Ron's Popcorn Reviews.com
Movies reviewed based on the concept of filmmaking as an art.
LATEST REVIEWS
4/4 STARS
Posted November 6, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko seems like a fairytale with a happy ending compared to his latest film, The Box. This masterful and tragic movie goes to far greater depths than one could imagine. It has the power to make you weep, frightened, and heavily shaken. Calling it amazing is such a petty description for a movie that, to its very core, is real. Yes. The Box is a supernatural thriller. But the powerful emotions involved make this movie so much more. Read More>>>
3/4 STARS
Posted November 6, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
The Men Who Stare at Goats is a classic example of misleading advertising. The trailer for this movie suggests an outrageous slapstick comedy rather than a much lower key and deadpan style of humor. Audiences will flock to see George Clooney sport a silly moustache and kill a goat by staring at it. They will either leave the theater greatly disappointed or oddly touched. The thing about a movie like this is that it can blend an over-the-top storyline with over-the-top characters but yet somehow still have a heart. In other words, it’s what a comedy should be. Read More>>>
3.5/4 STARS
Posted November 5, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
Moviegoers today probably have no memory or knowledge of 1970’s blaxploitation pictures. Instead of spoofing those movies, Black Dynamite embraces the spirit of them to remind people. This is a hilarious, ingenious, and technically brilliant homage to B movies. But Black Dynamite doesn’t simply parody B movies. It sorta is a B movie. Read More>>>
2/4 STARS
Posted November 2, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
Apartheid (Afrikaans for apartness) was a system of racial segregation legally enforced by the ruling white minority in
Skin, based on the true story of Sandra Laing, begins with this written on the screen. With this information that any viewer attending the movie learned in middle school, Skin positions itself as a preachy history lesson bearing no authenticity and certainly no likeability.
3/4 STARS
Posted November 1, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
Samantha Hughes has four-hundred dollars in her back pocket. There’s a number for a pizza place on the fridge. The house is spacious with a decent sized television set. She has a check to write for Monday and the apartment of her dreams waiting for her. Oh, and there’s a number for pizza on the fridge. The House of the Devil, a creepy and creative little piece of nostalgic filmmaking, will take advantage of everything Samantha Hughes enjoys and wants and use it to deliver her to her doom. Read More>>>
3.5/4 STARS
Posted October 30, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
Violence in cinema has greatly evolved from the days when just a shootout scene would be deemed grotesque. It has gone from being considered exploitative to being generally accepted. However, when a film comes out in 2009 and has critics and audiences bewildered at how violent it is, it is automatically an indication that the filmmaker responsible has crossed some kind of line. For Lars von Trier, breaking rules and polarizing critics is the norm but he has even outdone himself with Antichrist. The explicit sexual violence will off put many, if not most, of the audience and it will certainly disturb all, but for the few enlightened viewers in the crowd Antichrist will be a powerful, philosophical, psychological, and highly thought-provoking experience. Read More>>>
LATEST BLOG ENTRIES
Critics are now obsessed with "Precious." Yuck!
Posted November 5, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
So a little movie called Precious (stuck with a clunky subtitle) is coming out this weekend and has everybody raving. I personally think the movie looks like a total piece of shit. It seems exploitative, sappy, self-pitiful, and melodramatic. I don’t want to see a movie that exploits its characters. For Christ Sake! The main character is illiterate, horrendously overweight, pregnant with her second child from her own effin’ father, abused by her mother, and…oh I don’t know what’s the next worst thing. Lee Daniels had to make this the most tragic girl in the history of movies too get sympathy but it just seems like crap. She couldn’t just be pregnant? She had to be pregnant from her own dad? Read more at my blog
So far so good
Posted November 1, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
As you may have noticed, the small project I mentioned in last week's blog has come to fruition. First of all, I'm relieved to have completed the archives. I believe it will be easier with the archives to find all reviews instead of ones for specific years. Best of all, I am beginning to re watch some of my favorite films and write reviews on them. The page is Essays (pre-2008). So it's not the best title but I didn't want to entitle it Great Movies because all I'm doing is reviewing older films. Older doesn't mean great. So for now, the page where I review older films will be Essays (pre-2008).
