Max Solomon writes a horrible play. The premise and the dialogue are laughable.
Max knows he cant write and decides to find a new profession. He robs a bank. Deciding this is his new, best destiny, Max embarks on a career or crime. Complicating that decision is a serious love connection between bank robber and the teller he robs and friends that know what hes done. Impressed by Maxs bravado his friends get sucked into his modern-day Robin Hood fantasy.
-- Trailier, times, theaters.
Skills like This begins with an outrageous concept and takes it to the pun definitely intended max. You know going in that the film written by co-stars and first-time writers Spencer Berger and Gabriel Tigerman and directed by first-timer Monty Miranda is going to be indy-standard-quirky.
This is where independent movies have a lot in common with mainstream movies and television sitcoms. Though packed with unpredictable characters, realism, slick, often-gritty dialogue and endings that have more in common with real life than happy ending happy Hollywood, independent films are still predictable. So in a way, the non-formula is formula.
Things that can only happen to characters in independent movies happen to these characters. It is the independent formula in its purest form and is one more brick in the wall of proof that you dont need millions of dollars and big name stars to make a quality movie.
It just takes skills like this.
Mr. Movie rating: 5 stars
Rated R for mature themes, language. It opens Friday, June 12 at the Carmike 12.
5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen
4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it's your type of movie.
3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on video.
2 stars to 1 star: Don't bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself.
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2011's best, worst and a few observations on 20 years as a film critic
2011's best, worst and a few observations on 20 years as a film critic
First some observations: If you're just interested in my best and worst of the year picks, scroll down. They're easy to find.
Two remarkable things about 2011.
No. 1: As I write this, I am wrapping up 20 years as the Tri-City Herald's film critic. No. 2: Last year I cried at a movie. Actually, I cry at a lot of movies but for a much different reason than you suspect. But more on that in a bit.
'Chronicle'
'Chronicle'
Teenagers acquire super powers and, being teenagers, videotape themselves as they learn what they can do in "Chronicle," an entertaining comic-book movie without the comic book.
Kudos to Battelle Film Club for bringing 'The Hedgehog'
Kudos to Battelle Film Club for bringing 'The Hedgehog'
The Hedgehog is a subtitled French film from 2009 that finally got released in the U.S. last year, and thanks to the Battelle Film Club , it will be seen in the Tri-Cities.
The story centers around Paloma, an 11-year old girl whose interests are philosophy and art.
No one in her family can relate. Her parents barely speak to each other much less to Paloma. The disconnected mom talks to plants, and the psychiatrist but can’t talk to her daughter. Dad is nowhere to be found.
'We Bought a Zoo' not as fun as real zoo
'We Bought a Zoo' not as fun as real zoo
Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson lead We Bought a Zoo's cast. It is a highly fictionalized but based on a true story film about a widowed writer who buys and refurbishes a small zoo.
Reality and fiction meet in just two places, the name of the main character and the zoo.
-- Local show times, theaters, trailer.
'The Thing' among those things to be left alone
'The Thing' among those things to be left alone
Mary Elizabeth Winstead ( Scott Pilgrim vs. The World ) is Kate Lloyd, a paleontologist asked to accompany a not-so mad-acting mad scientist on an expedition to Antarctica.
They’re checking out the discovery of a frozen alien and its ship. The movie is The Thing and other than Winstead, the only other slightly recognizable actor in the cast of mostly unknowns is Joel Edgerton, whose star rose recently in Warrior . He’s an American helicopter pilot and as close as the characters get to a love interest.
-- Local show times, theaters, trailer.
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