Fontaine's Film Wipe

"Ambulance" is director Michael Bay's remake of the 2005 Danish movie "Ambulancen," and a lesson on what not to do with a remake. Chris Fedak's wilting screenplay about two brothers who hijack an ambulance to escape a botched bank heist extends the original story's 80 minute runtime by fifty-six minutes, and it feels like an eternity.  Michael Bay needs no introduction. He is well known for classics like "Bad Boys" and "The Rock." He has a bombastic style full of quick cuts and big special effects, and it served him well in the nineties and 2000s. He pulls from the usual bag of tricks in this film, but somehow none of them work, and even stranger, none of them feel particularly Bay-ish. For example, he employs a drone camera for several sweeping shots, but they wind up looking like he strapped a lens to a flying pigeon. I got vertigo watching "Ambulance," and none of its scenes involve heights.  Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abd...

I considered publishing separate reviews for each of the films in "The Hunger Games" trilogy, but decided against it when I realized that my reaction to all of them was essentially the same. I could go on and on about these movies, but instead I'll be uncharacteristically brief with one collective assessment. I should note that the first film rolled out in 2012, and the last one was released in 2015, although there is a fourth entry in the works that is expected to hit theaters next year.  The're based on the bestselling science fiction novels by Suzanne Collins. I've never read them, but if the movies are anything to go by, they're probably pretty good. In fact, they're probably better than their celluloid adaptations, which wouldn't be a big shocker. But the films aren't nearly as bad as they could have been, and that's saying something given that their casts are surprisingly lackluster and their prevailing mood is rather leaden and dark. I...

I have a long-held respect for John Cusack. He's more than an actor; it's clear from the roles he chooses and the projects he backs that he's a film buff. There's no other way to interpret a career than spans titles like "High Fidelity," "America's Sweethearts," and this 1997 gem from Hollywood Pictures. It was directed by George Armitage ("Miami Blues," "The Big Bounce"), produced by Susan Arnold, Donna Arkoff Roth, Roger Birnbaum, and written by Tom Jankiewicz, D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, and Cusack, although Armitage has stories about the writing process. He says it was contentious, with several rewrites, tons of content rejection, and seemingly endless improvisation. Complicating matters further, he shot three versions of "Grosse Pointe Blank." There was the version written on paper. Then there was the "mildly understated" version, in which the cast was encouraged to tone everything down. Lastly, he f...