Robert Redford’s story of the only woman charged in the Abraham Lincoln assassination flows like a connect-the-dots book on the Lincoln assassination. Redford carefully draws lines from one point to another, but fails to fill in the color to make it vivid.
Redford’s direction is wanting. There are odd moments in the courtroom where he fills the air with smoke to create a mood, but it is more of a distraction. He also seems so enamored of the sets, costumes and locations that the camera lollygags through scenes.
The human elements are lost in the story’s dusty wake.
Grade: C+
“Priest”
A Warrior Priest (Paul Bettany) must save his niece (Lily Collins) from a murderous pack of vampires.
The film falls into a new film genre: the spaghetti vampire Western. It combines the brooding outsider reluctant hero who must save a dusty world — the plot that made the Sergio Leone films of the ’60s so popular — with the brutality of blood-sucking movies like “Underworld.”
It should have been “The Good, the Bad and the Undead.”
Grade: D
Also new
“The Big Lebowski”: The Blu-ray release comes with a companion book.
“Dexter: The Fifth Season”: Cable series about a serial killer who works for the Miami police department.
“Outcasts: Season One”: BBC series about a group of travelers trying to start a new life on another planet.
“Spin City: The Complete Fifth Season”: Charlie Sheen stars.
“Bob the Builder”: Bob and the Can-Do Crew show the fun of work is in getting it done.
Rick Bentley, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.).
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