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After helming two much-lauded HBO political dramas — 2008′s “Recount” and 2012’s “Game Change” — director Jay Roach tries a more humorous approach to the same subject with “The Campaign.”
Roach’s potentially salient big-screen critique of the nation’s electoral process, however, gets buried under a landslide of vulgarity and sex jokes. The ill-chosen topics from which his picture attempts to draw laughs range from adultery and masturbation to pedophilia and bestiality.
Catholic News Service
Although fundamentally moral, “Hope Springs,” a skillful mix of comedy and drama that focuses on the problems of one long-married couple, is also significantly flawed.
Primarily, that’s because the frankness with which director David Frankel’s film approaches marital intimacy veers, at times, into intrusiveness. Additionally, in keeping with the under-refined values of contemporary society, his picture implies that virtually all methods of obtaining sexual gratification, at least between married partners, are acceptable.
Catholic News Service
With the Vatican’s doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the ongoing debate surrounding the assessment nuns are in the news.
They also continue to be, as they have been for decades, a presence in popular culture. Just a few months ago, women religious made their most recent appearance on movie screens, though it was hardly one of their more favorable portrayals. Read more »
Catholic News Service
Films such as “Nitro Circus: The Movie 3D” fill an atavistic need.
A century ago, huge crowds swarmed fairgrounds to enjoy the sight and sound of two steam locomotives colliding head-on at top speed. There was wonderful noise, a bit of danger from the flying iron and the steam, and it was an indelible sight. Everyone went home happy.
Catholic News Service
Remakes are all the rage in the movie industry at the moment. While some retreads manage to introduce classic films to a new generation, others leave theatergoers scratching their heads, wondering why anyone involved bothered. The latter reaction, alas, is likely to be provoked by “Total Recall.”
Director Len Wiseman has sanitized Paul Verhoeven’s extremely violent 1990 action thriller, an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s 1966 short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yet although toned-down, the new version still contains more than its fair share of objectionable content.
Catholic News Service
Director Akiva Schaffer’s comedy and science fiction mix “The Watch” was originally titled “Neighborhood Watch.” But then real-life events intervened and gave us all the Trayvon Martin case to ponder.
Whatever else one makes of that incident, legally, politically or culturally, its status as a tragedy is undeniable. Thus the abbreviated title of the film is obviously both a necessary marketing stratagem and a gesture in the direction of good taste.
Catholic News Service
One adage holds that it’s best to stick to what you’re good at. It’s too bad screenwriter Amanda Brody didn’t take that advice on board when writing “Step Up Revolution.”
This fourth installment of the steamy dance and romance franchise, which began with 2006.s “Step Up,” continues to showcase the kind of top-notch choreography to which fans have become accustomed.
Catholic News Service
Paradoxically, success at the box office can turn out to be a burden for a movie director. Having created one popular picture, Hollywood helmers can find themselves faced with impossible expectations for the sequel.
That problem is especially acute in the case of Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy, of which “The Dark Knight Rises” is the final installment. Given that the feature stands in the shadow of 2005′s successful reboot of the franchise, “Batman Begins,” as well as 2008′s “The Dark Knight,” the question arises: Can the director and co-writer (with his brother, Jonathan Nolan) make lightning strike thrice?
Catholic News Service
An interesting sociological study could be made that less than a decade separated the Billboard chart appearances of the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and the Raspberries’ “Go All the Way.” Fast forward to 2008 and the campily costumed central figure of the concert film “Katy Perry: Part of Me” was having a breakthrough hit with a ditty called “I Kissed a Girl.”
Sensing a trend?
Catholic News Service
Madea, the familiar, frequently mixed-up, but mostly moral force of nature in a muumuu, has one of her weaker outings in the laboriously titled “Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection.”
Perhaps the formula is spent. Certainly, the feisty old gal, writer-director Perry himself, of course, in drag, has lost much of her comic impact, even when she’s applying seemingly undiminished physical impact to get her points across.
