The movie offerings this week are bit unimpressive. Mike Newell's "Love in the Time of Cholera" was gut punched by the critics. David Denby of The New Yorker writes, "It’s a well-crafted, handsome period piece, and pleasant to watch, but the intensity of an obsessional style—something that matches Florentino’s crazy single-mindedness—is beyond Newell’s range. The director of “Donnie Brasco” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral” doesn’t paint with the camera; he doesn’t seize on certain visual motifs, as he should, and turn them into the equivalent of a lover’s devotion to fetishes." Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post notes, "Lush, extravagant, sad and touching, "Love in the Time of Cholera" still feels weirdly insubstantial when all the febrile passion has abated. Like a fever it breaks, passes and is forgotten." However, Philip Martin of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette liked it. "Good movies rarely come from great books, but this Love in the Time of Cholera is a rich human comedy - beautifully realized and trimmed in sweet tropic light - that retains the flavor of the epic work from which it’s drawn. Good show, Senor Newell."
"Dedication," starring Billy Crudup, Mandy Moore and Tom Wilkinson arrives at Market Street Cinema. "Crudup, playing a bitter wreck, is excellent as usual without overdoing the tics, while Moore gets a chance to prove she is an underrated actress as well as a dazzling beauty. Why she isn't the biggest romantic comedy star on the planet is a mystery," writes Kyle Smith of The New York Post.
Perhaps most disappointing of all are the reviews for "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," a film I wanted to be good for many reasons. Owen Glieberman of Entertainment Weekly gives it an F. I wonder how many times that has happened?
"Dedication," starring Billy Crudup, Mandy Moore and Tom Wilkinson arrives at Market Street Cinema. "Crudup, playing a bitter wreck, is excellent as usual without overdoing the tics, while Moore gets a chance to prove she is an underrated actress as well as a dazzling beauty. Why she isn't the biggest romantic comedy star on the planet is a mystery," writes Kyle Smith of The New York Post.
Perhaps most disappointing of all are the reviews for "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," a film I wanted to be good for many reasons. Owen Glieberman of Entertainment Weekly gives it an F. I wonder how many times that has happened?
And, of course, there's Bob Zemeckis's "Beowulf." Manohla Dargis of The New York Times writes, "The 3-D is necessary to the film only in so far as it keeps your eyes engaged when your mind starts to wander. Stripped of much of the original poem’s language, its cadences, deep history and context, this film version of Beowulf doesn’t offer much beyond 3-D oohs and ahs, sword clanging and a nicely conceived dragon, which probably explains why Mr. Zemeckis and his collaborators have tried to sex it up with Ms. Jolie, among other comic-book flourishes."
