CityBeat - Film

The Roots of Jack and Those Beans -

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT+5

That tagline — “You don’t know Jack” — is going to be run into the ground over the course of the next week or so, as director Bryan Singer’s latest feature about a farmhand named Jack, some magic beans and an army of angry giants threatens to overtake the multiplexes.

The Too Feel-Good Vibe of 'Hysteria' -

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT+5

I’m sure that at some point during last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, some outlet in the world referred to Tanya Wexler’s Hysteria, which humorously probes into the birth of the vibrator, as “a feel-good” story, so I will shamelessly insert my own play on this idea. I must, because the premise simply demands this kooky kind of lowball take.

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer (Review) - Geniunely goofy film adaptation stays true to its source

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT+5

Megan McDonald, the writer behind the beloved children’s series of books based on the Judy Moody character, teams up with television screenwriter Kathy Waugh and director John Schultz to bring Judy (Jordana Beatty) to life in this genuinely goofy adaptation that dares to remain faithful to its third-grade-reader roots by not pandering with inappropriate pop-cultural references to lure in teens or adults. Grade: C-plus.

Building a New Metropolis - Local filmmaker explores the challenges facing America's first suburbs

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT+5

It it perceived that talented and creative people leave our cities and others for bigger and supposedly better environs. But Cincinnati resident and award-winning documentary filmmaker Andrea Torrice claims our city as inspiration.

HATE THY NEIGHBOR: FROM PAGE 79 -

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

Eventually, however, even that degree of subtext begins to feel like too much for director Neil LaBute. Doing another piece of Hollywood “will direct for food” work, LaBute leaves behind all of the incendiary skill he brings to his own material.

Several new DVDs beg the question: What makes a movie star? -

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

Since I started teaching film feature and review courses as an adjunct two years ago, first at Xavier University and now with the University of Cincinnati

Film: Review: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days - Romanian abortion drama uses hyper-realism to powerful effect

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

What keeps film alive as a creative artistic medium is the influx of exciting, challenging new movies from countries we never expected to be factors in contemporary cinema. The latest is Romania

Film: Review: The Dark Knight - The latest Batman movie delivers more than a menacing farewell performance

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

Here is the ugly truth nobody at Warner Bros. can possibly utter aloud: The death of Heath Ledger will be good for The Dark Knight's bottom line. Make no mistake, the movie was going to be huge

Film: Review: Hellboy II - Guillermo del Toro delivers an entertaining, surprisingly light sequel

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy sequel is a simultaneously exhilarating and underwhelming experience due to the idleness of its characters and nebulous subplot elements that contrast against the di

Film: Review: Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne goes 3-D with fun summer treatment

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

This maiden feature-length digital 3-D movie is a breathtaking adaptation of Jules Verne's classic sci-fi novel, filled with eye-pleasing gags and sudden shocks of surprise that fall under the s

Film: Review: Hancock - Will Smith mines familiar terrain for the summer holiday season

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

There's something genuinely redundant about casting Will Smith as a superhero in a release on the Fourth of July. Much has been made about his supreme box-office domination of America's summer

Film: Review: Wanted - Action film stumbles in an effort to redraw the comic book genre

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) might seem more than vaguely familiar to both film and comic book fans. Wesley is a societal drone in a world that has never felt genuinely dynamic or three-dimensio

Film: Review: Fugitive Pieces - World War II era drama is too ethereal for its own good

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

Jeremy Podeswa's Fugitive Pieces dives deep from the get-go, immersing itself in the scarring emotional terrain of World War II-era Poland. A young boy, Jakob (Robbie Kay), hides in a secret wal

Film: Review: The Incredible Hulk - New blockbuster is a nostalgic, often noisy look back

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

In an effort to perhaps exorcise the sense of failure surrounding Ang Lee's 2003 film version of Hulk -- which did a monster opening weekend then promptly circled the box-office drain -- most of

Film: The Hustler - Local film actor Russell Hurley keeps his dream alive via 'The Vagrant'

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

"Anything that you write bad about this is my fault," Russell Hurley says of his role as producer of The Vagrant. "Even if it didn't look like my fault, it was my fault." There's no need f

Film: Review: Standard Operating Procedure - Errol Morris takes on Abu Ghraib in new documentary

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

When a documentary tackles a subject as important as the prisoner abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib prison, it almost seems gauche to review it on the basis of anything other than just its subject

Film: Review: Kung Fu Panda - Animated film looks great, but its story is hollow

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

Like any child, I was willing to believe in fairies enough to clap and help save the dying Tinker Bell in Peter Pan, and felt touched and empowered when it worked. But I'm older now. I still be

Film: Americans in Cannes - Checking in on the U.S. filmmakers at the world's most prestigious film festival

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

Cannes, France -- Sean Penn has great taste in movies. He championed Russian director Elem Klimov's 1985 Come and See long before most critics had ever even heard of it. So it's fitting that the

Film: Review: The Fall - Tarsem Singh's period adventure is pretty but vacant

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

Tarsem Singh�s The Fall suffers from the same problem as his previous effort, The Cell � grandiose images alone do not make for a compelling or coherent narrative. Probably best known as the dir

Film: Review: Sex and the City - Carrie and the girls return with mediocre results

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT+5

Crossing over from premium cable to the big screen would seem to indicate that Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristen Davis) would