Movie Reviews Online Video

Public Enemies

Fri, 3 July 2009 09:30:00

Johnny Depp stars as charismatic Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger, and Christian Bale plays G-man Melvin Purvis. The film is a fascinating bundle of contradictions -- authentic in a million details, deeply romanticized in others. Cool, calm and collected, this is more love story than gangster picture (Marion Cotillard plays Dillinger's lover), and it's more vivid around the edges than at its center. Yet a genuine filmmaking intelligence guides every scene

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Fri, 3 July 2009 09:30:00

Not bad, not good, Ice Age 3 may be OK enough to do what it was engineered to do, i.e., baby-sit your kid for a while and rake in the dough. Lack of comic distinction and forgettable computer animation have always held back the Ice Age projects. Dawn of the Dinosaurs lays out one life-and-death scenario after another, dutifully.

Cheri

Sun, 28 June 2009 09:00:00

Michelle Pfeiffer appears in her first substantial dramatic role since White Oleander, and we are reminded of how much the world of film has lost by her recent absence. Pfeiffer plays an aging prostitute nudged into a relationship with the 19-year-old wastrel son (Rupert Friend) of a fellow courtesan (Kathy Bates).

Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen

Sun, 28 June 2009 09:00:00

Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ... The first Transformers was a headache, but I sort of enjoyed it. It was a Slurpee brain-freeze of a blockbuster. This sequel is more like listening to rocks in a clothes dryer for 2.5 hours. Nobody is looking for anything other than relentless, brainless action, but director Michael Bay offers nothing but visual and aural chaos

My Sister's Keeper

Sun, 28 June 2009 09:00:00

The harder this cinematic assault weapon went at my tear ducts, the more duct tape I wrapped around them as a defensive measure. Anna (Abigail Breslin), a girl who was a test-tube baby conceived to provide bone marrow to her older sister (Sofia Vassilieva), who has leukemia, sues her parents (Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric) for "medical emancipation," and while you'd think inter-family legal action would stop all the lovey-dovey montages of everybody cherishing every minute together, think again

Whatever Works

Sun, 28 June 2009 09:00:00

Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood in Whatever Works ... On the heels of last year's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the freshest Woody Allen film in more than a decade, "Whatever Works" (Allen's 40th feature as director) plays like a hoary old Broadway stage comedy yanked, reluctantly, into the present. Larry David ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") plays a New York City misanthrope whose worldview is tempered by a relationship with a much younger Southern runaway (Evan Rachel Wood)

Year One Movie Review

Fri, 19 June 2009 15:20:00

Hit and miss does not begin to describe this frequently wince-worthy comedy. Jack Black and Michael Cera play outcast members of a Paleolithic tribal village whose wanderings bring them into contact with Cain and Abel and Abraham and Isaac and Sodom and Gomorrah. Harold Ramis directs, and while this won't join his list of essential comedies, some of the dumb jokes manage to elicit a laugh

Food Inc. Movie Review

Fri, 19 June 2009 15:20:00

This eye-popping documentary from filmmaker Robert Kenner should win a few hearts and minds regarding what we put in our stomachs. But the film got virtually no cooperation from representatives of the dominant players in industrial food production, and as a result, Food, Inc. is a rangy, well-articulated essay rather than a compelling point-counterpoint

The Proposal Movie Review

Fri, 19 June 2009 15:20:00

In this disposable romantic comedy, Ryan Reynolds plays the beleaguered Man Friday to a fearsomely mean book editor played by Sandra Bullock. The editor, a Canadian living in New York, has visa troubles and is threatened with deportation. She strong-arms the assistant into marrying her -- quickie divorce to follow -- under the suspicious eye of Immigration Services

Moon Movie Review

Fri, 19 June 2009 15:20:00

This film could alternatively be titled 2009: A Space Odyssey, as it is virtually impossible not to be reminded of Stanley Kubrick masterpiece between Kevin Spacey soothing ministrations as a computer named Gerty and Sam Rockwell efforts to cope as the lone occupant of a lunar outpost. Rockwell plays Sam, a technician working on a strip-mining operation on the moon

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 Movie Review and Trailer

Sun, 14 June 2009 17:30:00

Denzel Washingtons easygoing authority compensates for a lot in a sequel that fails to live up to the 1974 original, which starred Walter Matthau as a New York City transit cop locking horns with subway hijackers. Director Tony Scott's modern version is slick, predictable and, thanks mainly to Washingtons canny underplaying, fairly diverting. John Travolta plays the lead baddie.

Imagine That Movie Review and Trailer

Sun, 14 June 2009 17:30:00

This family-friendly trifle proves funny and charming, at least until the is-that-all-there-is of it kicks in. Fortunately, the pictures not-so-secret weapon, star Eddie Murphy, gives this uneven effort a reason for being. As a divorced workaholic who bonds with his 7-year-old daughter (Yara Shahidi) when her imaginary friends become his invisible business advisers, Murphy is his usual creative self.

