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Review: Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
Reviews
Death Sentence
They don't get much worse than this
By
BRETT MICHEL
|
September 5, 2007
DEATH SENTENCE
" alt="photo of 'DEATH SENTENCE'">
2.5
Stars
DEATH SENTENCE: Kevin Bacon as a vengeful "
Fortune 500
motherfucker."
We have the sordid story of vigilante justice as administered by Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon, impersonating Edvard Munch’s
The Scream
), a family man with “perfect kids,” or “some
Fortune 500
motherfucker,” as one of his future victims observes before facing his vengeful wrath. In a gang initiation, a young thug “ices” the most perfect of Hume’s two sons, who’s a hockey star. After this “animal” is arrested and then released, Hume visits his tool shed to select the perfect instrument with which to settle accounts — just one reminder that the film’s director is James Wan, the torture-porn veteran responsible for the Saw series. Wan can deliver shocks, but when he tries drama, it’s unintentional comedy. An all-out war between Hume and his gangland prey culminates in a ridiculously over-the-top shootout in an abandoned mental hospital. If you love awful movies, they don’t get much better (worse?) than this.
Related
:
Trial and error
,
Flashbacks: November 24, 2006
,
Rise and fall
,
More
Trial and error
Hollywood studios looking for movie ideas should check out Jessica Sanders’s After Innocence .
Flashbacks: November 24, 2006
These selections, culled from our back files, were compiled by Dan Peleschuk, Ian Sands, and Eva Wolchover.
Rise and fall
With its production of the Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Opera Boston consolidates its position as this city’s most exciting opera company.
23 skidoo?
As of press time, the 23rd Boston Film Festival was still shaping up.
Genocide today
It was a spooky image. Two women, who look like grandmothers and are identified as Russian Communists, standing in front of the American embassy in Moscow waving pictures of Slobodan Milosevic.
Waist Deep
In this hip-hop urban Bonnie and Clyde wanna-be, charismatic rapper/actor Tyrese ( Baby Boy , 2 Fast 2 Furious ) plays O2, a recent parolee whose efforts to go straight are derailed when a Crenshaw drug lord inadvertently kidnaps his son during a carjacking. Watch the trailer for Waist Deep (QuickTime)
Screwing the youth
Wole Akinbi was 16 when someone phoned to say his best friend had been shot.
Review: A Prophet
Visionaries thrive behind bars: Dostoevsky, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. "The truth is ugly," explains one would-be sage, Charles Manson. "So we put our prophets in prison."
The Dhamma Brothers
Since the US has more people in prison than any other country, shouldn’t we be working on an effective method of rehabilitation?
RI’s last execution resonates in our current moment
Rhode Island’s last execution was on Valentine’s Day in 1845, below Nordstrom’s shoe department in the Providence Place Mall.
Yes sir!
David Zeiger’s Sir! No Sir! is yet another absorbing documentary that George W. won’t see, or want you to see, because, as the prez often cautions, “It sends the wrong message to our troops.”
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02/18
]
20th Annual Cajun & Zydeco Mardi Gras Ball
@ Rhodes-On-the-Pawtuxet
[
02/18
]
"Dana Levin: A Classical Realist In the 21st Century," an exhibit of paintings
@ Bert Gallery
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02/18
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A screening of Andy Warhol's Sleep
@ RK Projects + Magic Lantern Cinema
ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL
REVIEW: THIS MEANS WAR
| February 16, 2012
What promises to be a modern Jules and Jim (until you realize it's directed by a 43-year-old who calls himself "McG") quickly devolves into Spy vs. Spy territory, only with incompetently staged and edited action and little of that ol' Mad magazine zing.
REVIEW: THE VIRAL FACTOR
| January 17, 2012
Made for a modest budget of $17 million — and feeling like it (who needs convincing explosions in an action movie?), Dante Lam's latest still gets the job done from a run-and-gun standpoint.
REVIEW: EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE
| January 17, 2012
Too soon? For Stephen Daldry's 9/11 drama, the right time is "never."
REVIEW: THE DIVIDE
| January 10, 2012
Many a teleplay for The Twilight Zone threatened atomic Armageddon, and though Frontier(s) director Xavier Gens nukes New York in the opening shots of his latest thriller, he finds more inspiration in the horrors of human nature as seen in the old TV show's episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."
REVIEW: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL
| December 20, 2011
Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) returns to the screen in dramatic fashion as new teammate Jane (Paula Patton) and the returning Benji (Simon Pegg) break him out of a Russian prison.
See all articles by:
BRETT MICHEL
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