 years on television, the Simpsons are all grown up and finally in movie theaters, in a film that thoroughly proves the material is better suited to a half-hour TV format.

A megadose of the Simpsons — at least in …

It’s long and the plot’s confusing, but Harry Potter fans won’t mind one little bit. In this fifth chapter of the phenomenally successful franchise spawned from J.R. Rowling’s novels, evil hovers provocatively in the lead up to the spectacular confrontation between Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry and Ralph Fiennes’ Lord Voldermort, but the clarity and effectiveness of the storyline suffers by too many subplots. The delights of the fantasy world of the young wizard are intact, yet the freshness is diminished with a dark and occasionally dull colour palette, and the novelty value is considerably depleted.