Tag: Katie Holmes

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

“Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” is a silly, wooden horror story with a dumb family and plot at its center.

The characters of “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” are always unwisely poking their heads and appendages into dark spaces they shouldn’t be. It’s one of the few ways the film’s monsters,  bite-size monkeys crossed with the Tooth Fairy (I kid you not), can wreak havoc on this bland, underdeveloped family dumb enough to live in a haunted house.

Seriously, which is more cliche? An oblivious, idiot father (Guy Pearce) who ignores his daughter Sally’s (Bailee Madison) pleas for help from the creatures that go bump in the night or the wise, old groundskeeper who’s always on hand to warn that the basement isn’t safe for children? Continue reading “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”

Wonder Boys

It isn’t often to see intellectual comedies this side of Woody Allen. Perhaps it’s because few actors can crack wise about other “faux intellectuals” the way Woody can. “Wonder Boys” is a clever, wry film based on Michael Chabon’s inventive novel that certainly tries.

It stars Michael Douglas as the Woody Allen surrogate, English Professor Grady Tripp. Grady is a writer who struck gold once and is now plagued not with writer’s block but an inability to stop writing. As his sophomore book grows ever longer, he finds it hard to focus and come to an ending.

Distracting Grady are his students James (Tobey Maguire) and Hannah (Katie Holmes), the boy a dark, socially awkward kid with a writing gift of his own, and the girl renting a room from Grady but not afraid to move into his. His quasi-gay publishing editor Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.) also pesters him, his wife has left him and his boss and lover Sarah (Frances McDormand) is pregnant.

He also has a dead dog in his trunk.

“Wonder Boys” is a movie about how a man finds his destination in life, especially when there are so many wacky, interesting people around and things going on. Continue reading “Wonder Boys”