Ridley Scott

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Review: The Grey

Man vs. wolves
At the center of this superior stranded-men-picked-off-by-external-threat thriller is Ottway, an anguished loner powerfully played by Liam Neeson.
By BETSY SHERMAN | January 26, 2012

By | January 01, 0001

Viral bloodsuckers for the summer

Could The Passage be the best vampire novel?
It might require you to buy a bigger beach tote, but there's no doubt that summer's must-read is Justin Cronin's The Passage , a hulking 766-page epic that traces the genesis and fallout of apocalyptic viral vampirism.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 16, 2010

Review: Splice

Splitting heirs: Variety is the life of Splice
Like its synthetic creature, Dren (Delphine Chanéac), Vincenzo Natali’s unwieldy but provocative thriller recombines DNA from many different movie and literary sources.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 02, 2010

Review: Robin Hood (2010)

The more the merrier? Hardly.
“And so the legend begins . . . ”
By PETER KEOUGH | May 14, 2010

Review: Lady Gaga at the Wang

Lady Gaga, resplendent, striding onto the stage of the Wang Theatre, has just removed an intricate half-Egyptian/half-Wagnerian headdress from her person, freeing her enormous blonde hairdo from its confinement.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | December 02, 2009

The plots thicken

9/11 Truthers, Tea Parties, Birthers — conspiracy is in the air. No wonder Hollywood is embracing paranoia.
Eight years after the destruction of the World Trade Center — the result of one of the most devastatingly successful conspiracies in history — Americans still take comfort in paranoia.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 11, 2009

Review: Moon

Duncan Jones's debut is more alienation than Alien
Duncan Jones begins his first feature with an infomercial for "Lunar Industries, Ltd" that celebrates Lunar's solution to global warming: strip-mining the surface of the moon for "Helium 3," an isotope that can provide a limitless source of non-polluting fuel.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 19, 2009

Autumn peeves

Films with a full agenda
With pundits already reading political significance into summer blockbusters like The Dark Knight (“Is Batman a stand-in for George Bush? Discuss.”), the meatier movies of fall arrive not a moment too soon.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 11, 2008

Rebirth of a prince

Digging RZA in 36 steps
I recently took the Greyhound to Montreal for a RZA concert.
By CHRIS FARAONE | August 19, 2008

The Oscars go to Hell

The Devil knows what the nominations will be for this year’s Oscars
Maybe it’s just as well if the writers’ strike forces a cancellation of the Oscars show.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 18, 2008

Alien vs. Predator: Requiem

Genre futility
What a fitting subtitle for Fox’s latest offense to fans of not one but two venerable sci-fi properties.
By BRETT MICHEL | December 31, 2007

Blade Runner: The Final Cut

A cohesive revision from Ridley Scott
Neither the dick nor the dancer is entirely “human,” but that’s the clever conceit of Ridley Scott’s dystopian vision of 2019 Los Angeles.
By BRETT MICHEL | November 14, 2007

Selling points

Jay-Z ties his fortunes to American Gangster
Jay-Z’s new album shares its title with the new Ridley Scott film about Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas.
By BEN WESTHOFF | November 14, 2007

Interview: Josh Brolin

On the brink of fame in No Country for Old Men
Josh Brolin has distinguished himself mostly by appearing in the worst movies of great directors.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 06, 2007

Shafted

Ridley Scott packages American Gangster
American Gangster , Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Mark Jacobson’s New York magazine article about ’70s Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas, is as generic as the title.
By PETER KEOUGH | October 31, 2007

War zones

Fall films face terror at home and abroad
The party’s over. Time for the lessons to begin.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 12, 2007

Sound bites

Sunshine sheds little light on the sci-fi genre
In space, so the tag line for Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi thriller Alien goes, nobody can hear you scream.
By PETER KEOUGH | July 18, 2007

The man who knew too much

Philip K. Dick enters the Library of America
Around the age of 13, Philip K. Dick started having a recurring dream.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 28, 2007

Cinema of Shadows

We’re five years into the Iraq crisis, and Hollywood hasn't made a film about the war. Or is every film is about the war?
It’s not likely, but Judd Apatow’s pitch for Knocked Up might have sounded something like this.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 06, 2007

The future of an illusion

Reflections on 40 years spent in the dark
When I first realized that movies would, for better or worse, dominate my imagination forever, I really gave no thought to the forces at work creating these transfiguring images on a screen.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 15, 2006

A Good Year

Not so good a movie
Ridley Scott, modern master of the epic canvas, directs his eye toward a French renaissance piece, revisiting the milieu of his debut feature, 1977’s The Duellists , though the result has more in common with his 2003 effort, Matchstick Men. Watch the trailer for A Good Year (QuickTime)
By BRETT MICHEL | November 08, 2006

Fall back

This season, Hollywood lives in the past
If you cannot remember the past, so Santayana said, you’re condemned to repeat it. Watch trailers for this fall's new releases.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 13, 2006

True Dick?

Looking for fidelity to the cyber-punk master
Philip K. Dick saw into the future, man, the FUTURE. Scanner brained: Richard Linklater animates Philip K. Dick’s Darkly . By Peter Keough A slacker darkly: Why Dick likes Dick. By Peter Keough
By JAMES PARKER | July 05, 2006

EXTRAS! EXTRAS!

The 25 Greatest DVD Special Features of All Time
As much as I lament the continuing decline of attendance at the cineplex, it’s also easy to understand.
By BRETT MICHEL | April 25, 2006