Away We Go Movie Review and Trailer

Sun, 14 June 2009 17:30:00

Glib and charming in roughly equal measure, the road-tripping movie Away We Go is worth seeing for Maya Rudolph (best known for being underutilized on Saturday Night Live), who plays a mother-to-be living in Colorado with an insurance salesman (John Krasinski of The Office)

Land of the Lost Movie Review and Trailer

Sun, 7 June 2009 17:30:00

Will Ferrell and Danny McBride star in Land of the Lost. Like him or not, Will Ferrell remains at the mercy of his material, and he may well shoulder the blame for this coarse, sloppy version of the old Saturday-morning time-warp adventure, even if he doesn't deserve it. Ferrell's professor is on an expedition when an earthquake plunges him, his tour guide (Danny McBride) and comely fellow researcher (Anna Friel) into a universe populated by dinos and Sleestaks.

The Hangover Movie Review and Trailer

Sun, 7 June 2009 17:30:00

Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms in The Hangover. This film belongs to the what-happened-last-night genre typified by Dude, Where's My Car. Groom-to-be Doug (Justin Bartha) is whisked to Vegas from L.A. by his pals (Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms), with Doug's eerie future brother-in-law (Zach Galifianakis) in tow. Chaos ensues

My Life in Ruins Movie Review and Trailer

Sun, 7 June 2009 17:30:00

Nia Vardalos and Richard Dreyfuss in My Life in Ruins. Nia Vardalos of My Big Fat Greek Wedding once again plays an insecure but charming rooting interest, surrounded by ethnic caricatures. This pushy romantic comedy casts her as an American wannabe-academic languishing in Greece, loveless and alone, working for a tour service

Up Movie Review and Trailer

Sun, 7 June 2009 17:30:00

Balloon salesman Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) shared a dream with his wife to visit South America. After his wife dies, Carl's yearning for adventure dies as well. Yet it rises again, and "Up" becomes a chronicle of an unlikely friendship between Carl and an 8-year-old (Jordan Nagai). This Disney-Pixar film feels nervy and adventurous and a little messy, the result of formidable creators working on an enormous budget, enormously well-spent.

Drag Me to Hell Movie Review and Trailer

Sun, 7 June 2009 17:30:00

Director Sam Raimi gets back to his disreputable roots with this hellaciously effective B-movie that comes with a handy moral tucked inside its scares, laughs and scare/laugh hybrids. Moral: Be nice to people. More specifically: Do not foreclose on the old Gypsy woman. Horror fans shouldn't worry about an excess of subtlety; the ook flows freely here.

Easy Virtue Movie Review and Trailer

Sun, 7 June 2009 17:30:00

Australian director Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) puts an odd spin on Noel Coward 1924 play, going for camp and slapstick and bizarre musical interpolations.

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian Movie Review and Trailer

Thu, 28 May 2009 18:40:00

Ben Stiller reprises the role of the Museum of Natural History security guard who saved the day in the 2006 original, making peace among the warring tribes and beasts and magically energized figurines. Here, the old gang, including the mammoth Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), mini-cowboy Jed (Owen Wilson) and micro-Roman Octavius (Steve Coogan), are being shipped off for storage in the bowels of the Smithsonian Institution.

Terminator Salvation Movie Review and Trailer

Thu, 28 May 2009 18:40:00

This fourth edition of the Terminator franchise stars Christian Bale as John Connor, living out his destiny to save the world from the killing machines introduced in 1984. In director McG's new world order, the machines rule with enforcers of every shape roaming the land. If you're a Terminator fan, Salvation is mostly worth it. There are plenty of pyrotechnics and artillery.

Dance Flick Movie Review and Trailer

Thu, 28 May 2009 18:40:00

Dance Flick possesses a more nimble comic footing. It's a buzz-saw parody that grinds its way through formulas found in recent dance movies such as Step Up and You Got Served, not to mention the classics such as Flashdance and Fame.

The Brothers Bloom Movie Review and Trailer

Thu, 28 May 2009 18:40:00

Two con-man brothers (Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody) travel the world in search of great marks. One day they meet Penelope (Rachel Weisz), and from the carefully orchestrated moment she drives her canary-yellow Lamborghini into their lives, their cons take on new meaning.

Angels and Demons Movie Review

Fri, 15 May 2009 12:55:00

On the heels of the 2006 adaptation of Dan Brown's best-seller The Da Vinci Code, Tom Hanks returns to the dullest role of his career, once again under the direction of Ron Howard, who takes the material as seriously as a kidney stone on the way out.

