Film, Colorado Springs Independent

Shelter Me, Struck By Lightning, Young and Wild

Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Cinefiles Shelter Me (NR) Virgil Films…

Spoiled rot: Epic

MaryAnn Johanson — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Ironically, nothing feels organic, and certainly nothing feels magical here. by MaryAnn Johanson So apparently there's all these little people who live in the forest. Some look like humans even though they're called Leaf-Men, because they wear leaves for armor even though leaves couldn't possibly work as decent armor, could they?…

Walk Away Renee, Roseanne, The Wicked

Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Cinefiles Walk Away Renee (NR) IFC Films…

Star Trek Into Darkness is a brutally brilliant film for our times

MaryAnn Johanson — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

They have ingeniously crafted a Star Trek movie that works equally well for neophytes and devotees by MaryAnn Johanson There's a thing that makes me very sad about Star Trek Into Darkness. It's not the perfect geek storm of an opening gambit that evokes not only the old-school, boldly-going adventures of the crew of the starship Enterprise, but also, hilariously, Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's not how Zachary Quinto somehow manages to make Spock more plausibly divided in his half-human, half-Vulcan skin than Leonard Nimoy ever did.…

Last Shop Standing, One Hour Photo, Pawn

Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Cinefiles Last Shop Standing (NR) MVD Entertainment Group…

If you didn't like The Tree of Life, avoid To the Wonder

Anders Wright — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Initially, I was put off by this film, but it's clung to me ever since. by Anders Wright Terrence Malick has often been considered a genius, but never a prolific filmmaker. After his 1978 film Days of Heaven, he took two decades off before returning with The Thin Red Line.…

Baz Luhrmann misses the mark in The Great Gatsby

Scott Renshaw — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

The problem with Luhrmann's Gatsby isn't that he doesn't show enough respect for The Great Gatsby, it's that he doesn't show enough respect for Jay Gatsby. by Scott Renshaw What if Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby didn't have to carry the burden of The Great Gatsby? That's not just some Zen koan-like riddle intended to inspire deep meditation; it's a question about the way we look at a movie based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great American Novel.…

Iron Man 3 is all heart, and the best of the trilogy

MaryAnn Johanson — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

There isn't a single thing wrong with this flick. by MaryAnn Johanson The least interesting thing about the otherwise hugely entertaining Iron Man movies is, ironically, Iron Man. The suit of powered flying armor, that is. Hiding Robert Downey Jr. behind a metal mask and giving his idiosyncratic performance over to CGI cartoon battles make for an enormous squandering of quality cinema time.…

Though red hot at moments, The Iceman misses half the story

MaryAnn Johanson — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

The Iceman feels like a pale imitation of Goodfellas. by MaryAnn Johanson The true story of Richard Kuklinski is utterly horrific yet utterly compelling. A vicious enforcer for the mob in the New York area for two decades between the 1960s and the '80s — and likely even a more traditional sort of serial killer before that — he murdered more people than we'll probably ever know about.…

Escapee, Jackie Chan Double Feature, The Guilt Trip

Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Cinefiles Police Story, Police Story 2 (PG-13) Shout!…

Matthew McConaughey is magnetic in Mud

Anders Wright — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

by Anders Wright What's happened to Matthew McConaughey? Usually when you ask that question about an actor, it's because he's sold out, opting for facile studio pictures over the interesting, artistically appealing work on which he built his career (i.e. Nicolas Cage).…

The Company You Keep makes for a good, old-fashioned ensemble thriller

Jonathan Kiefer — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

by Jonathan Kiefer Like Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford makes a show of aging in public; every time he appears in one of his own movies, there's a sense of the audience being enlisted into mutual coping with the fact of his having gotten older — reward for which is the director-star's pledge of conscientious and continuous brand management. Also like Eastwood, Redford tends to flaunt liberal righteousness, although in his case it's to prove he's still got it, not to refute the notion that he never did.…

