When Japanese writer-director Nagisa Oshima’ s In The Realm of the Senses opened in 1976, the unrated, explicit drama played at the now defunct Mann Theaters in the Esplanade. Even though the film played in the last of three theaters, I always wondered what would have happened if some unsuspecting parent got confused. Imagine trying to explain why a subservient Japanese woman would fellate an older man, cut off his manhood, and then carry it around as she wandered the countryside.
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Already suffering from a self-inflicted black eye, it’s not surprising that the Catholic Church has denounced “The Magdalene Sisters,” a harrowing portrait of church sanctioned cruelty. Vividly written and directed by actor Peter Mullan, “The Magdalene Sisters” isn’t really entertainment but an indictment against an institution that is seemingly above the law and more than willing to dispense their own brand of justice. Read the rest of this entry »

I had to toss a coin to decide which would be less painful: Sit through “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer,” or shove a rabid pit bull in my shorts and then whack it with a stick. Read the rest of this entry »

I imagine the hardest part of being someone’s lifeline is snapping. Knowing that you hold life or death in your hands, afraid that one wrong word, one wrong move, can end it all. Most people who have a bad day go home and start over again. When a hostage negotiator has a bad day someone doesn’t get to go home. Read the rest of this entry »

Rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube does double duty as co-writer and star of this highly entertaining comedy about a bounty hunter and a con artist who team up to locate a stolen van of diamonds. Cube is on the money (excuse the pun) as Bucum Jackson, a no-nonsense bounty hunter whose latest target is con artist Reggie Wright (Omar Epps). Jackson’s pursuit of Reggie takes an unexpected turn when Reggie finds himself in the back of a getaway van used in a multi-million dollar diamond heist. Read the rest of this entry »

They are the hero in all great works of espionage fiction, the super spy who is invisible to all but a few, the guy you send in when you want the job done right, fast, and with complete discretion. Of course these phantom agents only exist in fiction, right? Read the rest of this entry »

40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS (PG-13)

That is how long it rains on Matt Sullivan’s (Josh Hartnett) parade. A handsome hunk who has just broken up with his girlfriend, Matt has decided that instead of hopping right into the sack of the next available woman, he will stay celibate for 40 days and 40 nights. Read the rest of this entry »

I have this uncanny knack of being able to pick the Oscar-winning Best Film each year. My friends hate me for this, but when I’ve seen that year’s Best Picture winner, I know it. It’s been going on for more than ten years, and not once was I wrong. The moment I walked out of the screening of “Dances with Wolves,” I turned to my friends and said they’ve just seen the Best Picture of 1990. Read the rest of this entry »

Cursed pirates, a salty hero, a feisty damsel in distress, her handsome rescuer, sea battles, exciting sword duels, breathtaking scenery, what more could you want from a swashbuckling adventure? You get all of that and more in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl,” a rollicking E-Ticket cinema ride that, along with “Finding Nemo,” is one of the best films of the summer to date. Read the rest of this entry »

Filled with great conceit and whimsy, director E. Elias Merhige’s “Shadow of the Vampire” is the perfect marriage of fact and fantasy. Genuinely creepy, “Shadow of the Vampire” is scarier than anything else out there. Read the rest of this entry »