Maxim’s Movie Reviews and Opinions Blog

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) R 106min

The plot: A New York subway dispatcher Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) is summonned on the radio. He is told by the mastermind of the hijacking (John Travolta) of the Pelham 1 2 3 train to follow his orders: to demand 10,000,000 dollars ransom from the mayor of New [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Revolutionary Road (2008)

“Revolutionary Road” is a drama set in 1950s based on Robert Yates’s novel and directed by Sam Mendes (Jarhead, Road to Perdition, American Beauty) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Kathy Bates.
The plot: A young couple living in mid-1950s in a Connecticut suburb is going through mid-life crisis while trying to raise [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Slumdog Millionaire is drama co-directed by brilliant directors Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, The Beach, 28 Days Later and more) and Loveleen Tandan (Vanity Fair, Monsoon Wedding etc.) based on Vikas Swarup’s novel with the same title. I had no idea what the movie is about; I just heard from some friends on Facebook that [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

This 3D-animated adventure based on Kate DiCamillo’s book was directed by Sam Fell and Robert Stevenhagen, featuring voices of Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Broderic, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Klein and others.
The plot: The lives of three heroes, a mouse with big ears who prefers reading books to eating [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

The Invisible (2007)

The plot: A talented high-school student is beaten and left for dead by his criminal classmate. He becomes a ghost, helplessly trying to figure out why he was killed and hopefully get his life back – the cops should find his body in time before he’s completely dead.
The good: Quite interesting characters: [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Body of Lies (2008) R

This spy/action flick is directed by Ridley Scott (American Gangster (2007), Num3rs, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Matchstick Men (2003), Black Hawk Down (2001)). It’s based on Washington Post columnist David Ignatius’s 2007 novel “Body of Lies”.
The plot: CIA operative, [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Miracle at St. Anna (2008)

A.k.a. Miracolo a Sant’Anna is directed Spike Lee (Malcolm X (1992), The Original Kings of Comedy (2000), 25th Hour (2002)) based on James McBride’s novel who also wrote the screenplay for this movie.
The plot: Miracle at St. Anna is loosly based on actual massacre at Sant’Anna di Stazzema in August [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

The Good German (2006)

Steven Soderbergh (Good Night, and Good Luck, A Scanner Darkly) directed this 2006 after-WWII drama starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Jerry Maguire based on Joseph Kanon’s novel.
The plot: July 1945. Stalin, Roosevelt and Chirchill are meeting to divide liberated Europe. Journalist Jake Geismer (George Clooney) arrives to cover the Potsdam conference. He [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Persepolis (2007)

Persepolis is a political film describing life in Iran over the past 40 years in the form of… animated story.
The plot: Marjane Satrapi, director and writer of the movie, uses the comic and now the cartoon to tell the story of her life (with some artistic liberties). She was born in 1969 in [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Love In Time Of Cholera (2007) R 1h 40min

This is an Golden Globe-nominated (2007) romantic drama directed by Mike Newell based on the novel by Gabriel García Márquez and starring Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno and John Leguizamo.
The plot: 19th century Colombia. An old man falls from a tree and before he dies he professes eternal love to his wife Fermina [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Another wonderful movie based on the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri directed and produced by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding (2001), Vanity Fair (2004)) starring Irfan Khan and Kal Penn.
The plot: In the late 60s-early 70s Ashoke Ganguli (Irfan Khan) was traveling on the train to his grandfather in Calcutta and reading a book by Nicholai [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

“Smart People” is a comedy and drama based on novel by Mark Poirier and directed by Noam Murro, an award winning director [of commercials]. Correct me if I’m wrong, but “Smart People” appears to be the first feature film he directed. I went to the theater with very low hopes. This movies was made [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

The plot: Post-World War II Italy is going through devastating period of depression. A job is hard to come by. Antonio Ricci manages to get a job after two years of unemployment: to drive around Rome and put up posters of Rita Heyworth, and it requires a bicycle. His bicycle is broken and he [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Road To Perdition (2002)

The plot: Mike Sullivan (Tom Hanks) works as a hit man and enforcer for crime boss John Rooney (Paul Newman), whom he views as a father figure. However after his son witnessed a killing he has done Rooney’s own sun (Daniel Craig) kills Mike’s wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and other son, [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

From the director of Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Supremacy Doug Liman comes this action movie based on novel by Steven Gould.
The plot: David Rice (Hayden Christinsen, earlier Max Thieriot) discovers that he has a power to teleport himself anywhere on Earth. After having some fun with his power, he realises he [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

The plot: Andrea Sachs’s (Anne Hathaway) dream was to become a journalist. A naive young woman, she comes to New York and scores a temporary job for the Runway [fashion] magazine working as an assistant secretary to ruthless, if not sadistic, chief editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). Andrea puts up [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

This is a feel-good drama starring Hollywood sweethearts John Cusack and Amanda Pete based on a novel “Martian Child” by David Gerrold.
The plot: a widowed science fiction writer, who writes about Mars, decides to adopt a child. He picks a 6-year old who claims he’s from Mars. A series of events happen that make [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

“There Will Be Blood” based on the novel “Oil!” by Upton Sinclair and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Cigarettes & Coffee, Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia, and of course several episodes of Saturday Night Live) who also wrote the script. It was in theatres in wide release for a month now, but the seats were [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

Vanity Fair (2004)

I didn’t read William Makepeace Thackeray’s classic novel yet, but looking forward to it (should have read it when I was a kid – everyone I know did). The movie is directed by Mira Nair and script written by Matthew Faulk and Mark Skeet.
The plot: Becky Sharp (Angelica Mandy/Reese Witherspoon) was from [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]

It’s interesting that Steven Spielberg was the executive producer of this movie. I didn’t read the book, but I interviewed some people who did and they said that the movie is mostly faithful to the 1997 best-selling novel, with just a few scenes dropped from the book for the sake of making film short [...]

Bookmark

[Read more →]