The Latest(ish)
Michael Mann’s somewhat disappointing new movie may be called Miami Vice and the names of some of its characters may trigger recollections of explosions, pastel, linen suits, stubble, wisecracks, gunplay, and music-video brio, but it has little to do with the ground-breaking television series of 20 years ago. And no, the tawdry remake of Phil Collins’s Michelob anthem that accompanies the film’s closing credits won’t fool anyone that using the old title is anything other than an attempt to cash in on a legendary brand. This movie is Miami Vice in name only. Accept no imitations. For the real thing, [...]
Something in the Air
August 16, 2006
Miami Vice; published originally in National Review Online
If you’re taking a horror buff, psychopath, or someone who is too sedated to care, “The Descent” is an ideal date movie. The work of Neil Marshall, a British director best known for 2002′s “Dog Soldiers,” “The Descent” (a UK hit last year) is a cut, slash, and a gouge above Mr. Marshall’s earlier effort — a dank, dreadful, and weirdly popular werewolf movie that, tellingly, seems to have a found a regular berth on the Sci-Fi channel. A savage drama of spelunking gone awry, Mr. Marshall’s new film covers some of the same underground as 2005′s “The Cave,” but [...]
The Descent (Movies in Brief)
August 4, 2006
The Descent; published originally in The New York Sun
Sometimes there can be nothing more telling than contrast. The boat sailing in the sunshine of a July 4th weekend was filled with anticipation, exhilaration, tourists, New Yorkers, the yellow t-shirts of the Jones family reunion, and the pointing and squinting of countless digital Kodak moments. Ahead lay Ellis Island, its museum of immigration, and, tucked away in a corner of that museum’s third floor, an exhibition (Gulag: Soviet Forced Labor Camps and the Struggle for Freedom) dedicated to a monstrosity that had its origins on some very different islands, islands scattered in the White Sea, islands that became (in [...]
Dark Comedy
August 1, 2006