Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
If you loved Mark Ruffalo in HBO’s terrific miniseries Task, you need to go see Crime 101 immediately. I’m not sure when Crime 101 was made, but if Brett Layton, its writer/director, didn’t watch Task first, I’d be surprised. Ruffalo’s engrossing turn here as another rumpled but wise detective with a sad personal life is just one reason to see Crime 101, a highly entertaining and utterly absorbing heist thriller.
A Walk in the Woods, based on Bill Bryson’s popular 1998 memoir of attempting to hike the Appalachian Trail, is inevitably going to be compared to Wild, last year’s film of Cheryl Strayed’s memoir about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, on the opposite side of the country. Aside from similar plots, though, the two films have little in common; Wild is the better picture by far, but A Walk in the Woods holds its own as a sort of lightweight, droll counterpart. What Wild did for solo women hikers on the PCT, A Walk in the Woods might do for the grandfather set on the AT.
starring: Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez and Michael Chiklis
written by: John J. McLaughlin
directed by: Taylor Hackford
MPAA: Rated R for strong violence, language throughout and brief sexual content/nudity Continue reading “Film Review: Parker“
starring: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Kevin Dunn
written by: Gavin O’Connor, Anthony Tambakis & Cliff Dorfman
directed by: Gavin O’Connor
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense mixed martial arts fighting, some language and thematic material