Movie Review: Inside Job (2010)

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Brian Wright

Starkly entertaining indictment of the PTB __ 9/10
Review by Brian Wright

George Soros: Chuck Prince of Citibank famously said: ‘That we have to dance until the music stops.’ Actually, the music had stopped already when he said that.

Frank Partnoy: You’re gonna make an extra $2 million a year, or $10 million a year for putting your financial institution at risk. Someone else pays the bill, you don’t. Would you make that bet? Most people on Wall Street said, ‘Sure, I’d make that bet.’ Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Company Men (2010)

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Brian Wright

Home companion to Inside Job ____ 7.5/10

Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper): My life ended and nobody noticed.

It seems to me this film makes the perfect companion to another film I reviewed recently, Inside Job, an investigation of the so-called Bailout of 2008. It simply seems that if one knows who raided—and continues to raid—the Great American Cookie Jar, one has a fair notion of fundamental causes of economic malaise… the kind that causes credit contraction, widespread business failures, and massive layoffs such as the one that afflicts the lead character in The Company Men: Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck). Continue reading →

Movie Review: City Slickers (1991)

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Brian Wright

A little deeper than many of us recall ___ 7.5/10

Mitch Robbins: “Value this time in your life kids, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices, and it goes by so quickly. When you’re a teenager you think you can do anything, and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Your thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money and you think to yourself, “What happened to my twenties?” Your forties, you grow a little pot belly you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud and one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Secretariat (2010)

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Brian Wright

Disney inspirational with top-tier actors __ 8/10
Reviewed by Brian Wright

Penny Chenery: More than three thousand years ago a man named Job complained to God about all his troubles and the Bible tells us that God answered: “Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane? Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting? He paused fiercely, rejoicing in his strength and charges into the fray. He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing, He does not shy away from the sword. The quiver rattles against his side, along with the flashing spear and lance. In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground. He cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.” Continue reading →

Movie Review: Fair Game (2010)

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Brian Wright

Docudrama sticks harsh truth to power __ 9/10

Joe Wilson: The responsibility of a country is not in the hands of a privileged few. We are strong, and we are free from tyranny as long as each one of us remembers his or her duty as a citizen. Whether it’s to report a pothole at the top of your street or lies in a State of the Union address, speak out! Ask those questions. Demand that truth. Democracy is not a free ride. I’m here to tell you. But, this is where we live. And if we do our job, this is where our children will live. God bless America.

Continue reading →

Movie Review: You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Brian Wright

Fine sister movie to Sleepless in Seattle __ 8/10

Kathleen Kelly: [writing to “NY152”] People are always saying that change is a good thing. But all they’re really saying is that something you didn’t want to happen at all… has happened. My store is closing this week. I own a store, did I ever tell you that? It’s a lovely store, and in a week it’ll be something really depressing, like a Baby Gap. Soon, it’ll be just a memory. In fact, someone, some foolish person, will probably think it’s a tribute to this city, the way it keeps changing on you, the way you can never count on it, or something. I know because that’s the sort of thing I’m always saying. But the truth is… I’m heartbroken. I feel as if a part of me has died, and my mother has died all over again, and no one can ever make it right. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Mao’s Last Dancer (2009)

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Brian Wright

Works on many levels, ‘decide for oneself’ __ 7/10
Review by Brian Wright

Summary: A drama based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin. At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao’s cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he fell in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.

Rather a surprise movie, a feel-good semidocumentary, like Secretariat. And I expected it to be critiqued accordingly from the majority of the citizen-reviewers on IMDb. Alas, unlike Secretariat, virtually every one of the 40-some reviews of Dancer were almost embarrassingly glowing. The only erudite review I found not climbing on the ‘masterpiece’ bandwagon was from a writer in Vancouver: Continue reading →