Movies & TV, Creative Loafing Tampa

Welcome back, Bluths

Daniel Figueroa IV — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:05:00 -0400

New episodes of Arrested Development on Netflix? Here’s why we give a shit. by Daniel Figueroa IV I was drunk. But a night spent at all times not far from a glass of vodka with a splash of olive juice will do that to you.…

Fast 6 is Furiously entertaining

Katelyn Williamson — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:03:00 -0400

Old favorites return for the best installment of the Fast and Furious series yet. by Katelyn Williamson Fast and Furious 6 opens with Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) racing through the striking Spanish Canary Islands. Dom’s all-American Dodge Challenger and Brian’s GTR Skyline rocket and bandy for position along the edge of steep cliffs as the cerulean waves crash far below.…

The Hangover trilogy ends with a whimper

Joe Bardi — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

The Wolfpack is back and largely defanged for The Hangover Part III. by Joe Bardi While not exactly a classic, 2009’s The Hangover did provide a rude and crude comic jolt to that year’s summer movie season. Riding an original plot twist (the characters awake after a debauched night of Las Vegas partying and have to retrace their steps to find a missing comrade), fresh performances (particularly Zach Galifianakis and Bradley Cooper, both relative newcomers at the time) and a “boys behaving badly” gestalt that widely appealed to the pussy-whipped masses, The Hangover raked in big bucks and ushered in a new wave of big-screen raunch.…

Renoir paints a beautiful picture

Joe Bardi — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:11:00 -0400

The Tampa Theatre imports a little summer counterprogramming from France. by Joe Bardi French import Renoir, opening this weekend at the Tampa Theatre, is the anti-summer blockbuster. A stately period piece set in the French Riviera, the movie is a slow, quiet look at the relationship between painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet), his son Jean (Vincent Rottiers) and the actress Andrée Heuschling (Christa Theret).…

Star Trekking at the gates of hell

Joe Bardi — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:57:00 -0400

The crew of the Enterprise returns for the workmanlike Into Darkness. by Joe Bardi I loved director J.J. Abrams’ reinvention of Star Trek the first time around, but Star Trek Into Darkness, though often fun and exciting, suffers from many of the usual sequel pitfalls. It’s not a bad movie, just one that trades the first movie’s spark of originality for a workmanlike approach that’s more about setting up future installments than telling a cohesive and satisfying story.…

Simon Pegg: Great Scotty!

Joe Bardi — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:56:00 -0400

The multitalented Simon Pegg is a geek for all seasons. by Joe Bardi Simon Pegg is probably best known as Montgomery Scott (aka Scotty) in director J.J. Abrams’ hit reboot of Star Trek, but the Englishman has been a successful actor, writer and director for more than a decade. After creating and starring in the British sitcom Spaced in 1999, Pegg went on to co-write and star in cult favorites Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, both featuring his hilarious longtime pal Nick Frost and directed by Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World).…

The good Gatsby

Joe Bardi — Fri, 10 May 2013 04:04:00 -0400

Baz and Leo scratch the surface of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel. by Joe Bardi Australian director Baz Luhrmann sure knows how to throw a party. Sprinkled throughout his big-budget 3-D adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great American Novel candidate The Great Gatsby are soirees so elaborate that I found myself wishing I had been cast as an extra.…

Peeples, please

Anthony Salveggi — Fri, 10 May 2013 03:59:00 -0400

Craig Robinson and Kerry Washington make an unbelievable pair. by Anthony Salveggi In the Tyler Perry-produced Peeples, Craig Robinson displays some of the same comedic appeal that he’s showed on The Office. But save for just a few of Robinson’s scenes, Peeples is a dismal comedy that rushes incompetently through its thin jokes and a premise that should give some couples pause before scheduling this for date night.…

Blockbusters invade the multiplex!

Joe Bardi — Thu, 09 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

The 10 summer movies you need to see. by Joe Bardi Iron Man 3 kicked off the 2013 summer movie season right last week, opening the floodgates to an endless stream of CGI-enhanced destruction. More than 100 movies will be released over the next four months, but who can see them all?…

B Movies in Bradenton

Joe Bardi — Thu, 09 May 2013 03:59:00 -0400

South Florida Museum celebrates sci-fi all summer long. by Joe Bardi Back during Hollywood’s 1940s “Golden Age,” a B movie was the bottom half of a double feature, usually a Western. Multi-film bills phased out in the 1950s, but the term B movie stuck around, usually assigned to cheap genre movies before the age of the blockbuster arrived in the 1970s and turned B movie topics (alien invasions, disaster movies and the like) into big budget entertainment.…

Summer on the Boob Tube

Leilani Polk — Thu, 09 May 2013 03:58:00 -0400

Escape the summer heat by hunkering down with some good ol’ bad TV. by Leilani Polk Plenty of great television is slated to air this summer, but the sheer bounty of bad reality programming outweighs it by a ton of Kardashians. The best of the worst is listed below.…