Management Movie Review

Fri, 15 May 2009 12:55:00

This adaptation of Stephen Belbers one-act play is laid out as a series of trysts between a tightly controlled lost soul who sells corporate motel-room art (Jennifer Aniston) and the foggy-headed manager (Steve Zahn) of a roadside motel in Arizona.

Every Little Step Movie Review

Fri, 15 May 2009 12:55:00

A Chorus Line celebrates the itch to perform and the exquisite, control-freaky showmanship that is the Broadway musical at its greatest. You can assess the stage originals influence through this wonderful new documentary, which intercuts the story of how the original 1975 show came together with a step-by-step, fly-on-the-wall account of how the custodians of the recent 2006 Broadway revival came to cast whom they cast and why

Star Trek Movie Review

Fri, 08 May 2009 01:00:00

The new Star Trek seeks to extend a lucrative brand with a young demographic. But it is a real movie -- breathlessly paced bordering on manic, but propulsively entertaining.

Next Day Air Movie Review

Fri, 08 May 2009 01:00:00

Donald Faison of TVs Scrubs plays a marijuana-addled Philadelphia courier who drops a box of cocaine at the wrong apartment. The intended recipient (Cisco Reyes) realizes he is a dead man unless he retrieves the shipment, now in the hands of two astonished dealers (Mike Epps, Wood Harris). Next Day Air is sort of bracing, though it is not very good.

Little Ashes Movie Review

Fri, 08 May 2009 01:00:00

This trifling historical fantasy is beautiful to watch, but it takes only a light wind to leave the story in tatters. The setting is an imaginary Madrid, circa 1922. At the university, ideas and emotions are roiling the lives of three friends who will grow into important creative forces: painter Salvador Dali, poet Federico Garcia Lorca and filmmaker Luis Bunuel.

X-Men Origins Wolverine -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 01 May 2009 13:20:00

Here and there you get what you want from an X-Men prequel, thanks to the irrepressible Hugh Jackman and several other members of the cast, including Liev Schreiber as Wolverine nemesis, Sabretooth. But there is a rote quality to the proceedings

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 01 May 2009 13:20:00

If you look up the word typecasting in the dictionary, you will find Matthew McConaughey affixed to this film title. Nonetheless, this Lothario-learns-a-lesson comedy offers a few guilty chuckles. Riffing on A Christmas Carol, the script concerns a caddish fashion photographer (McConaughey) who spends his days lining up femmes

Battle for Terra -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 01 May 2009 13:20:00

The premise of The War of the Worlds is twisted in this animated sci-fi film so that the invading aliens are humans desperate to find a new home. The invaded are tadpole-like creatures heretofore living a peaceful life devoted to the liberal arts and hang-gliding. Evan Rachel Wood provides the voice of the story's principal female tadpole, who enlists the help of a downed U.S. military pilot (Luke Wilson) to rescue her abducted father.

Is Anybody There -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 01 May 2009 13:20:00

This finely drawn British drama is propelled by another Michael Caine unforgettable screen portraits. Caine plays an aging magician struggling to keep hold of his dignity and his mind in the face of old age. He has been packed off to an old-age home in a small seaside town, where he discovers an unexpected friendship with an inquisitive but pensive 10-year-old

Tyson -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 01 May 2009 13:20:00

Tyson is not a conventional film biography. There is no variety of viewpoints, no back and forth about episodes in his life, and, except for interview footage from the past, no other voices heard. What you get is Mike Tyson, former heavyweight champion, former substance abuser, former prison inmate, talking ...

Earth -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:00

It would be Pollyannish to pretend that this documentary is without its problems, but the bottom line is, it should not be missed. What it does well is so remarkable that by the time the credits roll you likely will not want it to end

The Story of Anvil -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:00

This documentary succeeds every which way: as 80s heavy metal nostalgia, as a twisted sort of reality-show attempt at a comeback, as an unexpectedly touching portrait of a friendship. Director Sacha Gervasi hung out with the band Anvil in London in the early 80s during a tour. Then, a generation later, he hunted them down to find out what happened in the interim.

The Soloist -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:00

In this film based on a true-life story, Los Angeles Times writer Steve Lopez played by Robert Downey Jr. discovers street musician Nathaniel Ayers played by Jamie Foxx, a former Juilliard student plagued by undiagnosed schizophrenia, leading to a series of influential columns and an eventful relationship between the two men.

Fighting -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:00

It is called Fighting, and its unpolished fracases are among the films highlights. But there is much more to it than that. Channing Tatum plays a drifter who is drawn by a two-bit hustler into the New York underground fighting scene.

The Informers -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:00

Billy Bob Thornton and Kim Basinger star in the Informers set in 1983 Los Angeles, where the bored, callous progeny of the very wealthy pleasure themselves with cocaine binges, casual sex and parties that turn fatal.

