Isaac's Film Reviews

Faster, furious-er Full, spoiler-free review by Isaac Handelman It’s not often that I give a film as poorly acted, shoddily scripted and ostensibly cheesy as high a score as I’ll give Fast & Furious 6 . It’s also not often that a film as poorly acted, shoddily scripted and ostensibly cheesy as Fast & Furious 6 manages to be as wildly entertaining as Fast 6 is. Ultimately, the film is exactly what one would expect out of it going in, based on both the title and the series’ history. That the film fulfills its vision is almost undeniable; all one needs to ask him or herself before seeing Fast 6 is whether that vision interests them in the slightest. As per the series usual, the narrative of Fast 6 hinges almost entirely on its ensemble cast. The film forgoes the entertaining heist setup of 2011’s Fast Five , and as such the central story conflict in 6 is not nearly as interesting as it was in Five. That’s a somewhat disappointing departure, as the heist-centric narrati...

Generic in execution but enjoyable in practice Full, spoiler-free review by Isaac Handelman Taking 2005’s Wedding Crashers as a precedent, few would have suspected Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson’s new buddy comedy, The Internship , would contain an ounce of sweetness or goodwill. It’s surprising to find that Internship is one of the more lighthearted, uplifting, just-plain- happy comedies to come to theaters in years. It will not please all -- some bizarre tonal shifts, aggravating use of narrative cliches, and lack of much true laugh-out-loud material will see to that -- but The Internship provides a harmless good time, and an experience that’s refreshing when compared to the increasingly mean-spirited comedies releasing in today’s cinematic landscape. However, to say that mean spirit is entirely lacking in The Internship would be a lie. The film follows best friends Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson). After being let go from their sales positions at a faltering wat...

A new breed of blockbuster Full, spoiler-free review by Isaac Handelman All the signs point to World War Z being a somewhat generic summer blockbuster -- it’s got zombies (an increasingly common pop-culture icon), explosions and special effects galore, and a mega-star for a leading man in the form of Brad Pitt. Wonderfully enough, however, World War Z is anything but a by-the-numbers summer adrenaline fest. It has all of the aforementioned ingredients in ready supply, but it never relies entirely on any of them, instead interweaving its big budget thrills with a narrative that hits surprisingly close to home and containing some fantastic performances to boot. Couple those strengths with some of the most gripping, intense moments in recent cinematic memory, and suddenly World War Z becomes something very special -- and very rare. What’s immediately stunning about the film is how real it feels right off the bat, thanks in part to Marc Forster’s raw direction and some shaky (bu...

Turns out the "S" actually does stand for "Superman," not "hope." Full review by Isaac Handelman The trailers and TV-spots for Man of Steel made it out to be the Dark Knight of Superman lore. Though the filmmakers were sure to clarify that the film would not embrace the dark, brooding tone of Christopher Nolan’s revered trilogy, we were promised that Man of Steel would treat us to a deeper, more personal look at the internal struggle of Clark Kent on his journey to uncover the truth behind his origin and ultimately become the legendary spandex hero we all know and love. But in reality, Man of Steel does none of that. It tries, mind you, but the film’s attempts at profound exploration of Kent’s psychological state fall rather flat, resulting in what boils down to a fairly by-the-numbers Superman movie. Never before has that been a problem -- the issue here is that, this time around, we the moviegoers were promised something more. Man of Steel ’s b...