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Film Review - Green Zone

2010-03-11T12:32:38-05:00

Released during the same week “The Hurt Locker” swept up major Academy Awards for its harsh depiction of life on the Iraq War frontlines, “Green Zone” elects to take the opposite route of dramatization. While coarse and unquestionably whirlwind, “Green...

Film Review - She's Out of My League

2010-03-11T12:29:08-05:00

A charmer from the school of Apatow, “She’s Out of My League” takes a fantasy dating situation and tries to tilt it toward a sense of realism while retaining all the required silly business. Without reinventing the wheel or resisting...

Film Review - Our Family Wedding

2010-03-11T12:24:07-05:00

To describe “Our Family Wedding” as an offshoot of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” is undoubtedly an insult to the 1967 Stanley Kramer film. Perhaps my memory isn’t as sharp as it once was, but I fail to recall the...

Film Review - Remember Me

2010-03-11T12:20:34-05:00

Poetic, romantic, and tied together by a crippling event of violence, “Remember Me” aches to be absorbed as a drama of substance and lasting impact. However, it’s dour, hysterical sudser that never lifts off the ground, no matter how hard...

Film Review - Mother

2010-03-11T12:17:40-05:00

In 2006, director Bong Joon-ho brought “The Host” to the world stage. A clever, startling reawakening of the monster movie genre, the film brought the director tremendous, well-deserved success, making him something of a master of the genre after only...

One Last Slow Clap - Remembering Corey Haim (1971-2010)

2010-03-10T15:17:08-05:00

I’m not one to romanticize the life and times of actor Corey Haim, but I’d be lying if I wrote that his screen work didn’t have an effect on me. His not-entirely-unexpected death today, at the young age of 38,...

Trailer Tuesday - She's Having a Baby (1988) Teaser

2010-03-09T01:16:20-05:00

Jimmy Kimmel Live - Handsome Men's Club

2010-03-08T22:09:24-05:00

Film Review - Alice in Wonderland (2010)

2010-03-04T10:16:52-05:00

As witnessed throughout much of his filmography, Tim Burton has the uncanny ability to reach astonishingly dark moods while still maintaining a jovial atmosphere worthy of his riotous imagination. Occasionally, the shadows get the best of him. Much like “Batman...

Film Review - The Ghost Writer

2010-03-04T10:13:58-05:00

It’s been some time since Roman Polanski made something as cagey and good-naturedly twisted as “The Ghost Writer.” He’s been off vacationing inside of his youthful trauma during the last decade (“The Pianist,” “Oliver Twist”), which makes his new film...

Film Review - Brooklyn's Finest

2010-03-04T10:11:27-05:00

Director Antoine Fuqua has built a career on mediocrity, hitting a few cinematic highlights (“Training Day”), but mostly sticking to the comfort of generic thrillers devoid of sensational feats of filmmaking. As imperfect as it is, “Brooklyn’s Finest” is perhaps...

Film Review - Possession (2010)

2010-03-04T10:08:49-05:00

“Possession” is the type of movie where miraculous events occur in the plot, but none of the characters bother to accurately reflect the wondrous gravity of the situation. It’s a stillborn chiller (a remake of the South Korean film “Addicted”)...

Film Review - Ajami

2010-03-04T10:06:49-05:00

“Ajami” is an Israeli picture that closely mirrors the work of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu during his emotionally turbulent years with “Amores Perros,” “21 Grams,” and “Babel.” Observing the ominous nature of violence and its crushing aftermath, “Ajami” is a striking...

Trailer Tuesday - Dolby SR (Henry Mancini) Surround Fantastique

2010-03-02T00:12:41-05:00

Restaurant Roam - Kona Cafe at Disney's Polynesian Resort

2010-03-01T01:01:59-05:00

The Kona Café is one of those super-secret handshake restaurants inside Walt Disney World. While obviously open to the general public, the eatery’s reputation is perhaps most widely circulated through Disney superfans, a blindly passionate group that always speaks highly...

Saturdays with Siskel & Ebert - The Last Boy Scout (1991)

2010-02-27T08:35:43-05:00

Film Review - Cop Out

2010-02-25T11:00:32-05:00

Director Kevin Smith has set out to pay homage to the buddy cop action festivals of his formative years, and that’s precisely the film one receives with “Cop Out.” The picture is mindless escapism, spreading around as many laughs as...

Film Review - The Crazies

2010-02-25T10:57:22-05:00

“The Crazies” is a sporadically splendid thriller saddled with seriously banal horror embellishment. It should come as little surprise to learn the film is a remake, extracted from the thin skin of George Romero’s 1973 chiller. The paranoia and general...

Film Review - Toe to Toe

2010-02-25T10:54:46-05:00

Part of me wanted to appreciate “Toe to Toe” for the way it aches to portray teenage life as more than just sassmouth and cartoon cliques. The rest of me wanted to take can of gas and a book of...

DVD Review - Cinematic Titanic Live: The Alien Factor

2010-02-23T09:47:23-05:00

Coming off arguably their finest effort to date with the kung-fu/blaxploitation adventure “East Meets Watts,” Cinematic Titanic returns with a second helping of their burgeoning live act in “The Alien Factor.” Another lackadaisical statement of unfiltered goofballery from the 1970s,...