Movie Reviews


'Identity' crisis: Bateman, McCarthy can't save this comedy Published on Feb 20th, 2013 1 comments By Richard Roeper It's really tough to have it both ways. Let's say you want to do a broad, shtick-filled comedy filled with "Three Stooges humor, e.g., a character is hit head-on...
Deadly medicine: Side Effects exposes darker side of prescription drugs Published on Feb 13th, 2013 0 comments The music tells us what kind of movie Side Effects is going to be. It coils beneath what seems like a realistic plot and whispers that something haunted and possessed is going on. Imagine music for...
Bloody twist: Zombies in love Published on Feb 4th, 2013 0 comments by Richard RoeperAs much as I enjoy The Walking Dead on AMC and movies such as 28 Days Later, one of my ongoing complaints about the explosion of the zombie genre is the general mopery and overall...
The worst: Big names can't save 'Movie 43' Published on Jan 31st, 2013 0 comments By Richard Roeper Since 1999 I've been carrying a blue pill in my pocket, holding onto it for the moment when I'd truly need it. The pill, I was told, would instantly erase the memory of any movie...
Wild girls: Chastain goes motherly Published on Jan 24th, 2013 0 comments by Richard Roeper Very few horror movies would last past the second act if the characters in these films were actually fans of horror movies. Sometime after the first occurrence of Scary Old-Timey...
Beauty in age: 'Amour' charms its audience Published on Jan 18th, 2013 0 comments "Old age ain't no place for sissies," Bette Davis is said to have said, and the longer age lasts, the less of a sissy you can be. The opening shot of Amour, Michael Haneke's new film, shows...
Zero Dark flashy: Bin Laden movie intrigues, doesn't illuminate Published on Jan 4th, 2013 0 comments Osama bin Laden is dead, which everybody knows, and the principal facts leading up to that are also well-known. The decision to market "Zero Dark Thirty as a thriller therefore takes a certain...
'Impossible' impact: Tsunami film an Oscar contender Published on Jan 2nd, 2013 0 comments The tsunami that devastated the Pacific Basin in the winter of 2004 remains one of the worst natural disasters in history, and although I assumed its climax as shown in Clint Eastwood's film ...
Ebert's picks: Tigers, beasts, heroes, and therapists compete early for Hollywood's biggest prizes Published on Dec 18th, 2012 0 comments With the 2013 Oscarcast moved up to February 24, movie fans are already in a lather over the possible nominees, especially since again this year there can be "up to" 10 finalists in the best picture...
Unlikely duo: Story of two women nominated for 7 indie awards Published on Dec 17th, 2012 0 comments In another time and another place, Starlet could have inspired a short story by Chekhov or O. Henry — a story about two women, one 22, the other 85, who are linked by one of those accidental plot...
Campus crushing: Radnor's film is delightful escapism Published on Dec 10th, 2012 0 comments Josh Radnor's Liberal Arts is an almost unreasonable pleasure about a jaded New Yorker who returns to his alma mater in Ohio and finds that his heart would like to stay there. It's the kind of film...
Too much Karenina: New adaptation upstages the tale Published on Dec 4th, 2012 2 comments Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary are two of the most notorious fallen women in literature. Karenina is prepared to lose all the advantages of high society in favor of the man she loves. Bovary...
Life of Pi: Ang Lee films the unfilmable; poetic idealism triumphs Published on Nov 27th, 2012 1 comments Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" is a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery. Inspired by a worldwide best-seller that many readers must have assumed was unfilmable, it is a...
Spielberg's Lincoln does not disappoint Published on Nov 20th, 2012 3 comments I've rarely been more aware than during Steven Spielberg's Lincoln that Abraham Lincoln was a plain-spoken, practical, down-to-earth man from the farmlands of Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. He had...
Farewell, stereotypes: Queen movie reveals same-sex desires and class issues Published on Nov 13th, 2012 0 comments "Farewell, My Queen" begins early in the day of July 14, 1789, at the royal palace of Versailles. It was not yet a date fraught with destiny. In the rat-swarming servants' quarters, a young woman...