Save the Date, Richard III, Dragon

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Cinefiles Save the Date (R) IFC Films…

The Running Film Festival shows there's more to a marathon than the finish line

Joshua Michael Torres — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Long and winding road by Joshua Michael Torres Taking one more step when you think you can't — that's the spirit motivating the inaugural Running Film Festival, a screening of three films focused on the culture of running, its challenges and its triumphs. Organized by local independent film promoter Garry Harrington, the festival caters to and promotes the prominent culture of health and fitness that Colorado Springs enjoys and practices.…

Day of the Falcon, Easy Money, Wuthering Heights

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Cinefiles Day of the Falcon (R) Image Entertainment…

Chris O'Dowd holds The Sapphires together, just enough

Anders Wright — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

The girl band, treated so poorly down under, are a hit in Vietnam. by Anders Wright The Irish comic actor Chris O'Dowd had his breakout moment with American audiences in 2011 when he played the love interest opposite Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaids. Later this year, he'll lend a hand to Thor: The Dark World.…

If Oblivion feels familiar, it's because you've seen it all before

MaryAnn Johanson — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Even without a memory wipe, you'll get some geeky satisfaction out of the rendering of Earth as a newly alien place. by MaryAnn Johanson Go on! Indulge in the very best movie promo tie-in ever: the Oblivion-branded Mandatory Memory Wipe, available at the concession stand.…

The Sweeney, Tom Green Live, and Sexy Evil Genius

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Cinefiles Tom Green Live (NR) Image Entertainment…

The Place Beyond the Pines satisfyingly meanders

MaryAnn Johanson — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Maybe "emotional thriller" comes closest to describing it, but that's not quite right, either. by MaryAnn Johanson It feels like an act of subversion at the moment for an American film to be this satisfyingly meandering, as if it's discovering how loose and confounding reality can be as it goes along. The Place Beyond the Pines defies labeling.…

Trance puts a fun spell on reality

MaryAnn Johanson — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

The whole shebang simply embraces its own absurdity from the get-go. by MaryAnn Johanson Movies are inherently hypnotic, while also ridiculous. The more entertaining the illusions with which we're presented, generally the less plausible they are.…

42 buries its potential complexity beneath hagiography

Scott Renshaw — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Through the first hour, at least, there's the promise of an unconventionally entertaining approach to Robinson's saga. by Scott Renshaw At a pivotal moment in the new Jackie Robinson biopic 42, Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) tries to console Robinson (Chadwick Boseman), who's furious over the abuse and humiliation he's required to endure stoically as the first black player in major-league baseball. "You're medicine, Jack," Rickey solemnly intones, trying to impress upon the player his position as someone who can facilitate the cure for a great societal ill. But within the context of the film, it starts to mean something slightly different.…

Evil Dead should never have been resurrected

MaryAnn Johanson — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

by MaryAnn Johanson It's "the most terrifying film you will ever experience," Evil Dead would have us believe via its movie poster. Is it gory?…

Cinefiles: The Big Picture, Knuckleball!, The Devil's in the Details

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

The Big Picture (NR) MPI Pictures…

G.I. Joe: Retaliation: A real American zero

MaryAnn Johanson — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0600

We talk about "live-action cartoons," but perhaps no movie has ever come nearer to such a state than Retaliation. by MaryAnn Johanson You get the G.I. Joes for Christmas. Hooray!…

On the Road: A disservice to the novel and movement

MaryAnn Johanson — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Sal and Dean here are no different than Bill and Ted, Wayne and Garth, or Harold and Kumar. by MaryAnn Johanson If you didn't know that Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road was a seminal influence on postwar America, that it helped define a generation and even determined the course of significant aspects of modern pop culture, you would never, ever guess it from this lifeless, soulless, pointless adaptation. Director Walter Salles and screenwriter Jose Rivera bizarrely strip all cultural and historical context from a tale that desperately needs it today, 65 years after it is set.…