State of Play -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:00

Russell Crowe plays a star newspaper journalist pursuing strands of a conspiracy involving a shadowy private defense firm. The cast also includes Helen Mirren, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Robin Wright Penn.

Sugar -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:00

This rich and moving baseball movie follows a 19-year-old from the Dominican Republic, making his way to Arizona, then Iowa, in the employ of the fictional Kansas City Knights farm system

Hunger -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:00

Michael Fassbender stars as Bobby Sands, the Irish Republican Army martyr who starved himself to death in 1981 to bring attention to the harsh conditions in which he and his fellow prisoners of the infamous H-Block of the Maze Prison, near Belfast, lived under British authority.

17 Again -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:00

This halfhearted fantasy is about a former high school basketball star given the chance to return to high school and infiltrate his kids' classes under a transfer-student guise. Matthew Perry plays the older version of the ex-jock, with tween idol Zac Efron starring as the younger version.

American Violet -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:05:00

Newcomer Nicole Beharie stars in this disquieting drama based on the true story of a young single mother victimized by what turned out to be a tainted, race-based drug arrest and the crusade of a conviction-hungry district attorney in a small Texas town.

Hannah Montana the Movie -- Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:05:00

Miley Cyrus, 16, stars in a big-screen expansion of the Disney Channel TV series in which Ms. Cyrus splits herself in two, trying to be both down-home Miley Stewart from Tennessee and, in disguise, Hannah Montana, L.A. rock star adored by millions, with only a dirty-blond wig to conceal her identity.

Observe and Report Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:05:00

Seth Rogen is likely to get blamed for everything wrong with Observe and Report, because he is overexposed at the moment and the film does not really work, even with its flashes of rude invention. But the fault lies with writer-director Jody Hill.

Mysteries of Pittsburgh Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:05:00

Based on the Michael Chabon 1988 novel, this film is a coming-of-ager that nearly slaughters you with the relentlessness of its protagonist voiceovers. Jon Foster plays the son of a mobster money launderer (Nick Nolte) who falls in with a willowy blonde (Sienna Miller) and her reckless lover (Peter Sarsgaard).

The Fast and the Furious Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 3 Apr 2009 00:50:00

If you are in the mood for a lot of vroom, vroom, thump, thump, the fourth installment in the metal-twisting series that began with The Fast and the Furious (2001) should leave you satiated for a long time. The return of Vin Diesel restores energy to the franchise, and director Justin Lin infuses the necessary full-throttle bits with a dynamic lyricism.

Adventureland Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 3 Apr 2009 00:50:00

This sweet, sharp coming-of-age romance is a little warmer, a little funnier and a lot more truthful than the last 20 or 30 of its ilk. You know the kind: R-rated comedies about socially maladroit horndogs on the brink of adulthood, partying and setting their sights on the rest of their lives. All this happens in Adventureland -- set in 1987, mostly within the confines of a Pittsburgh amusement park -- yet the characters, female as well as male, interact like real people. It is my favorite American movie so far this year.

Alien Trespass Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 3 Apr 2009 00:50:00

There is a sweet sincerity to Alien Trespass, a sometimes too-reverential homage to the sci-fi B-movies of the 1950s. It was a time when filmmakers had to create other worlds and other beings without the help of complex technology. While the film stays true to the era and the genre, it forgets that its mission is not merely to pay tribute, but to entertain.

Monsters vs. Aliens Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:40:00

DreamWorks animated 3-D feature is blessed with a high-concept title and serenely dense line readings from Seth Rogen in the role of a genetically altered tomato gone wrong. This story of imprisoned monsters and rampaging aliens centers on a woman voiced by Reese Witherspoon who is creamed by a meteor that turns her into a giant.

The Haunting in Connecticut Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:40:00

There is not much wrong with the house in this movie that a little WD-40 could not cure. Everything creaks, including the dialogue. This so-so horror flick, supposedly based on a true story, bumps along from low-grade scare to scare, and it's not lousy, mainly because Virginia Madsen prevents it from being so.

Quantum of Solace Movie Review and Trailer Now on DVD

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:40:00

Chilly-eyed Daniel Craig is the right man for the James Bond movie franchise, and his second outing confirms it. The movie picks up minutes after the end of Casino Royale. Bond is after the shadowy Quantum organization for killing his lady friend.

Duplicity Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:10:00

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen play dueling corporate spies caught up in a cross / double-cross plot that starts coiling around itself like a snake. And, of course, there is time for a little romance between the two stars.

I Love You, Man Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:10:00

This minor but enjoyable entry in the boy-man comedy genre stars Paul Rudd as an L.A. real estate agent engaged to be married but short on straight-up male companionship in general and a best man for his wedding in particular. Along comes a sometime investment whiz (Jason Segel) living the life of a Venice Beach slacker.

