Slice And Dice: Danny Trejo is Machete, a former Mexican cop who ends up an illegal immigrant in Texas — where he is coerced into taking a job that involves killing a state senator.
'Machete': Out Of The 'Grindhouse,' Trailer First
()Robert Rodriguez directs Machete, featuring a character first introduced in a fake trailer that played during his 2007 exploitation flick Grindhouse. (Recommended)
'White Wedding' Celebrates Love, South African-Style()
Last year, the South African sci-fi film District Nine opened in the states to blockbuster grosses. Now another film from South Africa, the road-trip comedy White Wedding, is attracting international notice. The movie follows an engaged couple who weather a series of zany obstacles over the course of their wedding day. (Recommended)
A Family Torn Asunder Takes The 'Last Train Home'()
September 2, 2010 Frequently moving and quietly enlightening, the documentary Last Train Home is about love and exploitation, sacrifice and endurance. Director Lixin Fan follows a single Chinese family from 2006 through the financial downturn of 2008. The parents work at garment factories in Guangzhou city; their teenage children live in an impoverished village and see their parents only once a year. (Recommended)
'Public Enemy' Wraps Up A Criminally Good Saga()
September 2, 2010 Neither director Jean-Francois Richet's style nor star Vincent Cassel's swagger falters in Public Enemy Number One, the exhilarating follow-up to Mesrine: Killer Instinct. With its shootouts, prison breaks and wild flights of ego, the saga's second half was sure to be watchable. It's also smart, funny and incisive -- about the criminal and his era. (Recommended)
'Noodle Shop': A Coen Brothers Tale Goes East()
September 2, 2010 Director Zhang Yimou takes on the Coen brothers, remaking Blood Simple and setting it in the 17th-century "Chinese outback." Adultery, bloody mishaps and Chinese superstition are just the appetizers in this colorful film.
'The American': A Domestic Bond, Drawn In Miniature()
September 3, 2010 George Clooney's latest outing showcases a more internal performance -- as an assassin whose personal life threatens to further complicate an already hard-to-manage career. Kenneth Turan says Anton Corbijn's drama is impeccably composed and beautifully shot -- if a little lacking on the emotional urgency front.
Dog, Mad Englishman Grow Old In A Setting Sun()
August 31, 2010 My Dog Tulip is an animated film, but it's no Disney-style heartwarmer about a boy and his canine pal. Instead it's a film for adults -- based on a memoir by a grumpy British writer who lived with an unruly German shepherd for 16 years -- that manages to be touching without getting overly sentimental. (Recommended)
'The American': An Abstract, Angst-Filled Art Thriller()
September 1, 2010 Anton Corbijn's paranoid thriller stars George Clooney as an anonymous international assassin constantly on the run. Critic David Edelstein says the spare movie "cast a spell" over the audience -- as they entered the mind of a man with no past or future.
Mesrine: A Ruthless Crook, A 'Killer' Film()
August 27, 2010 The French outlaw Jacques Mesrine, who terrorized France and killed 39 people, is the subject of the thrilling Mesrine: Killer Instinct, which stars Vincent Cassell as Mesrine and Gerard Depardieu as a Parisian crime boss. Critic John Powers applauds Cassell's acting, saying it "ranks with the best of DeNiro or Pacino or, more recently, Daniel Day-Lewis."
For These French Friends, A 'Change' Is Gonna Come()
August 26, 2010 Three sets of philandering middle-aged spouses converge for a dinner party in Change of Plans, a French film whose setup seems to promise an evening of bitter recriminations. Ah, but this is Paris, where they do cheating differently -- and Daniele Thompson's sharp comedy shows that adultery can be a tonic for the bourgeois marriage.
A Sword-And-Sandals Yarn, Emphasis On The Former()
August 26, 2010 Neil Marshall, director of horror movie The Descent, offers up a noisily bloody, new chase-sequence of a film set during the second-century conquest of Britain. Michael Fassbender and Dominic West star.
About Movie Reviews
Opinions on current offerings at the cinema from a slate of reviewers, including Fresh Air contributor David Edelstein, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times and NPR's Bob Mondello.
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