Settle in for some binge-watching

Joe Bardi — Thu, 09 May 2013 03:57:00 -0400

RX for summer: Mass quantities of Arrested Development, Hemlock and Onion. by Joe Bardi As I write this, the Bay area is experiencing an unseasonable wave of dry air that’s keeping temperatures well below their steamy average. Don’t get used to it.…

Iron Man 3: The man makes the suit

Anthony Salveggi — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:04:00 -0400

Robert Downey Jr. is Marvel-ous as Tony Stark in the super follow-up to The Avengers. by Anthony Salveggi The blockbuster season begins with this Friday’s release of Iron Man 3. Already, the latest Marvel production has hauled in an overseas take that surpasses what The Avengers raked in over its opening weekend.…

All Pain, no Gain

Joe Bardi — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:05:00 -0400

You’ll definitely feel the burn if subjected to Michael Bay’s latest abomination. by Joe Bardi Why do I do this to myself? I went into Pain & Gain hoping for the best.…

McConaughey finds gold in Mud

Kyle Dunn — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:08:00 -0400

Director Jeff Nichols latest has a clean-spirited outlook that lifts it above the rubble of reality. by Kyle Dunn Director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter) channels Twain in his newest film Mud, and what it lacks in thrills, twists or turns, the movie makes up for with something more appropriate for this kind of story: spirit. Ellis (Tye Sheridan) is a country-bred teenage boy with a lot of time on his hands after he's finished helping his father with his small fishing business, operated on the river that is their backyard and their livelihood.…

Arthur Newman is uneven at best

Philip Booth — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:00:00 -0400

Above-average performances highlight an otherwise disappointing film. by Philip Booth For some, it amounts to a persistent fantasy: Shuck the old identity, and all that accumulated excess emotional and physical and financial baggage, and try on a new persona. After work one day, sail right on past the highway exit leading to one’s neighborhood, and head out to parts unknown.…

This Wedding crashes

Anthony Salveggi — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:23:00 -0400

The cast looks great. The rest is a mess. by Anthony Salveggi As La Cage Aux Folles begat The Birdcage, France’s Mon frères se marie has similarly spurned a Hollywood remake in The Big Wedding. What they share is familial tension, prejudice and misunderstanding played for laughs.…

Company man

Daniel Feingold — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:02:00 -0400

Robert Redford returns to the director’s chair for The Company You Keep. by Daniel Feingold The Company You Keep has high aspirations, including explorations of the similarities between activism and terrorism, the loyalties of old counterparts, and the bond between a father and a daughter. Robert Redford’s latest directorial effort touches on all of these, but in doing so, doesn’t develop any of them enough to leave a lasting impression.…

Tom Cruise faces Oblivion

Joe Bardi — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:37:00 -0400

The movie’s gorgeous, but that beauty is only skin deep. by Joe Bardi I’m tempted to trash Oblivion as empty-headed sci-fi leaning hard on star power and special effects in lieu of ideas to draw an audience. That would be a fair response to the film, and your enjoyment of it or lack thereof will largely depend on your ability to turn off your mind, relax and float downstream.…

Jackie Robinson bio-pic 42 is a hit …

Joe Bardi — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:59:00 -0400

… but A Place Beyond the Pines and Trance go down swinging. by Joe Bardi It’s April, which means baseball season is now in full swing, both on the field and at the multiplex. Movie fans know that Hollywood isn’t exactly batting .1000 when it comes to baseball movies, and for every The Natural or Bull Durham there’s just as many Cobbs, Fever Pitches and Major League 3s striking out on the big screen.…

Zombie reunion

Paul Guzzo — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:05:00 -0400

How Tampa filmmaker Joe Davison turned a horror movie shoot in Alaska into deténte with his dying father. by Paul Guzzo Everyone deals with grief differently. Some cry, or laugh, or turn to God or the bottle.…

Evil Dead = dead on

Kevin Tall — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:01:00 -0400

The satisfying, modern remake of the horror cult classic is part homage, part re-imagining of the original Sam Raimi film. by Kevin Tall Five friends gear up for a weekend sojourn to a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere. Stop me if you’ve heard this one.…

Say yes to No

Joe Bardi — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:34:00 -0400

A clever marketing campaign ousts a dictator in No. by Joe Bardi Marketing is often derided as one of the great evils of modern life, but even the advertising weenies can play the part of hero. One such example was a 1988 special election in Chile, a referendum on the rule of U.S.-installed dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet.…

Held hostage by The Host

Katelyn Williamson — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:50:00 -0400

The latest Stephenie Meyer adaptation sucks the life out of our critic. by Katelyn Williamson The Host is the latest film adaptation of a novel by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, which is like noting some new disease is a mutation of the same virus that gives us the Flu. Meyer’s work is for fans only, and she’s been much maligned by critics and haters.…

Quality time with Lincoln

Joe Bardi — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:46:00 -0400

Spielberg’s bio-pic looks even better on Blu-ray. by Joe Bardi I was a big fan of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln when it first came out last November. If I had written a top 10 of 2012, Lincoln would have landed at number two, behind only Silver Linings Playbook.…