Sunshine Cleaning Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:10:00

Amy Adams and Emily Blunt play sisters who start up an unlicensed crime-scene cleanup business. They are haunted by the suicide death of their mother; for them the biohazard removal biz is a way of processing their grief, and bringing to survivors the comfort they themselves seek.

Knowing Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:10:00

Nicolas Cage plays a man privy to the details of upcoming disasters -- when, where and how many people will die. Until it jumps the tracks into self-righteousness, Knowing can be as unnerving as the best episodes of The Twilight Zone.

The Great Buck Howard Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:10:00

This affectionate but flawed comedy stars John Malkovich as a mentalist who once filled venues around the country. Now, Buck is on a sad slide to obscurity, though great effort is expended in making sure he will be the last to know. Into the strong wind of Buck's denial steps a law-school dropout (Colin Hanks) unsure of what to do with his life.

Race to Witch Mountain Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:30:00

Benign yet assaultive PG mayhem -- it is a neat trick if you can pull it off. Walt Disney brings us a frenetic update of Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) starring Dwayne Johnson. The premise -- alien kids with special powers try to get back home -- echoes the original, but this hopped-up remake lays on the X-Files paranoia. The charismatic Johnson helps make it work.

The Last House on the Left

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:30:00

Wes Cravens 1972 original was pure unstable trash. Now comes the blunt, well-acted remake, which Craven co-produced. Part horror flick, part revenge thriller, it proceeds with a grim sense of purpose, its actors portraying characters approximating real people and plausible behavior, amid plausible tension, borne of a terrible situation. I wouldn't call it a good time, but I would call it an unexpectedly good genre film.

Crossing Over Stars Harrison Ford, Jim Sturgess and Ray Liotta

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:30:00

Crisscrossing Southern California and covering numerous green-card tales of woe, the movie Crossing Over establishes so many intersecting lines of fate and circumstance. The movie does not lack for heart, or honest concern for the plight of so many newcomers to America, legal or illegal. What it lacks is moment-to-moment credibility.

The Movie Miss March with Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore and Raquel Alessi

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:30:00

A high school student (Zach Cregger) gets drunk at his prom, falls down a flight of stairs and lands in a coma, just as he was about to lose his virginity to his girlfriend (Raquel Alessi). When he wakes up four years later, he discovers his girlfriend has moved on -- to the pages of Playboy -- so he and his lewd best friend (Trevor Moore) take a road trip to the Playboy Mansion.

Watchmen Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:30:00

A group of forcibly retired masked crimefighters are uneasily reunited to save the world, and to save themselves from the unknown predator targeting them for extinction. Director Zack Snyder bloated screen adaptation of Alan Moore graphic novel is marked by slavish fidelity to the source material.

Slumdog Millionaire Leads the Way. 81st Academy Award Oscar Winners 2009

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:10:00

In much the same manner that the film captured the hearts of movie-goers, Slumdog Millionaire captured the hearts and votes of the Academy garnering 8 Oscars in total, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Adapted Screenplay. A look at the 2009 Oscar Winners plus Movie Reviews and Trailers for all the Academy Award nominated films

Two Lovers Movie Review

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:10:00

Joaquin Phoenix plays Leonard who is in his 30s but living with his parents after a broken engagement, a bout of depression and a suicide attempt. His parents push him toward a nice Jewish girl (Vinessa Shaw), but he's drawn to a bubbly blond neighbor (Gwyneth Paltrow). The film is a small, delicate concoction of moods and moments, focused squarely on the talented Phoenix.

Jonas Brothers The 3D Concert Experience Movie Review

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:10:00

This ostensible concert documentary is awkwardly stitched together from candy-gloss arena concert footage and somewhat grimier-looking backstage, limo, hotel room moments. The Brothers come across more machine-tooled than homespun.

And the Oscar Goes to ... 81st Academy Award Oscar Nominations 2009

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:15:00

The top Academy Awards nominated film is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Taraji P. Henson with 13 Oscar nominations including Best Picture. The 13 Oscar nominations falls one short of the current record of 14 nominations held by All about Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997). Other highly Oscar nominated films include Slumdog Millionaire (10 Oscar Nominations), The Dark Knight (8 Oscar Nominations) and Milk (8 Oscar Nominations)

Fired Up Movie Review

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:15:00

Two teen hotshots duck football camp in order to join an overwhelmingly female cheerleading squad. Fired Up is Wedding Crashers with high school seniors and bras and panties, as opposed to Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson and copious toplessness. Now and then, though, somebody says something funny, and there are some effective micro-moments, but little here works for a full moment

The International Movie Review

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:15:00

Clive Owen and Naomi Watts in the movie The International. The Tom Tykwer thriller is all over the place, both geographically and in terms of audience satisfaction. Clive Owen plays an Interpol agent working with his ally in the New York DAs office (Naomi Watts) to bust a nefarious bank. Some of the set pieces are terrific, particularly the opening scene in Berlin and a shootout at the Guggenheim Museum, but getting in and out of such sequences is not the films strong suit. Tykwer has a way with complex cinematic mayhem, but The International is tripped up by klutzy, formulaic dialogue.

