Category Archives: Jack_Goes_Confidential
Jack Goes Confidential: K.C.’s Holiday Wrap now at MultiPlexes!
Here’s My Take on Santa’s final bag of cinematic tricks—which also mark 2009’s final major studio releases!
Upfront, director Guy Ritchie’s dynamic reinvention of old Victorian detective Sherlock Holmes and sidekick Doctor Watson.
To say Ritchie’s overloaded Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic creation would be an understatement.
He turned it into a bombastic sleuth adventure headlined by Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law and their female interests Rachel McAdams and Kelly Reilly.
Baker Street Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: Jack’s choice for BEST PICTURE Here this Weekend!
For my money, here’s the film of the year!
UP IN THE AIR is director Jason (“Juno”) Reitman’s razer sharp and wickedly funny dark satiric-drama about a business model that seems to be flourishing during these tough economic times.
…the DOWNSIZING EXPERTS!
George Clooney stars as hatchet man Ryan Bingham who’s one of the best.
His smooth-as-silk approach leaves a lot of his blindsided Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: AVATAR delivers the Goods. Digital 3-D Soars to New Horizons!
Welcome to 2154’s alien-world of “Pandora,” director James Cameron’s spectacular creation beyond imagination…
A world in which former wheelchair-confined Marine Jake Sully–played by Sam Worthington–is transported Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: Clint Eastwood directs Morgan Freeman to Possible Oscar Honors!
Another potential Oscar contender enters Kansas City’s megaplexes this weekend!
It’s INVICTUS, the historical Bio-Drama which combines the acting talents of Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon with those of producer-director Clint Eastwood.
So what about this title?
Well INVICTUS in Latin stands for UNCONQUERABLE—which makes sense when applied to the story, but none when it comes to marketing this class motion picture.
INVICTUS is the true and inspiring story of how South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, united his country by embracing the national rugby team’s persuit of the 1995 World Cup against New Zealand
Matt Damon takes the role of Francois Pienaar, the buffed, beefed-up and pure muscle blond Afrikaner-captain of the national team—and pulls it off! Continue reading
JACK GOES CONFIDENTIAL: ‘EVERYBODY’S FINE’ Surprises
EVERYBODY’S FINE is what I like to think of as the holiday movie season’s early December Surprise!
It certainly casts Robert DeNiro in a completely different light.
Not as the typical tough guy, but as a recently widowed father who’s planning a family reunion-weekend with his four grown kids at his home. And he’s pulling out all the stops!
Good wine. Choice cuts of beef. The works.
…that is until they one-by-one bail out at the last minute. Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘PRECIOUS’ Delivers Raw Shocks. Painful to Watch!
26 year old Gabourey Sidibe’s portrayal of 16 year old Claireece ‘Precious’ Jones is Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: Bullock scores Touchdown for Thanksgiving!
THE BLIND SIDE is an uplifting and inspirational Bio-Drama that should redeem Sandra Bullock for her Labor Day weekend cinematic misstep ALL ABOUT STEVE—a movie I’m sure she wouldn’t like to be reminded of these days.
Here Bullock stars in the true story of black Baltimore Ravens tackle Michael Oher.
She plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, an affluent Memphis interior designer and mother of two, who rescues Oher from life on the streets.
Oher is receptive to the opportunity given him by this family and becomes a son, brother and one hell of an All-American offensive left tackle.
Oher being part of the Tuohy’s lives leads them to some insightful discoveries of their own. While Oher in his new environment faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome as both a student and football player.
Lots’a sociological sideline issues and a good dose of sugarcoating of both racial and political realities in the South. Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: PIRATE RADIO Rocks Brits from Off-Shore!
During the late 60’s American AM radio stations blasted Rock ‘N Roll 24 hours a day.
Yet in the home country of THE BEATLES and THE ROLLING STONES, the only way young Britain’s could get their R & R fix was by tuning to renegade PIRATE RADIO stations docked off-shore in the North Sea.
The government tried everything possible to shut them down—and eventually succeeded.
PIRATE RADIO was ‘INSPIRED’ Continue reading
JACK GOES CONFIDENTIAL: 2012 – The Ultimate Disaster Flick. High Art it’s Not!
German movie maker Roland Emmerich’s special effects trick bag sure has come a long way since bringing us INDEPENDENCE DAY and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW.
Too bad his Eye on Script and Acting didn’t follow suit!
Make no mistake about it 2012 is the MOTHER of ALL disaster movies. And the film’s huge production Continue reading
JACK GOES CONFIDENTIAL: It’s Only a Movie…Only a Movie…Only a Movie – Take as Much as you Can!
