Posted on December 10, 2004 at 6:44 pm
Despite lavish settings and sweeping camera movement, this sumptuously produced Andrew Lloyd Weber musical feels static, stuffy, and stagey. This is in part because so much of it takes place on a stage but more because it is mostly just people standing still and singing rather than moving or, well, acting. It’s the Branson, Missouri …
Continue reading “Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera”
Posted on December 10, 2004 at 3:45 am
B| Lowest Recommended Age: | Mature High Schooler |
| Profanity: | Very strong language |
| Nudity/ Sex: | Non-sexual nudity, non-explicit sexual references and situations |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking, smoking, drug use |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Violence and peril, including guns, characters killed |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | 2004 |
Another quirkfest from Wes Anderson (Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tannenbaums), this film has some of the most imaginatively charming images on screen this year, especially a tiny rainbow-striped seahorse and a cutaway side view of a ship that is as delightfully cluttered as a dollhouse conceived by Joseph Cornell. And it has Anderson’s trademark …
Posted on December 9, 2004 at 4:49 pm
C+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Mature High Schooler |
| Profanity: | Some strong language including the n-word |
| Nudity/ Sex: | None |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Brutal boxing matches with graphic and very serious injuries |
| Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie, strong inter-racial friendship |
| Date Released to Theaters: | 2004 |
“Million Dollar Baby” is a strong contender, but it suffers a TKO in the last round. At first, it is a fresh, assured, and evocative take on the classic boxing formula. A tired old trainer (Clint Eastwood as Frankie), abandoned by the prospect he hoped to take to the title bout, meets a scrappy but …
Posted on December 9, 2004 at 4:31 pm
A-| Lowest Recommended Age: | Mature High Schooler |
| Profanity: | Some strong language |
| Nudity/ Sex: | Explicit sexual situation, sexual references |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Tense emotional confrontations |
| Diversity Issues: | Strong, courageous Latina characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | 2004 |
Every few years, writer/director James Brooks makes another smart, sensitive movie about smart, sensitive people who love each other and drive each other crazy. In “Spanglish,” as in Broadcast News, Terms of Endearment, and As Good as it Gets, his characters are self-centered, immature, neurotic, needy, a little too smart for their own good, scared …
Posted on December 8, 2004 at 9:33 am
C+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Mature High Schooler |
| Profanity: | Frequent profanity, strong and explicit language |
| Nudity/ Sex: | Explicit sexual references including references to incest and sex toys |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Intense peril and violence, a child is put at risk |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Explicit and graphic peril and violence, child in peril |
| Diversity Issues: | Strong black hero, strong female and disabled characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | 2004 |
Let’s not pretend that “Trinity”, the third chapter in the ongoing tale of a human-vampire hybrid out to kill all vampires, is a good movie and instead say it is a solid “Blade” movie – meaning, if you are not already a fan, don’t bother. Wesley Snipes still plays the title character, a tattooed human …