Confessions of a Shopaholic Movie Review

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:15:00

Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy in the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic. This thin, largely unfunny comedy marries lazy filmmaking with bad timing. A recession probably is not the right time for a movie about a woman whose passion is shopping for high-end clothes. Star Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers) is charming enough, but this material is so predictable and leaden that she has no prayer of keeping it afloat.

Friday the 13th Movie Review

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:15:00

Clive Jared Padalecki and Danielle Panabaker in the movie Friday the 13th. Having endured a series of increasingly bizarre sequels, machete-wielding Jason Voorhees hits the reset button and starts anew. Mickey Rourke-esque, if you will. This new Friday the 13th, savvier and snappier than the 1980 original, is a needed return to simplicity. A diverse group of teens visits Camp Crystal Lake, where they engage in naughty behavior before being impaled. After years of Hostel-style torture, this straightforward arrow-through-the-eye-socket approach is almost refreshing.

The Class Movie Review

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 03:00:00

This fantastic film takes place in a working-class, multiethnic Parisian middle school, where an unruly world of conflict, frustration and joy comes to life. Francois Begaudeau plays a version of himself; he taught in a Paris middle school and wrote a book about it, and The Class distills that book into a year in the life of a teacher and his combative, highly stimulating students. A documentary approach is the key to the film's success, with real students playing characters, some based on themselves, some not. In French, with English subtitles.

Coraline Movie Review

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 03:00:00

An intelligent preteen (Dakota Fanning) discovers a tiny door in the wall of her immense home that leads to a parallel universe offering a brighter, more inviting version of the same house, and her same parents. Coraline may not be for all tastes, and it is certainly not for all kids, given its macabre premise. But Henry Selicks film advances the stop-motion animation genre through that most heartening of attributes: quality. It pulls audiences into a meticulously detailed universe, familiar in many respects, menacing in others.

Fanboys Movie Review

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 03:00:00

This comedy follows a quintet of Star Wars fanatics on a 1998 journey from Ohio to their Holy Grail: George Lucas Skywalker Ranch in California, where they hope to bust into the joint and sneak a look at a work print of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. It all should have been wilder and funnier. For a comedy of fanboy insanity to fly, it has to be a little less beholden to the pop-culture phenoms it is satirizing, however affectionately.

He s Just Not That Into You Movie Review

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 03:00:00

The film adaptation of Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo 2004 relationship-advice book is a sprawling, many-threaded series of stories, most of which contradict the books advice about moving on when facing a lack of commitment. Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Drew Barrymore and Ben Affleck head the cast of this romantic comedy, which has some fun with its bubble-gum tone until a rash of ridiculous happy endings takes all the bite out of the premise

Pink Panther 2 Movie Review

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 03:00:00

This disposable Pink Panther sequel follows the 2006 remake and once again features Steve Martin as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. The cast (which also includes Emily Mortimer, Andy Garcia, John Cleese and Lily Tomlin) sprints way out ahead of the material. Most of it would work twice as well if the filmmakers had eased up and allowed the performers to interact -- to do their thing in medium shot, without a lot of pushy close-ups and overemphasis, so that their bodies might inform what their faces are up to.

Push Movie Review

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 03:00:00

Psychic experiments started by the Nazis are being continued by the U.S. government, and so a telekinetic (Chris Evans) and a clairvoyant (Dakota Fanning) must recover a powerful experimental drug in the jam-packed streets of Hong Kong before a government agent (Djimon Hounsou) gets his hands on it.

Taken Movie Review stars Liam Neeson

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:20:00

Liam Neeson plays a former CIA spook whose clandestine career bled into his home and led to a divorce. After traffickers kidnap his daughter in Europe, our hero has 96 hours to save her, and he wastes no time karate-chopping his way through every mime and baguette peddler in France. The movie overheats quickly, but Neeson and the filmmakers manage to make the Charles Bronson-style simplicity work.

New in Town Movie Review

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:20:00

Renee Zellweger plays a hotshot Miami businesswoman whose firm assigns her to oversee a workforce reduction at a food-processing plant in New Ulm, Minn. Easygoing Harry Connick Jr. plays the union rep.

The Uninvited Movie Review stars Elizabeth Banks

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:20:00

After a stay in a psychiatric clinic, teenager Anna (Emily Browning) returns home, with her father (David Strathairn) now engaged to the caregiver (Elizabeth Banks) who oversaw Annas invalid mother in her last days, before a fatal fire. Anna attempted suicide after the tragedy, and now she is plagued by visions, one of which appears to be her late mother, crying out for revenge.

