Movie Reviews


MOVIE REVIEW- Idiot's delight: Carrell's a brilliant <i>Schmuck</i> Published on Aug 26th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO The truly goofy comes shrouded in innocence. If a man is trying to be goofy, it's just an act that quickly grows old. But if he lacks the slightest notion of his peculiarity, there's...
MOVIE REVIEW- <i>Eat, Pray</i>, navel gaze: Gilbert's travels not for everyone Published on Aug 19th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat, Pray, Love, unread by me, spent 150 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and is by some accounts a good one. It is also movie material,...
MOVIE REVIEW- <i>Winter's</i> wonder: Sundance winner finds hope amid despair Published on Aug 12th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO The movie heroes who affect me most are not extroverted. They don't strut, speechify and lead armies. They have no superpowers. They are ordinary people who are faced with a need and...
MOVIE REVIEW- Beauty and brains: <i>Salt</i>'s a thriller done right Published on Jul 29th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Salt is a damn fine thriller. It does all the things I can't stand in bad movies, and does them in a good one. It's like a rebuke to all the lousy action movie directors who've been...
MOVIE REVIEW- Better than <i>'bender</i>: Cage's<i> Sorceror </i>aims for tweens Published on Jul 15th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Having seen The Last Airbender gross untold millions despite the worst reviews in many a year, I confess myself discouraged at the prospect of reviewing The Sorcerer's Apprentice....
MOVIE REVIEW- Worst for <i>Last: </i>Nothing goes right in <i>Airbender</i> Published on Jul 8th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO The Last Airbender is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented. The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone...
MOVIE REVIEW- Chaste romance: Newest <i>Twilight</i> titillates teens Published on Jul 1st, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO The price for surrendering your virginity is so high in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse that even Edward Cullen, the proposed tool of surrender, balks at it. Like him, you would become...
MOVIE REVIEW- <i>Toy</i> joy: Woody, Buzz and friends still delight Published on Jun 24th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO The first two Toy Story movies centered on the relationship between a boy and his toys. In Pixar's Toy Story 3, young Andy has grown to college age and the story leaves the toys...
MOVIE REVIEW- Just for kicks: <i>Karate Kid</i> charms the second time around Published on Jun 17th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO If you've seen The Karate Kid (1984), the memories will come back during this 2010 remake of the original. That's a compliment. The original story was durable enough to inspire three...
MOVIE REVIEW- <i>Greek</i> revives: Brand shines in relapse comedy Published on Jun 10th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Aldous Snow is the sort of rock star who can seriously propose himself for the role of White African Jesus. What would his duties be? He has no idea. It's just the sort of thing he...
MOVIE REVIEW- Despicably shallow? <i>Sex and the City 2</i> will horrify... or delight Published on Jun 3rd, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Some of these people make my skin crawl. The characters of Sex and the City 2 are flyweight bubbleheads living in a world which rarely requires three sentences in a row. Their...
MOVIE REVIEW- Pre-hero: This <i>Robin Hood</i>'s a poor version of the rich classic Published on May 27th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Little by little, title by title, innocence and joy is being drained out of the movies. What do you think of when you hear the name of Robin Hood? I think of Errol Flynn, Sean...
MOVIE REVIEW- Wonderfully predictable: <i>Letters to Juliet </i>an expected delight Published on May 20th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO I know Letters to Juliet is soppy melodrama, and I don't mind in the least. I know the ending is preordained from the setup. I know the characters are broad and comforting...
MOVIE REVIEW- Quirky hero: Downey shines again in <i>Iron Man</i> Published on May 13th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Iron Man 2 is a polished, high-octane sequel, not as good as the original but building once again on a quirky performance by Robert Downey Jr. The superhero genre doesn't necessarily...
MOVIE REVIEW- Nightmare snoozer: Freddy comes out of retirment, again Published on May 6th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Forget about the plot, the actors and the director. What you require to make a new Nightmare on Elm Street are these three off-the-shelf sound effects: 1. A sudden, loud clanging...
