Review: Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son

Reviews

Charlie Wilson's War

Waged by amiable actors

By GERALD PEARY | December 19, 2007

2.5 Stars

Tom Hanks

For a time, Charlie Wilson’s War gets by on the amiability of Tom Hanks as the coke-snorting, womanizing Texas congressman who, a crazy-quilt combo of James Bond and Hugh Hefner, was the secret force behind the mujahadeen’s driving the Soviets out of Afghanistan in the 1980s. But George Crile’s fascinating 500-pages-plus book about Wilson’s extra-legal covert military campaign has been reduced to a shallow 97 minutes by Mike Nichols. The international intrigue becomes strained satire — what’s needed is the comic touch of a Billy Wilder. More distressing is the virulent anti-Communism of the venture: “Kill the Russians!” is a refrain of the right-leaning characters, and their sentiment seems to be endorsed by Nichols and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. The supporting players are splendid, however, among them Philip Seymour Hoffman as a déclassé CIA operative and Julia Roberts as a millionairess with international connections. 97 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Circle/Chestnut Hill + suburbs

Related: Tinkling symbols, Heaven and Hell, The Oscars go to Hell, More

Topics: Reviews , Celebrity News, Entertainment, Movies, More

| More

See more deals

view all

[ 02/19 ] 4-9 pm | Tom Tom Sunday: Celebrating the Big Beat of Tom Ardolino @ The Met

[ 02/19 ] Mary Poppins @ Providence Performing Arts Center

[ 02/19 ] "Nostalgia Machines" @ David Winton Bell Gallery

ARTICLES BY GERALD PEARY

REVIEW: THE OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS 2012: ANIMATED | February 08, 2012
One film stands out among the Animated Shorts, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby's Wild Life .

REVIEW: THE OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS 2012: LIVE ACTION | February 07, 2012
The Oscar nominees for Live Action Shorts come down to five conventional narratives.

REVIEW: ALBERT NOBBS | January 26, 2012
Lesbianism doesn't exist as a cogent category in 19th century Ireland, which could explain why Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close), a woman disguised for years as a man and employed as a Dublin waiter, has no personal understanding of who she is, her identity, or what she feels.

REVIEW: SILENT SOULS | January 17, 2012
This is probably the only film we'll encounter about the Merja culture of West Central Russia, a Finno-Ugric tribe in which even the most modernized people pay allegiance to ancient customs.

REVIEW: HELL AND BACK AGAIN | January 05, 2012
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Hell and Back Again offers a potent documentary correlative to the narrative of The Hurt Locker .