Friday, May 12, 2006
My latest reviews in L
New York's little arts & entertainment magazine that could, L assigned me to write the following film reviews. They appear in the latest edition, the May 10-23 "Music Issue." Pick it up at the orange plastic boxes all over town. It's free! And go to: CLICK HERE
Haven
Directed by Frank E. Flowers
Orlando Bloom, Bill Paxton
White-collar crime meets street crime in this Caribbean caper set on Grand Cayman Island. Carl slips the Feds and jets to his condo with 100Gs and his pot-smoking daughter, but a local thief sniffs out the loot and the ganja. Bloom’s role and a doomed romance are weak subplots in Caymans native Frank Flowers’ otherwise authentic drama. LLL
Crazy Like a Fox
Directed by Richard Squires
Roger Rees, Mary McDonnell
Damn Yuppies! They want to ruin everything. At least they try. In this mild-mannered, pastoral demi-drama, a Virginia clan sells their colonial farm to real-estate speculators, then wants it back. Rees, as the Dixie-spouting Nat Banks who holds down the fort, delivers a tour de force, but the honest country folk vs. immoral city slickers storyline is a little too pat. LL
An American Haunting
Directed by Courtney Solomon
Donald Sutherland, Sissy Spacek
This cliché-ridden horror flick is no Poltergeist or The Exorcist – not by a long shot. Based on the alleged Bell Witch Haunting of 1818, inexplicable paranormal forces invade the Bell farmhouse. Is it payback for daddy’s evils ways with his 14-year-old daughter? What’s most shocking is the participation of Hollywood heavyweights Sutherland and Spacek. Go figure. L
Haven
Directed by Frank E. Flowers
Orlando Bloom, Bill Paxton
White-collar crime meets street crime in this Caribbean caper set on Grand Cayman Island. Carl slips the Feds and jets to his condo with 100Gs and his pot-smoking daughter, but a local thief sniffs out the loot and the ganja. Bloom’s role and a doomed romance are weak subplots in Caymans native Frank Flowers’ otherwise authentic drama. LLL
Crazy Like a Fox
Directed by Richard Squires
Roger Rees, Mary McDonnell
Damn Yuppies! They want to ruin everything. At least they try. In this mild-mannered, pastoral demi-drama, a Virginia clan sells their colonial farm to real-estate speculators, then wants it back. Rees, as the Dixie-spouting Nat Banks who holds down the fort, delivers a tour de force, but the honest country folk vs. immoral city slickers storyline is a little too pat. LL
An American Haunting
Directed by Courtney Solomon
Donald Sutherland, Sissy Spacek
This cliché-ridden horror flick is no Poltergeist or The Exorcist – not by a long shot. Based on the alleged Bell Witch Haunting of 1818, inexplicable paranormal forces invade the Bell farmhouse. Is it payback for daddy’s evils ways with his 14-year-old daughter? What’s most shocking is the participation of Hollywood heavyweights Sutherland and Spacek. Go figure. L
