Leonard Maltin

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film review: Inception

By Leonard Maltin
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July 15, 2010 4:00 AM
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32 Comments

Everyone is different. I don’t like mazes, puzzles, Rubik’s Cube, or most of Christopher Nolan’s films. He delights in creating cinematic puzzles but I always sense the wheels turning, instead of getting caught up in the action. Obviously he has the imagination to devise ingenious premises and the skill to bring them to life, but halfway through Inception, which runs close to two-and-a-half hours, my mind started to wander. Instead of being pulled into his world I felt myself drifting away from it.

The movie starts out promisingly enough. In a kind of companion piece to Shutter Island, Leonardo DiCaprio is cast as a man who is haunted by things he has planted in his own fertile imagination. The subject of the movie is—

By Leonard Maltin
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July 14, 2010 4:00 AM
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0 Comments

If you know that this film comes from the team that gave you National Treasure, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect: a larger-than-life action yarn with special effects and a sense of humor. It isn’t my favorite kind of entertainment, but there’s a good reason Jerry Bruckheimer is successful: he (mostly) makes movies people pay money to see. Director Jon Turteltaub and a team of writers are clearly in sync with the producer’s m.o.

Jay Baruchel plays the science-nerd hero of the story, who’s had an unrequited crush on a cute blond girl since he was 10 (as we learn in a prologue). That’s when he first encountered a sorcerer, played by Nicolas Cage. Ten years later, the events foretold—

By Leonard Maltin
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July 9, 2010 4:00 AM
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2 Comments

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore are worth the price of admission to The Kids Are All Right all by themselves, as far as I’m concerned. That the film is so smart and entertaining is icing on the cake.

By Leonard Maltin
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June 30, 2010 1:00 AM
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1 Comment

I haven’t read Stephenie Meyer’s books, but I liked the first Twilight movie, so even though I’m not a card-carrying Twi-hard I have no axe to grind where this series is concerned. That said, I thought this new installment was incredibly boring. Woe to any newcomer who’s unfamiliar with the characters and situations, because Eclipse offers virtually no exposition. I suppose the filmmakers feel that only the faithful will bother to see it, but that’s no excuse for the complete lack of dramatic context.

By Leonard Maltin
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June 17, 2010 12:59 PM
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6 Comments

Director Lee Unkrich says that when he embarked on this film he watched every movie he could find with a “3” in its title, hoping to find a good one he could use as a role model. He came up empty-handed. Perhaps that’s one reason he and his colleagues at Pixar put so much effort into this sequel—to validate its existence. It’s that work ethic, along with creativity and seemingly boundless imagination, that makes Toy Story 3 so good.

By Leonard Maltin
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June 17, 2010 12:58 PM
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1 Comment

Cyrus is a movie destined to catch audiences off-guard. The presence of comedic performers like John C. Reilly and especially Jonah Hill may lead many viewers to expect a comedy—and laugh (as at least one preview audience did) at moments that aren’t intended to be funny. But filmmakers Jay and Mark Duplass have a surprise up their sleeve: they use these likable actors (along with Catherine Keener and Marisa Tomei) to win us over. Cyrus is actually a serious film with comic undertones…and it’s quite good.

By Leonard Maltin
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June 11, 2010 4:00 AM
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3 Comments

In today’s risk-averse movie business, we’re seeing more remakes than ever, including retreads of films that don’t seem that old (to some of us). After a screening of the new Karate Kid I asked a couple of ten-year-old boys if they knew the 1984 movie, and they did, thanks to DVDs and cable TV reruns. Interestingly enough, neither one wanted to compare one version with the other: they like them both. I do, too.

The original Karate Kid, written by Robert Mark Kamen and directed by John Avildsen (in the same mold as his first smash hit, Rocky), was a shamelessly manipulative but well-told story, perfectly cast, with Ralph Macchio as a boy who needs to learn how to defend himself and Noriyuki “Pat” Morita as his unlikely mentor in martial arts, Mr. Miyagi. (In real life, Macchio told me the other night, Morita “couldn’t touch his toes.”)

That premise is the only tangent that connects the 1984 hit and its new incarnation, written by Christopher Murphey and directed by Dutch ex-pat Harald Zwart, whose previous American credits include—

By Leonard Maltin
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May 28, 2010 4:00 AM
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4 Comments

I have nothing against a juvenile action-adventure yarn with a touch of fantasy thrown in, and while I can’t pretend to get inside the head of a 12-year-old boy, I enjoy summoning my inner child whenever such a film has great spirit and rousing action scenes. This one, I’m sorry to say, feels mechanical in its storytelling, and presents us with heroes and villains that are “types” rather than genuine, fleshed-out characters one can care about.

By Leonard Maltin
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May 27, 2010 4:00 AM
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3 Comments

Some films are considered critic-proof: in other words, they’re going to succeed no matter what anyone says. Sex and the City 2 is a prime example. I presume that the huge, mostly female crowds that rushed to see the first feature-length adaptation of Darren Star’s racy TV series two years ago will be back in equal force for this followup, even though, like so many sequels, it isn’t as good.

By Leonard Maltin
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May 21, 2010 4:00 AM
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3 Comments

Michael Douglas has nothing to fear, so he’s perfectly willing to play a role other actors might run away from: a 60-ish New Yorker who’s a complete and utter louse. Once he married his college sweetheart and owned a string of car dealerships; now all he’s got left is his gift of gab, which can still win over almost any woman, young or old. But without a moral compass, he makes one bad decision after another, causing his personal and professional life to crumble…and he has no one to blame but himself.

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Categories

film review: Inception

film review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

film review: The Kids Are All Right

film review: Eclipse

film review: Toy Story 3

film review: Cyrus

film review: The Karate Kid

film review: Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time

film review: Sex And The City 2

film review: Solitary Man

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