Inkheart Movie Review stars Brendan Fraser

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:20:00

Inkheart was a busy, crowded, hugely successful book to start with. Instead of stripping it for parts, the film version retains nearly all of author Cornelia Funkes story complications.

Waltz With Bashir Movie Review and Trailer

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:20:00

An extraordinary achievement and a true visual feast, Ari Folmans animated Waltz With Bashir is a detective story as well as a moral inquiry into the specific horrors of one war (the 1982 Lebanon War), and one mans buried memories of it.

Outlander Movie Review

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:20:00

Viking warriors and a stoic intergalactic traveler (Jim Caviezel) join forces in the eighth century to combat an enormous beetle with whiplash stingers.

Paul Blart Mall Cop Movie Review and Movie Trailer

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:20:00

Kevin James plays a mall security guard trying to stop a Black Friday robbery scheme. Underneath all the cartoonish mall mayhem and silly slapstick lies a comedy that aspires to be the sort of gentle crowd-pleaser John Hughes used to make.

Notorious Movie Review and Movie Trailer

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:20:00

Jamal Woolard stars in this biopic about The Notorious B.I.G., the rapper who was gunned down on Wilshire Boulevard in 1997 when he was just 24. Woolard turns in a performance that goes a long way toward saving a movie that has fallen obsessively in love with its subject.

Last Chance Harvey Movie Review and Movie Trailer

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:20:00

Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson smooth over most of the problems just by showing up and doing what they do for a living. Hoffman plays a composer who meets the lonely-hearts frump played by the luminous Thompson and invites her to his daughters wedding.

Hotel for Dogs Movie Review and Movie Trailer

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:20:00

A teen girl and her younger brother are placed in the dubious foster care of two headbangers, all the while keeping their Jack Russell terrier a secret from their alleged caregivers. One day they discover a condemned hotel where a few strays have set up shop, and the kids and their newfound human pals get to work rehabbing the joint. This mildly entertaining film is loosely based on a Lois Duncan book.

Defiance Movie Review and Movie Trailer

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:20:00

Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber portray two of the four Bielski brothers, Jewish farmers and smugglers who led more than 1,000 Jews to safety in a Belarusian forest during the Holocaust.

Che Movie Review and Movie Trailer

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:20:00

Steven Soderberghs two-part Che is a methodical if coolly romantic portrait of the most familiar 1960s T-shirt icon outside the peace symbol. Though not without its faults, this is Soderberghs most interesting film in years, defiantly eccentric and absorbing at its best.

Bride Wars Movie Review

Fri, 9 Jan 2009 18:20:00

This charmless film concerns two lifelong friends, played by Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway, whose competing weddings, mistakenly scheduled for the same day at Manhattan Plaza Hotel, turn bride-to-be against bride-to-be.

Not Easily Broken

Fri, 9 Jan 2009 18:20:00

This film is a faith-based love story Based on a book by Bishop T.D. Jakes. Thanks to Morris Chestnut and to Taraji P. Henson Not Easily Broken ends up being pretty entertaining.

Revolutionary Road Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 2 Jan 2009 20:30:00

The film adaptation of Richard Yates 1961 novel stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet unleash their characters

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:30:00

This is a tall tale of a man aging in reverse while bobbing serenely on lifes unpredictable seas. The colorful supporting characters spill their guts to the wonder of nature played by Brad Pitt.

Marley and Me Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:30:00

The misadventures of a lovable Labrador retriever frame this sweet, surprisingly moving chronicle of a young couples struggle to simultaneously build a family, advance their careers and maintain their sanity.

The Wrestler Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:30:00

This film spends 105 minutes grappling at the edge of camp, cheap laughs and cliches. Yet the way it is handled by director Darren Aronofsky and especially by Mickey Rourke, who really should get an Oscar for his portrayal of Randy The Ram Robinson, a steroid-addled sweetie in tights, it stays honest and keeps on fighting.

Valkyrie Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:30:00

Valkyrie, a plot to assassinate Hitler, stars Tom Cruise as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, a cultured aesthete who turned against his supreme commander. Cruise is not bad, but he cannot suggest the aristocratic hauteur or the steely authority needed in this role.

Bedtime Stories Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:30:00

While Sis is away, Skeeter (Adam Sandler) must baby-sit for his niece and nephew, and the adventure stories he spins become fantasy vignettes that somehow manage to improve his disappointing life. It is an adequate idea, dutifully delivered.

The Reader Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:30:00

Kate Winslet stars in the film version of the Bernhard Schlink novel about a 15-year-old West German boy who, in 1958, embarks on an affair with a 36-year-old trolley conductor with more on her mind, and in her past, than she admits.

The Spirit Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:30:00

This achingly poor screen version of The Spirit is based on the comic book series begun in 1940 by Will Eisner.

