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Review: Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
Reviews
Revolver
Call the script doc
By
TOM MEEK
|
December 5, 2007
REVOLVER
" alt="photo of 'REVOLVER'">
1.5
Stars
SCREWED UP: Ray Liotta in a Speedo?
Forget whatever you know about Guy Ritchie films (
Snatch
and
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
). The same goes for brooding Ritchie regular Jason Statham (
Transporter
), who instead of a shaven noggin dons a greasy, tangled mane. The premise of Ritchie’s 2005 oddity at first seems familiar as Jake, a vengeance-seeking ex-con played by Statham, stirs up trouble between rival crime syndicates. But Jake needs more than an Uzi — he needs a shrink. As the bodies pile up, he hears voices in his head, and he obsesses over the mind games the loan sharks covering his flank might be playing. The blood-feud fury has its Ritchie moments (Mark Strong is a treat as the Woody Allen–esque hitman who never misses), but
Revolver
ultimately spins its wheels into incoherent psychobabble, as Jake shouts it out with his id. Add to that Ray Liotta in a Speedo as an irate mobster and you have a screwed-up film in need of a couch and a script doctor.
106 minutes | Harvard Square
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,
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,
Review: Sherlock Holmes
,
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Smokin' Aces
Perhaps Joe Carnahan pitched his follow-up to 2002’s Narc as It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World by way of Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, and bad wigs. Watch the trailer for Smokin' Aces (QuickTime)
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In its own way an ideal holiday blockbuster for the moderately educated, the new light-footed overhaul of Sherlock Holmes is three parts self-satisfied mixer to one part hard storytelling, and if anything, the film's popular trailers should have deterred you from expecting strong drink.
RocknRolla
Wilkinson and Butler put in game performances, and the rest of the eclectic ensemble perform with gusto.
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Smart girls
In its third year, Veronica Mars , late of UPN, joins the new CW network as the most critically praised show on its roster.
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Title a book Bad Cop and brain-basher types like Harvey Keitel and Ray Liotta spring to mind.
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One of these days, in a British crime movie, there will appear a gangland boss with a fetish for the Police.
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Review: Observe and Report
Jody Hill's ambiguous and unsettling film is a comedy about law enforcement in much the same way that Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy is a comedy about comedy.
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,
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[
02/17
]
Bob Marley
@ Landing At Pine Point
[
02/17
]
Brzowski + Lady Essence + Icebox
@ 131 Washington
[
02/17
]
Farren-Butcher, Inc. + Jonny Lang
@ State Theatre
ARTICLES BY TOM MEEK
REVIEW: UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING
| January 24, 2012
The Underworld series got long in the tooth early, but here, in the fourth installment (directed by Swede Måns Mårlind), it grows new fangs.
REVIEW: JOYFUL NOISE
| January 10, 2012
There's not much joy but there's plenty of noise of the rafter-rocking gospel singing variety in Tony Graff's musical dramedy.
REVIEW: IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY
| January 05, 2012
Jolie has loosely reworked the story of Romeo and Juliet in an infamous setting familiar from CNN but here seen from the inside.
REVIEW: ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED
| December 13, 2011
For 50 years, Alvin and the Chipmunks have been driving parents nuts with their helium-infused banter and shrill bastardizations of pop music.
REVIEW: TRESPASS
| October 13, 2011
If Rod Lurie's errant remake of Straw Dogs didn't tickle your morbid fear of home invasion, then perhaps the latest from Joel Schumacher ( Falling Down ) might do the job.
See all articles by:
TOM MEEK
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