MOVIE REVIEW- <i>Losers</i> wins: Don't miss the last of the 2Ds Published on Apr 29th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO The Losers is a classical action movie based on a comic strip. It does just enough nodding toward the graphics of drawn superheroes, and then gets that out of the way and settles...
MOVIE REVIEW- Failed satire: Spare your kids (and yourself) from<i> Kick Ass </i> Published on Apr 22nd, 2010 1 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Shall I have feelings, or should I pretend to be cool? Will I seem hopelessly square if I find Kick-Ass morally reprehensible, and will I appear to have missed the point? Let'...
MOVIE REVIEW- Understated: Against all odds, <i>Date Night</i> works Published on Apr 15th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Steve Carell and Tina Fey play a nice, unassuming couple in Date Night, and that's one of the reasons the movie works so well. Their Phil and Claire Foster are a normal, overworked,...
MOVIE REVIEW- Cusack's gamble: It pays off in this 'Hot Tub' Published on Apr 8th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Hot Tub Time Machine may sound almost by definition like a bad comedy. I mean, how good can a movie named Hot Tub Time Machine possibly be? Yes? That's not what I thought. I saw the...
MOVIE REVIEW- Tween dream: Sparks' ineptitude can't hide Miley's appeal Published on Apr 1st, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Now that Miley Cyrus is 17, it's about time she played a 16-year-old. That she does fetchingly in The Last Song, and wins the heart of a beach volleyball champion a foot taller...
MOVIE REVIEW- <i>Dragon</i> delight: Animated film is best of '10, so far Published on Mar 25th, 2010 1 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO You can look to the news to learn about changes in U.S. foreign policy, but you might learn more from the movies. First, Avatar had villains who invaded a sovereign nation to steal...
MOVIE REVIEW- <i>League</i> loser: Rom-com lacks rom, com<i> </i> Published on Mar 11th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Embarrassing is the word for She's Out of My League, a romantic comedy that would be offensive if it weren't so pathetic. British writer/director/sketch comic Jim Field Smith takes...
MOVIE REVIEW- Force field: Cop's lives are tough in <i>Brooklyn's Finest </i> Published on Mar 4th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Anyone who would choose to become a police officer after seeing Brooklyn's Finest should be disqualified as psychologically unfit. Director Antoine Fuqua has made a few films of...
MOVIE REVIEW- <i>Cop</i> sop: Smith should have been Smithee Published on Feb 25th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Over the years, director Kevin Smith has reportedly been attached to various major studio projects, most notably The Green Hornet, but the first to come to fruition is Cop Out. It...
MOVIE REVIEW- Camp or horror? <i>Wolfman</i> can't decide Published on Feb 18th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Once again, Hollywood looks to its past for "new" ideas. At least they're going all the way back to 1941 for this one...unless you count Wolf and the Teen Wolf, American Werewolf and...
MOVIE REVIEW- Mythtake: <i>Lightning Thief</i> steals your time Published on Feb 11th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is a terrible title but a boon to reviewers who get paid by the word. Dragging out a title to establish a franchise doesn't...
MOVIE REVIEW-No <i>Mercies: Crazy Heart </i>doesn't quite measure up Published on Feb 4th, 2010 4 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO There's no reason there shouldn't be as many movies about washed-up, alcoholic country singers as there are washed-up, alcoholic country singers, but Crazy Heart is too much like...
MOVIE REVIEW-Dull and duller: <i>Legion</i>'s apocalyptic vision offers few thrills Published on Jan 28th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO So what were Americans spending their movie money on last weekend? Avatar passed The Dark Knight to become the second-highest grosser of all time in the U.S. and Canada– it...
MOVIE REVIEW-Apocalypse redux: Book of Eli is doom-y and gloomy. Published on Jan 21st, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Considering how long it takes to get a movie made, Hollywood's depression must have started before the current economic downturn. In fact, maybe things were going so well they...
MOVIE REVIEW- Unpleasant<i>: </i>Enchanting lead can't save <i>Lovely</i> <i>Bones</i> Published on Jan 14th, 2010 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Remember when Peter Jackson announced he was going to make "a little picture" after the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong and before tackling The Hobbit? Well, The Lovely Bones...