Reviews of The Ruins, Shine a Light, Girls Rock!, Nim’s Island, and Errol Morris at the AFI Silver

Two summers ago, Stephen King was in the process of going ape-shit (most notably in his Entertainment Weekly column) over the new novel by Scott Smith, The Ruins. Having previously praised Smith’s A Simple Plan which was then turned into a very good movie by the pre-Spider-Man Sam Raimi, King’s praise led to elevated book sales and that propelled the movie adaptation down the past track.

What could possibly go wrong?

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Reviews of Stop-Loss, 21, and Praying With Lior at the Avalon

This week’s entry in the category of superior movies due to be ignored by audiences is Kimberly Peirce’s Stop-Loss (3.5* in nationwide release). Following in the building tradition of The Situation, The Road to Guantanamo, The Ground Truth, No End in Sight, and In the Valley of Elah, exceptional film work is being pushed on an audience increasingly dedicated to proving that it does not want to dwell on the wretchedness of our current government… at least while it is still ongoing.

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Reviews of Military Intelligence and You!, Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, and Shutter

By attempting to comment on our current foreign adventures while ridiculing an aspect of past ones, Military Intelligence and You! (2.5* in limited release locally at the E St. Cinema) is a movie possessed with, at best, charms as modest as its minimal running time.

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Beerfest

Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar

Bubbling up in theatres nationwide beginning 8/25/2006

Hollywood may be the place where (per William Goldman), “Nobody knows anything.” However, one thing you can be sure of is that when there is a mid-level sleeper hit, within a year there will be a slew of imitators all exactly duplicating their predecessor in everything but spontaneity, creativity, and originality. The first demon spawn of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is Beerfest, the latest effort from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe.

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