Eric D. Snider

Movie Review: "Man on a Ledge" (C+) January 27, 2012

There is definitely a man on a ledge

Sam Worthington plays the man in "Man on a Ledge." He might have been better cast as the ledge. Previously foisted upon us in "Avatar," "Termination: Salvation," and "Clash of the Titans," Worthington is the world's dullest up-and-coming action star, and "Man on a Ledge" shows him in no danger of relinquishing that title. But there are interesting people around him in the film, an unambitious but competent heist thriller directed by documentarian Asger Leth ("Ghosts of Cite Soleil") that also features Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, and Ed Harris. The result is dumb, easy-to-swallow fun, more or less -- the sort of movie that makes people say, "Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

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Movie Review: "Haywire" (A-) January 20, 2012

Fun with punching, kicking, and snark

You know, when someone decided that mixed martial arts champion Gina Carano should be a movie star, it would have been easy to showcase her fighting skills in some brainless, slapped-together action flick. That's been the practice with plenty of other athletes-turned-actors, and it makes a certain amount of business sense. Why waste a good screenplay and a good director on someone who might not be a good actor?

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Movie Review: "Red Tails" (C) January 20, 2012

A bland disservice to those who served

With the 1995 HBO film "The Tuskegee Airmen" already well-regarded as the definitive account of the U.S. Army's first squad of black fighter pilots, you have to wonder what purpose is served by "Red Tails," which covers much of the same territory and does so without distinction or flavor. Made by TV director Anthony Hemingway (his big-screen debut) with some help from executive producer George Lucas, "Red Tails" looks more like a TV movie than the TV movie did, and is disappointingly shallow. A true story as inspiring as this one deserves a more insightful treatment.

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Movie Review: "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" (C+) January 19, 2012

What 9/11 was like for Asperger's kids

The 9/11 terrorist attacks may eventually serve as source material or inspiration for dozens of movies, fact-based and fictional, just as World War II and the Kennedy assassination have. But so far, with only a few exceptions, filmmakers have been hesitant to address the subject directly. To their credit, they've been even more cautious about using 9/11 as the background for a story that didn't need to be about 9/11. Ten years later, the general policy is still that movies don't mention 9/11 explicitly unless there's a good reason for it.

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Snide Remarks: "The Hood Life" January 17, 2012

Discovering the benefits of hoodies

There are many articles of men's clothing that I have never owned. A jockstrap, for example. I've never had a reason to buy one, not even for comedy. I've also never had a rain slicker, galoshes, mittens, or capri pants. (That last one is a trick. There's no such thing as men's capri pants.) Nor have I ever owned a wife-beater T-shirt. I don't have the arms for it, or the wife. Frankly, I don't know why the companies that manufacture those shirts even call them that. Seems kind of offensive.

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Eric's Blog January 14, 2012

Weekly link roundup - Jan. 7-13

NEW MOVIE REVIEWS:

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Movie Review: "Joyful Noise" (C-) January 13, 2012

It's 'Glee' for Southern gospel choirs

After two music-themed films that were better than you'd expect, writer/director Todd Graff has hit a sour note with "Joyful Noise." This overlong and forgettable comedy about a gospel choir is so uninspiring that I'm not even concerned about using the "sour note" cliche. The movie deserves no better!

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Movie Review: "We Need to Talk About Kevin" (A-) January 13, 2012

It's too late for talking, actually

At the center of "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is a premise drawn from a parent's nightmare: what if your child were a cruel, remorseless monster? It's the stuff of horror movies, and this qualifies as one -- though not in the usual way that "evil kid" movies do. Kevin isn't possessed by the devil or anything like that. There's no explanation for his behavior, no discernible cause. From the moment he's born, he's simply ... bad.

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Snide Remarks: "A Grimm View of Politics" January 10, 2012

Fairy tales for our partisan times

The Three Little Pigs (Conservative Version)

Once upon a time there were three little pigs who wanted to own houses even though they had no reliable source of income, being pigs and all. The first pig took out a loan to buy a house made of straw. The second pig took out a loan to buy a house made of sticks. The third pig took out a loan to buy a house made of bricks. Everyone told them they should be careful about buying such expensive houses because they might not be able to keep up on the payments, but the pigs did it anyway. I'm not prejudiced or anything, but it's a simple fact that pigs are notoriously reckless when it comes to personal responsibility.

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Eric's Blog January 9, 2012

Randy Newman's title song from the movie 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'

Since "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is a very serious and harrowing movie, I thought it would be funny if it had a jaunty, shufflin', New Orleans-y theme song by Randy Newman.

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