Movie Reviews


Reitman's return: 'Young Adult' showcases talent Published on Dec 14th, 2011 0 comments They must have closed their eyes and crossed their fingers while they were making this film. It breaks with form, doesn't follow our expectations, and is about a heroine we like less at the end than...
Muppet madness: Henson's handiwork back with panache Published on Dec 8th, 2011 0 comments The popularity of the Muppets is given new life in The Muppets, a funny, wickedly self-aware musical that opens by acknowledging they've outlived their shelf life. There's some truth in that; this is...
Clooney's best: 'Descendants' a four-star hit Published on Dec 1st, 2011 0 comments The Descendants has a happy ending. Therefore technically it's a comedy. It takes place in the paradise of Hawaii. It stars George Clooney. That may lead you to expect a pleasant good time, but this...
Modern apocalypse: Von Trier's 'Melancholia' stares death down Published on Nov 24th, 2011 0 comments Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" opens with music from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde," mourning and apocalyptic, and disturbing images of a world not right. A woman dressed as a bride runs through a...
Gorgeous drivel: 'Immortals' delivers beauty, not story Published on Nov 17th, 2011 0 comments Immortals is without doubt the best-looking awful movie you will ever see. Eiko Ishioka's costume designs alone deserve an Oscar nomination. "They weren't at all historically accurate," grumbled a...
Gere'd up: 'The Double' could use twice the plot Published on Nov 8th, 2011 0 comments It takes The Double less than half an hour to reveal who the double is. That's if you're lucky enough to avoid the movie's trailer, which just comes right out and tells you. At that point, Peggy Lee...
High stakes: 'In Time' an intriguing premise Published on Nov 3rd, 2011 0 comments We are all of us engaged in the trade of buying and selling time. When we stop smoking, we hope we are buying years. When we drink and drive, we are willing to sell a few years. But those are gambles...
Big hit: But kinda stale taste in Para 3 Published on Oct 27th, 2011 0 comments "Paranormal Activity 3" is a prequel, revealing that the characters in "PA1" and "PA2" had already been through the all-night video surveillance ordeal. At least in this film they are undergoing it...
Retread: 'Footloose' remake out of step Published on Oct 19th, 2011 2 comments There's one thing to be said for a remake of a 1984 movie that uses the original screenplay. This 2011 version is so similar – sometimes song for song and line for line – that I was...
Masterful thriller: Shannon shows gifts in 'Take Shelter' Published on Oct 12th, 2011 2 comments Here is a frightening thriller based not on special effects gimmicks but on a dread that seems quietly spreading in the land: that the good days are ending, and climate changes or other sinister...
Cruel odds: 50/50 finds humor in cancer Published on Oct 5th, 2011 0 comments Young people should not get sick and die. Most of us do eventually, but how sad it is to learn in your 20s that you have a dangerous cancer and your chances of survival are 50/50. How crueler still...
Gripping: 'Moneyball' not just for sports fans Published on Sep 28th, 2011 0 comments In the 2002 season, the nation's lowest-paid Major League Baseball team put together a 20-game winning streak, setting a new American League record. The team began that same season with 11 losses in...
Visceral, disturbing: 'Straw Dogs' remake better than the first Published on Sep 21st, 2011 1 comments This new version of Straw Dogs is a reasonably close adaptation of the 1971 film by Sam Peckinpah. Change the location from England to Mississippi, change a mathematician into a screenwriter, keep...
Gone viral: 'Contagion' a horrifying possibility Published on Sep 14th, 2011 0 comments A black screen. The sound of a harsh cough. We are already alert when, soon after, we see a bartender pick up a customer's coin and then punch numbers into a cash register. Germs, we're thinking....
Lies and deceit: Mirren shines in 'The Debt' Published on Sep 6th, 2011 0 comments The Debt weaves a tangled web of lies and deceptions around a seemingly heroic raid in 1965 carried out by three agents of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency known for more ability than it...
