Sunday, January 1, 2012

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 12/11

A round-up of the non-Criterion movies I saw in December.



IN THEATRES...


The Adventures of Tintin, a surprisingly fun 3D adventure from Steven Spielberg with all the appropriate nods to Hergé.

The Artista loving and entirely accurate tribute to the silent era of cinema.

A Dangerous Method, Jung and Freud meet David Cronenberg.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, is an absolute corker. Brad Bird delivers the best in the series.

We Bought a Zoo, an effective new feature from Cameron Crowe...but is it any good?




ON DVD/BD...

The Art of Getting Bya predictable but solid Young Adult story, with fine performances by Emma Roberts and Freddie Highmore.

Behind the Mask, a mid-40s misfire that attempts to turn the popular Shadow radio serials into...light comedy?!

The Birth of a Nation: Deluxe 3-Disc Edition, D.W. Griffith's historically inaccurate epic is an important piece of cinema, but that doesn't stop it from being racist and boring.

Crime Story: The Complete Series, the Michael Mann police drama set in the 1960s but made in the 1980s.

A Farewell to Arms, Frank Borzage's masterfully melodramatic adaptation of Ernest Hemingway.

Friends with Benefits, not even Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis can make this sex comedy misfire come off as either sexy or funny.

Incident in an Alley, a middling early 1960s crime film based on a Rod Serling short story.

Nothing Sacred, a slight bit of entertainment from 1937, directed by William Wellmen and starring Carole Lombard and Frederic March.

* Seven Chances, an hilarious Buster Keaton short where the great comedian plays a man in desperate need of a wife.


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