Tuesday, January 1, 2013

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 12/12

My reviews for non-Criterion movies, plus other articles, written in December.

IN THEATRES... 



* Django Unchained. Quentin Tarantino continues to play his perfect game.

* Hitchcock, the biopic of the Master of Suspense centered around the making of Psycho. With Anthony Hopkins as Hitch and Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh. It's actually quite fun.

* Jack Reacher, a no-nonsense action pic from Tom Cruise and writer/director Christopher McQuarrie.

I also wrote this article for the mini Wes Anderson film festival coming to Portland for Christmas!

ON BD/DVD...

* 10 Years, a surprising, funny, and honest high-school reunion movie.

* Alps, the strange second feature from the director of Dogtooth.

* Baron Blood, a 1972 monster/slasher movie from Mario Bava, featuring Joseph Cotten as the monster.

* Beloved Infidel, a stick-up-the-butt portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald's last love affair. Starring Gregory Peck and Deborah Kerr.

* Justified: The Complete Third Season, one of my favorite TV shows gets its third go-around. An Elmore Leonard adaptation starring Timothy Olyphant.

* Looper, the second time around with Rian Johnson's time travel film is just as good, if not better.

Also, be sure to read Natalie Nourigat's Looper reaction comics.


* Lord Jim, Peter O'Toole may star, but James Mason steals the show in Richard Brooks' adaptaton of a Joseph Conrad novel.

* Oklahoma Crude, a quirky 1970s western with a sociopolitical twist. Starring George C. Scott and Faye Dunaway, directed by Stanley Kramer.

* The Point: The Definitive Collector's Edition, an upgrade for the Harry Nilsson-penned animated special from 1971.

* The Sarah Silverman Program: Season Three. I love Sarah Silverman. 'nuff said.

* Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, the reboot of the BBC perennial is the smarter ancestor to Downton Abbey. So of course it got cancelled.

* The Well-Digger's Daughter, esteemed French actor Daniel Auteuil adapts Marcel Pagnol.

To cap it off, the DVD Talk writers have voted for their best discs of 2012. Here are the results! I personally wrote the blurbs for the David Lean/Noël Coward boxed set and also Les vampires. 

No comments: