Between Two Worlds

Kids whose only knowledge of World War II comes from the movies will be relieved to learn it was a struggle between the plucky pigeons of Britain and the fearsome falcons of the Third Reich

Dirty Work, directed by Bob Saget, is utterly without redeeming features: boring, stupid and unfunny. Even my two sub-teen boys thought it was bad, and worse than that movies like this do not get. Discover more from James Bowman Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email. Type your email… Subscribe

Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet is a good example of Shakespeare killed by terminal hipness. It is remarkably clever, and even has some good dramatic ideas. Having Juliet (Claire Danes) wake up just before Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio) drinks the poison and simply cutting Friar Lawrence (Pete Postlethwaite) out of it is an interesting notion and…

Another political documentary conceived of not as investigation but as entertainment for those who already know all they care to know of its subject — except that it forgets to entertain

An actor’s movie — written by his brother — to show off the considerable talents of Philip Seymour Hoffman

A Brazilian reflection on the vanity of human — or at least of masculine — wishes and the permanence of the eternal feminine