Free Ralph: Fresh premise for new Disney flick Published on Nov 7th, 2012 0 comments "Wreck-It Ralph," the latest Disney animated feature for families, begins with a creative brainstorm: The movie occurs mostly inside the worlds of several arcade-style video games, providing an...
In the clouds: Cloud Atlas confounds and delights Published on Nov 1st, 2012 0 comments Even as I was watching Cloud Atlas the first time, I knew I would need to see it again. Now that I've seen it the second time, I know I'd like to see it a third time — but I no longer believe...
Nursing robot: Futuristic companion not quite the real thing Published on Oct 17th, 2012 0 comments Robot & Frank tells the story of relationship between a retired burglar and a household appliance more relentless than an alarm clock. Frank is a man who lives alone in a bucolic house in...
No wallflowers: Young cast shines in YA adaptation Published on Oct 17th, 2012 0 comments All of my previous selves still survive somewhere inside of me, and my previous adolescent would have loved The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The movie has received glowing reviews, and some snarky...
Ghostly pup: School science project goes monstrously awry Published on Oct 10th, 2012 0 comments In 1984, Tim Burton launched his career with a live-action short named Frankenweenie, and now he returns to that material for the new Frankenweenie, a stop-motion, black-and-white animated comedy...
Gripping thriller: Why we're rooting for the guilty man Published on Oct 2nd, 2012 0 comments We tend to identify with the leading character of a film, even if he is a heartless bastard. Few films illustrate this curiosity better than Nicholas Jarecki's Arbitrage, and few actors might have...
Masterfully empty: Star-studded cast fizzles Published on Sep 26th, 2012 0 comments Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" is fabulously well-acted and crafted, but when I reach for it, my hand closes on air. It has rich material and isn't clear what it thinks about it. It has two...
For a good time, call...: Disarmingly entertaining, or just plain vulgar? Published on Sep 19th, 2012 0 comments ** For a Good Time, Call... starring: Ari Graynor, Lauren Miller, Justin Long director: Jamie Travis playing: Regal Downtown R - 85 minutes Of the lonely ways to spend money, paying for phone...
Rashida forever: Rom-com sparkles with plot twist Published on Sep 12th, 2012 0 comments "Celeste and Jesse Forever" is a good-hearted romantic comedy about a likable couple — so likable, indeed, that it swims upstream against the current of our desires. The two have been happily...
Violence in Virginia: Moonshiners vs. the law in Franklin County Published on Sep 4th, 2012 1 comments Lawless is a well-made film about ignorant and violent people. Like Killer Joe of four weeks ago, I can only admire the craftsmanship and acting, and regret its failure to rise above them. Its...
Hit and Run: So much better than the title suggests Published on Aug 29th, 2012 0 comments With an off-the-shelf title like "Hit and Run," I had worked up less than a white-hot enthusiasm to see this movie, but it's a lot more fun than the title suggests. How many chase comedies have you...
Full-bodied spirit: Finally, a tasteful family film Published on Aug 21st, 2012 0 comments The Odd Life of Timothy Green is a warm and lovely fantasy, the kind of full-bodied family film that is being pushed aside in favor of franchises and slam-bang confusion. On a picture-postcard farm...
Revision and envision: Relationships ain't easy, even when rewritten Published on Aug 15th, 2012 0 comments The magical event that happens in the life of a young novelist named Calvin Weir-Fields is a dream come true for him, but it becomes a nightmare. Calvin (Paul Dano) had the misfortune to write, in...
Force of nature: An unknown cast creates a whirlwind Published on Aug 9th, 2012 0 comments Cut off from the mainland, surrounded by rising waters, the Bathtub is a desolate wilderness of poverty where a small community struggles to survive. Hushpuppy considers it "the prettiest place on...
A waning moon: Dark Knight stumbles (but eventually rises) Published on Jul 25th, 2012 0 comments The Dark Knight Rises leaves the fanciful early days of the superhero genre far behind and moves into a doom-shrouded, apocalyptic future that seems uncomfortably close to today's headlines. As urban...