Movie Review: The Book of Life (2014)

by Tony Dayoub


Many years ago, I made the mistake of dismissing The Nightmare Before Christmas as a visually spectacular but hollow animated musical. Yeah, I didn't get it. It isn't that nostalgia has made the movie feel closer to a classic or that over time its style has eclipsed its substance. In a fundamental way, I've come to realize, its style is its substance. I shall not make the same mistake with The Book of Life. While not the animation game-changer that The Nightmare Before Christmas may have been, The Book of Life perhaps has even more room to grow into a classic in the coming years. And curiously it has a similar pedigree.

Why Side Effects (2013) is the Quintessential Soderbergh Movie

by Tony Dayoub

If Side Effects is the final theatrical film for Steven Soderbergh—even if only for a shorter period than the "forever" he originally implied—then what a movie to bow out with. There are all kinds of reasons even the most attentive moviegoer might have had cause to think otherwise. One could start with its generic title or its below-the-title ensemble cast or the fact that it's being released at a time of year studios usually reserve for dumping their most problematic films. But why not look at the way he's constructed the film itself. Side Effects is the kind of movie in which any review must be written carefully in order to preserve its effect on a first-time viewer, a promise I'll keep in my own brief assessment.

Magic Mike (2012)

by Tony Dayoub

Is there any actor out there whose skills as a performer have improved faster than Channing Tatum? Not since Tom Cruise went from pudgy hanger-on in The Outsiders to superstar in Risky Business has there been a slab of beefcake as underestimated as Tatum. While I all but wrote him off as the lead in 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, I saw a glimmer of burgeoning talent when he played a dense but likeable hitman in Haywire and a mopey, outcast cop in this year's 21 Jump Street (just out on Blu-ray and DVD). In Steven Soderbergh's stripper drama, Magic Mike, Tatum carries a thin, vaguely familiar story to another level by sheer force of charisma, obliterating any thoughts that he is just a pretty boy.

Movie Review: 21 Jump Street (2012)

by Tony Dayoub

21 Jump Street, a reboot/remake of the popular late '80s cop series that launched Johnny Depp to stardom, has been in development for years. It's got not one but two directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who's biggest claim to fame is the mediocre 2009 animated movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Which is to say, this buddy film has been through a lot of hands. Not ulike the stoner action-comedy, Pineapple Express, which fizzled in the over-elaboration of its contradictions, 21 Jump Street has its own schizoid quality: is it a grisly, violent cop thriller or a drug-fueled high school comedy? The big difference is that despite these disparate elements stacked against the new movie (compounded by the flatness owed to its small-screen origins), somehow, 21 Jump Street works.

Movie Review: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

See the picture above? That's Sienna Miller in the leather as the Baroness. Her costumes are the best thing about this movie, if you must know. And knowing is half the battle.