Bodies pile up in From Paris With Love City of carnage Michael Wilmington on Friday 02/05/2010 When we think of Paris and the movies, we think perhaps of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, of songs by Edith Piaf or Django Reinhardt. Not in From Paris With Love, though -- however the title may fool us. >MoreDear John's war romance is a bore Over there Kimberley Jones on Friday 02/05/2010 I don't mean to argue that all romantic figures in the movies should conform to the same ideal -- variety is the spice of life, after all -- but was the world really begging for a leading man in cropped cargo pants? >More
Mel Gibson shows his age in Edge of Darkness An older, slower icon Marc Savlov on Friday 01/29/2010 Adapted from a BBC television drama, Edge of Darkness is Mel Gibson's first major film since his scandalous roadside ranting and arrest in July 2006. >MoreA dad seeks a cure in predictable Extraordinary Measures Drug trial Marjorie Baumgarten on Friday 01/22/2010 It's unsurprising that the first film to hit the screens from the new film production outfit CBS Films is something that looks and tastes an awful lot like a TV movie of the week. A fatal juvenile disease, heroic parenting, a recalcitrant collaborator, a ticking clock and near-insurmountable odds give Extraordinary Measures all the dramatic arcs necessary for this type of thing. >More
Avatar is like nothing you've ever seen before Sexy, primal, anti-imperialist Marc Savlov on Friday 12/18/2009, (1) Comment, (2) Recommendations At 162 minutes and a cost of somewhere between $250 and $300 million, James Cameron's Avatar is both a spectacular slab of virtually nonstop action and an unmistakable diatribe against corporatized American imperialism. >MoreMorgan Freeman's Nelson Mandela eases racial tensions in Invictus Healing through rugby Marjorie Baumgarten on Friday 12/11/2009, (1) Recommendation With Invictus, Morgan Freeman teams up again with director Clint Eastwood and fulfills his longtime desire to portray Nelson Mandela, South African president and international hero. >More
Wilmington on DVD: Lorna's Silence, Charles Kuralt, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt Mike Wilmington on Wednesday 01/06/2010 10:00 am Lorna's Silence is the latest from Belgium's Dardenne Brothers, masters of the new documentary-style neorealism that gives us life in the raw, captured without sentimentality or melodrama (but not without suspense or drama), artfully composed to resemble the evanescent flow of reality -- caught by the kind of cinema verite camera the Dardennes used to wield as younger movie documentarians. >MoreWilmington on DVD: Paranormal Activity, Two for the Seesaw, Summer Storm, 9 Mike Wilmington on Wednesday 12/30/2009 10:00 am, (2) Recommendations Paranormal Activity has grossed mega-millions on a minuscule initial investment. Why? The setup, of course, is ingenious. Actors Katie Featherson and Micah Sloat, playing brainy bedmates Katie and Micah, are mostly alone together in Micah's isolated house, where Katie is being pursued by the ghosts or demons that have plagued her all her life. >More
Wilmington on DVD: Amelia, The Wolf Man, Love Happens, New York, I Love You Mike Wilmington on Wednesday 02/03/2010 10:00 am Amelia is an old-fashioned, overly romantic movie, but likably so. It's true that director Mira Nair and writers Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan don't spring many surprises while telling us the story of the famed trailblazing aviatrix Amelia Earhart -- an iconic American figure of the '20s and '30s who vanished over the Pacific while on a record-breaking, gender-smashing, 'round-the-world flight. But I'm not sure I wanted them too. >MoreRock icon Cherie Currie recalls the Runaways at Sundance Film Festival U.S.A. screening Kenneth Burns on Friday 01/29/2010 1:03 pm, (5) Recommendations Cherie Currie is a native of California's San Fernando Valley, where the weather is pleasant all year. For the former lead singer of the 1970s all-girl rock band The Runaways, Wisconsin in January is an adjustment. "How you guys brave the weather, I don't know," a grinning Currie told an audience Thursday night at Sundance Cinemas Madison. >MoreWilmington on DVD: Michael Jackson's This Is It, Bright Star, Paris, Texas, Rossellini Mike Wilmington on Wednesday 01/27/2010 11:17 am Michael Jackson -- looking like a will-o'-the-wisp in military/gangster drag, singing like honey poured through quicksilver, and dancing like a jitterbug angel whirling on the head of a pin -- gets an extraordinary posthumous sendoff in Michael Jackson's This Is It. >MoreWilmington on DVD: Passing Strange, The Battle of Chile, The Haunting in Connecticut Mike Wilmington on Wednesday 01/20/2010 10:00 am Spike Lee's blazing film of Passing Strange -- the Tony-winning semi-autobiographical musical by Stew (a.k.a. Mark Stewart) -- is one of the best records of a stage production ever. Lee, cinematographer Matthew Libatique and Lee's longtime editor (and ex-Madisonian) Barry Alexander Brown catch every nuance and show-stopping moment of the play. >MoreUW Cinematheque spring 2010 season ventures to Brazil, Egypt, Tokyo and Bollywood Dean Robbins on Tuesday 01/19/2010 12:00 pm "We all lose our charms in the end," Marilyn Monroe sings in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, referring to the relentless aging process. Technically speaking, the 1953 movie itself had lost some of its charms, including its brilliant color. But it's been restored, and now Madison audiences can see Monroe's eye-popping gowns the way they originally appeared on the big screen. >MoreWilmington on DVD: The Hurt Locker, 24 City, 8 1/2, Moon Mike Wilmington on Wednesday 01/13/2010 10:00 am The subject of The Hurt Locker is the Iraq War -- the searing landscape, the uneasy, sometimes hostile populace, the bombs in the streets and the overworked ordnance disposal squad who have to disarm bombs and suicide bombers alike. The movie shows us one such squad as the days tick down toward the end of their tour. >More
Madison in the movies Public Enemies is just the latest Hollywood dud filmed on location here Dean Robbins on Friday 12/04/2009, (2) Recommendations Is there a Madison curse for Hollywood movies? Almost every big-budget project filmed on location here is an artistic failure, even if it stars foolproof actors like Julia Roberts, Michelle Pfeiffer or Johnny Depp. >MoreSundance announces screenings for Madison, other cities in Sundance Film Festival USA Kenneth Burns on Wednesday 12/09/2009 3:58 pm, (1) Recommendation Madison, get ready for The Runaways. Sundance Institute has announced the lineup for the first-ever Sundance Film Festival USA, which on Jan. 28 will see filmmakers hosting screenings at eight cinemas nationwide, including Sundance Cinemas Madison. Sundance Film Festival USA is an adjunct to the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, which will be held in Utah Jan. 21-31. >More
Log in