Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others)

Yet another attempt by Hollywood to pass off kiddie kartoons as fun for all ages

Kicked in the Head directed by Matthew Harrison and co-written by him and the film’s star, Kevin Corrigan, is another of those slacker movies whose makers got far too much money far too early in their careers. This is a movie so immature in its conception, its writing and its execution that even in spite…

Jim Carrey plays the only decent, honest guy in the world who, having been screwed over by the system, turns to crime. What’s so funny about that?

Like the unsuccessfully arty Deceiver, the unashamedly popular Desperate Measures by Barbet Schroeder is a film which begins by telling us the IQ—“over 150”—of its criminal protagonist, Peter McCabe (Michael Keaton). Oh dear. Once again we are in the presence of one of those criminal geniuses who are so seldom to be met with in…

Analyze This, directed by Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day), stars Robert DeNiro as Paul Vitti, a notorious New York mobster who suddenly finds he’s having panic attacks. He thinks they’re heart attacks. When the doctor tells him that they are in fact psychosomatic, he is incredulous: “Do I look like a guy who panics?” The doctor…

The controlled narrative of the news media’s view of the situation in Iraq cannot survive this encounter with the videotaped views of ordinary Iraqis