Fear inspiring: 'Don't be Afraid' a horror classic Published on Aug 31st, 2011 0 comments Haunted house movies awaken within us the 5-year-old afraid to go down the stairs with the basement lights off. Sure, there's a light switch down at the bottom, but you never know. Don't Be Afraid of...
Grunts and screams: 'Conan' not so literate Published on Aug 24th, 2011 4 comments Conan the Barbarian involves the clash of civilizations whose vocabularies are limited to screams, oaths, grunts, howls, ejaculations, exclamations, vulgarities, screeches, wails, bellows, yelps and...
Feel good? 'Help' glosses over pain of Jim Crow Published on Aug 17th, 2011 0 comments The Help is a safe film about a volatile subject. Presenting itself as the story of how African-American maids in the South viewed their employers during Jim Crow days, it is equally the story of how...
Unfunny and foul: 'Change-up' your plans before seeing this Published on Aug 10th, 2011 7 comments The Change-Up is one of the dirtiest-minded mainstream releases in history. It has a low opinion of men, a lower opinion of women, and the lowest opinion of the intelligence of its audience. It is...
Real deal: Kunis, Timberlake show comic chops Published on Jul 27th, 2011 0 comments Friends with Benefits follows romcom formulas as if directed on autopilot, but that's not to say it isn't fun. This is the second movie this year to ask whether it's possible to have sex with someone...
Fitting end: Final 'Potter' lives up to hype Published on Jul 20th, 2011 0 comments After seven earlier films reaching back a decade, the Harry Potter saga comes to a solid and satisfying conclusion in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. The finale conjures up enough awe...
Laugh aloud: 'Horrible Bosses' dirty, hilarious Published on Jul 14th, 2011 2 comments Horrible Bosses is funny and dirty, in about that order. Of George Carlin's famous "seven words you can never say on television," it omits only the usual one, I think, makes free with the others, and...
Revved up: 'Cars' sequel wins the race Published on Jul 7th, 2011 0 comments While I was watching Cars 2, an elusive nostalgia tugged at my mind. No, I wasn't remembering Pixar's original Cars from 2006. This was something more deeply buried, and finally, in the middle of one...
Just bad: Diaz's 'Teacher' has audiences dropping out Published on Jun 29th, 2011 2 comments Jake Kasdan's Bad Teacher immediately brings Bad Santa to mind, and suffers by the comparison. Its bad teacher is neither bad enough nor likable enough. The transgressions of Elizabeth Halsey (...
Dim pleasure: 'Lantern' not quite bright enough Published on Jun 23rd, 2011 1 comments Green Lantern presents yet another case of a human being given the responsibility of leading the battle of good versus evil, or, in this case, of the will versus fear. We learn that an ancient race...
Simpler time: 'Super 8' a nostalgic thriller Published on Jun 16th, 2011 0 comments With its night skies filled with mystery, its kids racing around town on bicycles and its flashlights forming visible beams in the air, Super 8 has the visual signatures of an early Spielberg movie....
Pre-heros: New X-Men offers high tech, alternate history Published on Jun 8th, 2011 2 comments The best acting in X Men: First Class is by President John F. Kennedy, who in his Thanksgiving 1962 message to the nation expresses gratitude for the successful end of the Cuban Missile Crisis while...
Playing offense: Hangover II spares no one Published on Jun 2nd, 2011 0 comments Is this some kind of a test? The Hangover Part II plays like a challenge to the audience's capacity for raunchiness. It gets laughs, but some of them are in disbelief. As if making sure no one was...
One too many: Latest 'Pirates' should be the last Published on May 25th, 2011 2 comments Before seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, I had already reached my capacity for Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and with this fourth installment, my cup runneth over. Indeed, so...
Wiig'in out: 'Bridesmaids' gives good laughs Published on May 19th, 2011 0 comments Three of my good female friends, who I could usually find overcoming hangovers at their Saturday morning Recovery Drunches at Oxford's Pub, once made pinpricks in their thumbs and performed a...