The Final Take with Parker Mott

Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio) and Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan) reunite in "The Great Gatsby".

The initial reactions to Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby, which opened this year’s Cannes Film Festival, are strangely similar to the ones of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original 1925 book. Both works were first critically rebuked, respected only for a single redeeming quality: Luhrmann’s style and Fitzgerald’s prose. People complained that the latter’s characters were “marionettes” and in Luhrmann’s adaptation it can argued that the characters are merely dancing puppets of a cinematic pageantry. (continue reading…)

Peter Ustinov as Nero in Mervyn LeRoy's "Quo Vadis".

You could not get enough of Peter Ustinov. His full-bodied, full-toned presence often commanded the viewer’s eyes away from the action to solely on him. Ustinov also tended to be elusive in his acted films, particularly the sword-and-sandal ones, intermittently sashaying in and stealing the show. In them, he often played supporting roles, but diversity made it impossible to typecast him. (continue reading…)

Saoirse Ronan takes on two characters inside one in "The Host".

The Host is a bland science-fiction product from the Stephenie Meyer factory (based on her best-selling novel published in 2008). It creates a futuristic world that seems to be born from a failed franchise, with the whole concept carrying the inspiration of a scrapped Jack Finney story. It follows the usual science-fiction formula where the human race is conquered by an alien specie, and it is up to a few of our fellow creatures to avoid our extinction. (continue reading…)

The tragic Fantine (played memorably by Anne Hathaway) in Tom Hooper's adaptation of "Les Miserables".

Les Miserables is a wildly flawed display of musical numbers, that for the most part wildly evoke the misery of urban class living in mid-19th century France (although, yes, the performers chant with mint British accents). There’s little depth (or, heck, logic) to how this tear-jerking show finds its way, but it’s as if King’s Speech director Tom Hooper does this purposely by cutting off our peripherals. He frames most of the action in loopy steadicam closeups (behold, a Terrence Malick musical!), occupying faces – not sets or, you know, narrative. (continue reading…)

I'm on a boat: A boy and tiger band together to survive out at sea in "Life of Pi".

Deemed nearly “unfilmable”, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, in spite of its shortcomings, is a worthy, lustrous rebuke: an epic and visually resplendent 3D cinematic adventure out in the cosmic waters of the South Pacific. Intended as a reflective piece, Life of Pi dramatizes the survival of a young, determined, and idealistic Indian boy named Piscine “Pi” Patel (Suraj Sharma), named after a French swimming pool (as bad a name since Johnny Cash’s “Boy Named Sue”). (continue reading…)

“If we make it through this, I’ll follow you anywhere.”

Love is preserved and united in the teen turkey epic "Breaking Dawn Part 2".

There is a key shot at the climax of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, the final fake-epic of the Stephenie Meyer series, that defines this abysmal movie franchise. The Cullens, including a resolute Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), and third-wheel Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) line up in a snowy flatland preparing to battle the Volturi, comprising the cloaks of Aro (Michael Sheen), Jane (Dakota Fanning), and Irina (Maggie Grace). We then cut to a birds-eye view shot of the two regiments and, boy, do they look puny and scantily numbered. (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(142 minutes)

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) defends herself in "The Hunger Games".

The Hunger Games features another post-apocalyptic world meant to be as thrilling to watch as it is tragic. It is situated in the nation of Panem, which is run by the tyrannical Capitol and divided by gated-in districts built from the ashes of North America. District 12, the lower-class community, hosts heroine Katniss Everdeen (the mighty Jennifer Lawrence) who replaces her sister, Primrose (Willow Shields) as the female tribute in the gladiatorial Hunger Games. (continue reading…)

3.5 Stars out of 4
(91 minutes)

Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones decide to muse in "The Sunset Limited".

The Sunset Limited is a one-room drama that features two of America’s top venerable actors – Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson – engaging in a philosophical standoff. I might add that the script, based on his play, is written by renowned novelist Cormac McCarthy, responsible for No Country for Old Men, The Road, and Blood Meridian. Forget Godard’s saying about the girl and a gun, this is all you need to make a movie. (continue reading…)

3.5 Stars out of 4
(122 minutes)

Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes) will switch sides in the mean machine "Coriolanus".

Coriolanus is a damn good time at the theatres, so much so the Globe Theatre might eat its heart out. It is directed by Ralph Fiennes – known as Voldemort to the Harry Potter freaks and geeks – and he, wand-free, revitalizes this Shakespearean tragedy with an unanticipated energy. (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(120 minutes)

Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) types and drinks away in "The Rum Diary."

When Hunter S. Thompson wrote his (many unpublished) novels, I don’t think a movie adaptation was on his mind. Only booze, women, cocaine, and menthols. Maybe that is why Terry Gilliam’s adaptation of his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was so profoundly unwatchable. His stories are snake-like, as they writhe episodically across the desert of his existential jaunts. His words are terse and venomously cynical. His characters are sociopaths, who probably put rum in their cornflakes. (continue reading…)