Fans of the paranormal and supernatural are feasting on a smorgasbord of films currently in Kansas City.
There’s the long-running ZOMBIELAND, CIRQUE DU FREAK, SAW VI—and the breakthrough hit PARANORMAL ACTIVITY.
This weekend Hollywood adds 3 more titles of the genre!
The first is the dark comedy of psychic detectives with the strange title THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS.
Here small town reporter Ewan McGregor encounters Continue reading
JACK GOES CONFIDENTIAL: DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL Wows and Delights!
Since the Walt Disney Company felt strong enough that the time was right for yet another remake of Charles Dickens A CHRISTMAS CAROL—the 7th film version to be specific—it first had to find the right person to helm the project.
Selecting visionary filmmaker Robert Zemeckis to direct the studio’s new version was clearly the right move by the House of Mouse as his new production trumps all others and Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: Michael Jackson delivers beyond expectations!
MICHAEL JACKSON’S: THIS IS IT is not a documentary per se. It is a quasi Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: Butch Goes to the Movies at Crown Center!
Motion Picture Management, a partnership between local movie mavens Butch Rigby and John Shipp, are bringing film exhibition back to Crown Center in Kansas City.
The pair currently manage the PLAZA 8 THEATRE, a discount movie operation in St. Joseph, Missouri.
To be known as SCREENLAND CROWN CENTER, Kansas City’s newest movieplex will take over the two remaining auditoriums of Crown Center’s previous six-plex located on the 3rd floor of Crown Center Shops.
The main auditorium will seat 175 while the second seats 125.
The other four auditoriums were converted into the OFF CENTER THEATRE—a live entertainment venue.
So what will be the booking policy for SCREENLAND CROWN CENTER? Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: CIRQUE Du FREAK–Funky fun with a bite!
The smash success of the Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: AMELIA takeoff fails to reach altitude!
I was really, really looking forward to enjoying Hilary Swank in the title role of Amelia Earhart.
That was last week before I glanced at VARIETY’s early review of the film.
Here’s a quote from their thumbs-down take on the film:
“To say that AMELIA never gets off the ground would be an understatement; it barely makes it out of the hangar….what rankles most about AMELIA is the timidity and lack of imagination with which (director) Mira Nair approached one of America’s most exceptional and intriguing celebrity life stories….”
My take? Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: Gruesome Revenge Thriller has audiences squirming!
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN is a gruesome, take-no-prisoners revenge thriller!
Matter of fact the film’s opening sequence pretty well sets the tone of violence to follow in its ensuing 108 minutes of visually shocking scenes.
Picture this: A home invasion in which two scumbags beat Gerard Butler senseless and murder his wife and daughter.
Happily the killers are caught.
But that’s where justice gets tricky! Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Wild Things’ out of Cinematic Ordinary!
Not having grown up reading WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, my perspective on director Spike Jonze’s screen adaptation may be a bit different then that of most other critics.
Being raised in East Germany, MY early reading consisted of Grimm Brothers fairy tales, Hansel and Gretel, and stories of (grandpa) Joseph Stalin’s gifts to post war children.
To turn a 400 word mini-childrens Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Couples Retreat’ could stand its own Therapy Sessions!
The trailers and TV ads for COUPLES RETREAT would have you believe this is a non-stop, laugh-a-minute comedy.
It’s not.
Sure there are plenty of funny moments and circumstances in the film’s first half. But things slow down immensely after that, and the movie turns mostly into Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: Weekend Trifecta At The Movies!
A slew of new movies are on deck for this first (unofficial) Fall Film Premier Weekend!
My three picks include the clever and funny new comedy THE INVENTION OF LYING, set in a alternative reality where lying—even the concept of a lie—just doesn’t exist.
Enter down-on-his-luck loser Ricky Gervais who suddenly turns tables by developing the ability TO LIE!
Lots of great sidegags and funny signage pop up all through the picture.
My favorite: Pepsi When They Don’t Have Coke
Or some of the raunchy truths being tossed around like when Gervais is picking up Jennifer Garner for a first date and she volunteers “I’ve just been masturbating.” (You’ve got to love the truth.) Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: Disney’s Robo-Clones in need of Re-Boot!
The headline in Disney’s color ad for SURROGATES in the Kansas City Star screams The First Great Thriller of the Fall!
At closer inspection there is no critic’s name attached to that headline—making it the Walt Disney Company itself that’s proclaiming Continue reading
