Now Playing: Movies I don't care enough about to spend time writing longer reviews
CONSTANTINE (2005, Francis Lawrence)- simultaneously boring and silly, though the silliness outweighs the boringness by the end of the film. Keanu is a black hole of charisma here, unable to pull off his hard-boiled character, much less give him the rumpled anti-hero appeal he needs to pull off the role. Lots of slumming in the supporting cast- only Peter Stormare seems to have a clue what sort of style the role (in his case, Lucifer himself) needs, and Tilda Swinton (!!!) appears to have been dropped in from another, more ambitious film. Also, not exactly cinematographer Philippe Rousselot's finest hour. DC might consider re-thinking their deal with Warner Bros. if this is all the quality control their titles are getting. Rating: *.
BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE (2005, Wayne Wang)- movies about precocious kids and the cute dialogue they spout are cinematic Ipecac to this filmgoer, and the fact that there's also an ugly-cute dog alongside the tyke only makes it worse. Please don't take it as symptomatic of my overall feelings about children when I say that I wanted nothing more than to boot little AnnaSophia Robb (who plays the protagonist here) out a window. All the Southern-fried charm on top of the treacly, lovin'-and-learnin' story made for a looooooooooong sit. Jeff Daniels, anyway, deserves better. Rating: *.
Posted by hkoreeda
at 11:05 PM EST