Small project
Posted October 26, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
Let's cut to the chase: my site is too current. I review only new and current movies. I do this because creating another page would prove to be complicated but I've decided to try it. If you're a loyalist to this site, you might remember my brief experiment with the Essays page. I had two essays up, one for The Departed and one for Fargo. I was working on an essay for Raging Bull but then decided to shutdown the Essays project. This time I’m committing to a new page. It’s unfair for my readers to be deprived of any reviews if I don’t see anything for a week. With my new page, readers can indulge in reviews of some of my favorite movies from various decades. The problem is that I have no idea what to name it. Roger Ebert calls it “Great Movies” but some of the older films I will be reviewing aren’t necessarily great to me. I might just review them because they are classics. So what do I call the page? ”Oldies but Goodies?” But apart from the title, this gives me an opportunity to respect cinema more and acknowledge and re-watch some of my favorite films. Read more at my blog
Toronto starts off Oscar buzz
Posted September 12, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
The summer blockbuster season is over, the Toronto Film Festival is proceeding as I write this, and Oscar season is getting ready to kick off. Traditionally, people start buzzing after Toronto, but several films have already awed critics. Take for example Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air. I am still greatly pissed off that Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island was pushed back to 2010. If you follow my blog, you should be aware that Shutter Island was the movie I was most excited for in 2009. After all, Martin Scorsese is my favorite director of all time, even edging out Hitchcock who crafted my favorite horror movie ever made, The Birds. In this past week my faith in the 2009 Fall season is restored. Read more at my blog
LATEST DVD REVIEWS (PRE-2008)
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS (2002)
4/4 STARS
Posted October 29, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
Quentin Tarantino’s movies have a lot of talking. The Lord of the Rings trilogy has a lot of walking. Walking and talking are considered to be the dullest elements of movies. Tarantino turned talking into an art form. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the second and best chapter of the highly praised trilogy, turns walking into an exhilarating and absorbing three hours. This entry is one of the greatest sequels ever made, improving on every flaw of The Fellowship of the Ring. Every criticism of mine of the first chapter does not apply to The Two Towers, a soaring masterpiece of innovative filmmaking and strong storytelling. Read More>>>
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001)
2.5/4 STARS
Posted October 29, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
No trilogy since the first three Star Wars films (episodes 4-6) has been as lauded as The Lord of the Rings. Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s benchmark collection of books, the first chapter of the story was brought to the screen in 2001 and made a household name out of Peter Jackson, as well as some of the stars. The Fellowship of the Ring marks the beginning of one of the most well-known and applauded trilogies in the history of cinema. However, that does not indicate that the film, which sets up the next and far superior two entries, is anything more than an overblown, and overlong, muddle. Read More>>>
FARGO (1996)
4/4 STARS
Posted April 9, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
“You did all that, just for a little bit of money?” Marge Gunderson asks. The tired and insane Grimsrud stares back and looks confused. He is realizing that he probably doesn’t even know himself. And when the innocent Marge asks that, not only do we mentally recap the brilliant
THE DEPARTED (2006)
4/4 STARS
Posted April 9, 2009
By Ron Rapoport
Martin Scorsese’s name is embedded in cinematic history. Almost any movie he makes becomes a classic, such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, GoodFellas, and Casino, but I think his greatest achievement is The Departed. It is hard to say that because GoodFellas is almost equally as good, but The Departed is much deeper on a psychological level. It morally tests the audience and like Million Dollar Baby, it is not about good and evil, but about right and wrong. What is the difference between the demented mob boss and the foul mouthed and violent police sergeant? These are the types of question that The Departed lays out, and they all add up to one big question: What divides both sides of the law? Read More>>>
