Quick take: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
The biggest takeaway I had after watching the rousing HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2 (PG-13, 3 1/2 stars) was I still can’t believe the filmmakers were able to successfully complete the...
View ArticleQuick take: The Smurfs
As a child of the 1980s, the recent trend of remaking every feasible piece of kid’s entertainment to capitalize on nostalgia and capture a brand-new audience should be right up my alley. But “G.I. Joe”...
View ArticleQuick take: The Double
Never heard of THE DOUBLE (PG-13, 2 stars)? You’re excused, as this came and went with a whimper in the fall, given a contractual release in a handful of theaters before being shipped off to DVD...
View ArticleQuick take: Columbus Circle
The most intriguing aspect of COLUMBUS CIRCLE (PG-13, 2 stars) in my opinion was the fact that I got to hear Giovanni Ribisi’s normal speaking voice for what feels like the first time in like 10 years,...
View ArticleQuick take: My Week with Marilyn
The beautiful thing about the movies is that it takes just one exemplary performance to transform an average film into a good one. MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (PG-13, 3 stars) would have been another...
View ArticleQuick take: The Iron Lady
THE IRON LADY (PG-13, 2 1/2 stars) could just as easily be titled “Meryl Does It Again,” so important is star Meryl Streep’s central performance to the relative success of the film. And, after many...
View ArticleQuick take: Get the Gringo
For a guy that’s in severe need of career rehab, Mel Gibson certainly is taking a curious route on his road to redemption. First up was “The Beaver,” a strange, yet oddly compelling film, that found...
View ArticleQuick take: Red Dawn
From the ever-growing file of “Should Have Left Well Enough Alone” comes the remake of RED DAWN (PG-13, 1 star), a spectacular misfire that makes the original film seem like an Oscar winner, which it...
View ArticleQuick take: A Haunted House
I know it may be hard for some of you younger folks out there to imagine, but there was a time when spoof movies were actually … funny. With actual jokes and everything. With plots and structure that...
View ArticleQuick take: Peeples
Craig Robinson seems like such a sweet, good-natured fellow, it’s hard to imagine anyone not immediately warming up to him. That, however, is the central premise of PEEPLES (PG-13, 2 1/2 stars), a...
View ArticleQuick take: Fruitvale Station
The fact that FRUITVALE STATION (R, 3 1/2 stars) opens with real footage of Oscar Grant being senselessly shot at a Bay Area transit station by police makes the ensuing film that much more difficult to...
View ArticleQuick take: Enough Said
ENOUGH SAID (R, 3 stars) is the kind of movie that rarely gets made in this day and age of $100 million blockbusters – an incisive, funny and sweet look at adult relationships, with a normal woman at...
View ArticleQuick take: Non-stop
At this point of his remarkable career re-invention, Liam Neeson has pretty well been established as a force of nature. He’s taken out terrorists (twice), overcome the loss of his memory, battled with...
View ArticleQuick take: Sabotage
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s post-Governator’s projects have fizzled badly at the box office, suggesting perhaps that we’re not ready for a 60-something action hero outside of “The Expendables.” The same...
View ArticleQuick take: Swelter
How in the world do you make an action movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme and not have him be the star? That’s like making a sandwich without any bread. It’s just wrong. SWELTER (R, 2 stars), a...
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