Hurt Locker, The (2008)

The Man Who Knew Too Little, directed by Jon Amiel, is for fans of the comedic style of Bill Murray who—as he does in such mediocre movies as Kingpin and What About Bob?—manages to wring what genuine comedy there is out comic situations so outlandish that they would bring a blush of shame to the…

[See “He Wore a Yellow Stripe,” The American Spectator of April, 2007, under “Articles”]   Discover more from James Bowman Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email. Type your email… Subscribe

An amusing fantasy that starts interestingly but then fizzles out

A feeble parody of the old-time Hollywood musical that appears to have wowed critics not in spite of but because of all the ways it falls short of its original

A celebration of the rich, multicultural tapestry that is Britain today whose sunny, funny approach to questions of cultural difference is perhaps just a tad overoptimistic.

Small Time Crooks has, like all Woody Allen’s films some excellent jokes. The best of them, however, are stupid-jokes (very popular in Hollywood lately) which, it always seems to me, is the comedic equivalent of dynamiting fish. It used to be drunks, now it’s idiots. Woody Allen himself plays Ray Winkler, a petty thief whose…