Remember the great disaster movies of the 1970’s, films like The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, and Earthquake? The formula was simple: put as many stars as you could find in the path of a natural disaster and let God and Irwin Allen sort out the winners and losers. Credit Werner Herzog with resurrecting the genre. For his latest film, Queen of the Desert, Herzog collected a handful of household names, put them in a rickety vehicle, and crashed them over and over again. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘James Franco’
Queen of the Desert Review
Posted: March 27, 2015 in 2015 Berlinale, Drama, ReviewsTags: Damian Lewis, David Lean, Gertrude Bell, Holly Earl, James Franco, Lawrence of Arabia, Mark Lewis Jones, Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattinson, Werner Herzog
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Berlinale 2015: Assessing the Competition
Posted: January 31, 2015 in 2015 BerlinaleTags: Christian Bale, Golden Bear for Best Film, Jafar Panahi, James Franco, Kenneth Branagh, Nicole Kidman, Peter Greenaway, Terrence Malick, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders
Guessing the award winners of the annual Berlinale Film Festival is a prognosticator’s dream – but not because the selections are obvious or easy. No, quite the opposite. The announcements that come at a grand ceremony on the penultimate evening of the event can be so random that no one – critic or casual observer – can be faulted for failing to see it coming. “Example?” you might ask, channeling your inner Samuel L. Jackson. Well, just like John Travolta replied, in Europe, it’s the little differences. Last year, the International Jury could have chosen between two eventual Academy Award nominees: The Grand Budapest Hotel and Boyhood for the Golden Bear for Best Film. Instead, the nod went to a rather average Hitchcock wannabe film noir from China, Bai Ri Yan Huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice). (more…)
Palo Alto Review
Posted: June 1, 2014 in Drama, ReviewsTags: Emma Roberts, Gia Coopola, James Franco, Movies, Nat Wolff, Palo Alto, Val Kilmer, Zoe Levin
The calendar shows June, and that’s way too early to declare a winner, but we certainly have a contender. When the list of worst films of 2014 is drawn up at the end of the year, save a spot on the short list for Palo Alto, a pretentious yet hollow selfie of a movie.
How bad is it? This film is the cinematic equivalent of finding a forgotten container in your refrigerator, opening it, and taking a whiff. Man, it stinks – here, smell it.
Meet Mr. Karma 