Movie Review: Sex Tape (2014)

by Tony Dayoub

"Who has sex for three hours? That's the length of the movie Lincoln. You did the full Lincoln." That's the usually hilarious Rob Corddry as Robbie talking to his friends Annie (Cameron Diaz) and Jay (Jason Segel), a couple who try to rekindle their once passionate sex life in the movie Sex Tape. That line got the biggest laugh at my screening. But the guffaws felt Pavlovian, like the canned laughter on a TV sitcom designed to entice the viewer into yukking it up as well. Even the very title, Sex Tape, indicates how out of step this movie is with the times. It's not a tape anymore, guys.

Double Vision: Tony Scott's Spirit Possesses Ridley Scott's The Counselor (2013)

by Tony Dayoub

The rumblings of a critical debate (or is it grumblings?) have already surrounded Ridley Scott's The Counselor. A script by Cormac McCarthy (The Road) helmed by the director of Thelma and Louise should have been a sufficient enough marketing opportunity for 20th Century Fox to capitalize on as they rolled it out during awards season. And yet the studio held a press-only screening Tuesday night before its opening, a move which signals they're likely as mystified about how to handle the film as critics are in trying to build a consensus around it. Given how peculiar it is, this is not surprising. The Counselor is in many ways an anomaly for Ridley Scott.

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Movie Review: Bad Teacher (2011) and Cars 2 (2011)

by Tony Dayoub

Quick reviews of two movies I caught this past weekend after the jump.

Movie Review: The Box (2009)

by Tony Dayoub



The Box starts with a concept that appeals to most people's love for mystery: an anonymous gift left on a suburban doorstep belonging to the Lewis family. Wrapped all in brown paper, it arrives just before the moment private school teacher Norma Lewis (Cameron Diaz) discovers her son's tuition will no longer be a discounted perk. That same morning, husband Arthur (James Marsden) is floored by the news that he will not be accepted into NASA's astronaut program. Later that day, Norma stares at the unwrapped gift—a large brown box gilded in silvery aluminum with a big red button locked under a glass dome—waiting for the arrival of a Mr. Steward (Frank Langella) to give her the key and explain what this gift is for. Mr. Steward tells Norma pushing the button will kill someone in the world—who she doesn't know—and reward her with $1 million in exchange. With these early scenes, director Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) has masterfully opened enough avenues in the dense plot to provide a puzzle as suspenseful and intriguing as the mysterious box of the film's title.