Word: allen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Leave California: When Woody Allen ditched New York for the Old World, he made one of his best films in years, Match Point, in London. Your home turf of Northern California has inspired everything from American Graffiti to Tatooine, but maybe it's time to find a new region for stimulation. Perhaps Hawaii, where you and Steven Spielberg first shook on making Indiana Jones together...
...seems a few words too long. But once it gets going, Crystal Skull delivers smart, robust, familiar entertainment. Ford looks just fine, his chest skin tanned to a rich Corinthian leather; he's still lithe on his feet, and can deliver a wisecrack as sharp as a whipcrack. Karen Allen, 56, who was Indy's saucy love Marion Ravenwood in Raiders, still has that glittering smile and vestiges of her old elfin swagger. They needn't break a sweat keeping up with the (relative) kids: 39-year-old Cate Blanchett, the movie's villainess, and Shia LaBeouf, who plays...
...sexy that Juan Antonio's father still has erotic dreams of her, Maria Elena had been Juan Antonio's muse, competitor and wife; their turbulent marriage ended when she tried to kill him. Of course she shows up, once her ex has set up house with Cristina, allowing Allen to run further amorous permutations. A darkroom kiss between Cruz and Johansson is probably Allen's most direct expression of romantic-sexual connection...
...movie is narrated in an American voice (not Allen's) that is pitched slightly above all the characters. The voice knows Vicky and Cristina best, but you know it wants to live with, possibly bed down with, cosmopolitan Juan Antonio and crazy Maria Elena...
...limitation - since life is not perhaps simply a series of bed partners from whom we discover that the greatest wisdom is realizing we always have more to learn from others, and about ourselves. But Vicky Cristina Barcelona is so engaging so much of the time that we can entertain Allen's proposition. It's certainly evidence that a summer in Spain can do wonders for a writer-director who may not have outlived his prime...