Yes Man Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:20:00

Jim Carrey plays a loan officer who cannot get out of his self-pitying rut three years after a breakup. Then he encounters a self-help guru (Terence Stamp, in his first genuinely funny screen appearance) who challenges his followers to say yes to every single thing that comes their way. Zooey Deschanel plays the love interest, a bohemian L.A. girl.

Gran Torino Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:20:00

Clint Eastwood performance as a reclusive Korean War veteran toughing it out in a sketchy Detroit-area neighborhood may well lead to his first Academy Award for acting. After the vets young neighbor (Bee Vang) breaks into his garage to steal the car for which this film is named, our hero sets out to teach the boy how to stand up to his venal gangsta cousins.

Seven Pounds Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:20:00

Will Smith plays an IRS agent who has committed a terrible deed and appears to be investigating the cases of a carefully selected group of people, including a seriously ill heart patient (Rosario Dawson) and a blind pianist (Woody Harrelson).

The Tale of Despereaux Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:20:00

This earnest, emotional film is a mixed but pretty interesting bag, though its G rating may mislead some parents into taking 4 or 5 year-olds to it, which could lead to some freakouts. Much of the movie, based on a Newbery Medal-winning book, has a grim narrative.

Frost Nixon Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:00:00

Director Ron Howards screen version of the Peter Morgan play allows Michael Sheen and Frank Langella to re-create their stage roles as David Frost and Richard Nixon, respectively. Frost's people paid Nixon's people $600,000 for the disgraced former president to sit for a series of television interviews taped in 1977, not quite three years after Nixon resigned. Watching Frost lock rhetorical horns with his subject made for a riveting postmortem on a fall from power. Howard's film pours old-fashioned theatrical juice into a cinematic bottle and lets the actors drink it up. R (some language).

Doubt Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:00:00

A deft, beautifully built play has made it to the screen with its dramatic juice intact. John Patrick Shanley adapted and directed his stage piece set in a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964, pitting Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) against Father Flynn Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is suspected of an improper student relationship. PG-13 (thematic material).

Nothing Like The Holidays Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:00:00

Here is yet another holiday film about a varied, dysfunctional family that comes together at Christmas, lugging a 12-car pileup of anxieties, then tidying up every one, in a red bow within 98 minutes. But director Alfredo De Villa and his ensemble cast (which includes Alfred Molina, Elizabeth Pena and John Leguizamo) manage to generate legitimate warmth and make it all work. PG-13 (thematic elements including some sexual dialogue, and brief drug reference).

The Day the Earth Stood Still Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:00:00

The least necessary remake of the year stars Keanu Reeves as interplanetary visitor Klaatu, first introduced in the 1951 original. This time, Earths sins are more climate-based than warfare-based. Klaatu has come to issue a warning to Earth's leaders: Either treat your planet with more care or prepare for mass extinction. Reeves' portrayal offers little spark or surprise. Klaatu is a blank, and all around him, the flying spheres and Mummy-inspired digital swirls of schmutz are strictly routine. PG-13 (some sci-fi disaster images and violence).

Delgo Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:00:00

The Lockni people invite the homeless, winged Nohrin to stay in their land, and the Nohrin then seek to seize control of peaceful Jhamora. Delgo is proof that not everyone with access to the tools and talent pool to make an animated film should be allowed to. It is a focus-group film, from its all-star voice cast (Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr.) to its mash-up of a plot and cuddly critters acting it out. PG (sequences of fantasy action violence).

Dark Streets Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:00:00

Director Rachel Stevens odd little picture plays more like a stoned marketing departments idea of the blues than the real deal. This is entirely a stylistic exercise, hollow and ugly, studded with a handful of hard-to-recall musical numbers and original songs (Etta James, Dr. John), and so desperate to come off like a fever dream that the very edges of the picture are smudgy and gauzy. R (some sexual content, drug use and brief violent images).

Cadillac Records Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 5 Dec 2008 13:00:00

Adrien Brody plays record exec Leonard Chess, who built a music empire in the 1950s with the help of stars such as Chuck Berry (played exceptionally well by hip-hop artist Mos Def) and Etta James (played not so well by Beyonce Knowles).

Nobel Son Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 5 Dec 2008 13:00:00

Alan Rickman stars as a snotty chemistry professor married to a forensic psychiatrist (Mary Steenburgen). After the prof wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry, his son is kidnapped by a sociopath with a taste for blood and a plan to extort 2 million in ransom money.

Punisher: War Zone Movie Review plus Movie Trailer

Fri, 5 Dec 2008 13:00:00

This gory follow-up works a bit better than the 2004 Punisher installment, the one starring surly, dislikable Thomas Jane as Frank Castle. This time Ray Stevenson, (from the HBO series Rome) plays Castle.

Transporter 3 Movie Review

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:00:00

Overnight-delivery specialist Frank Martin (Jason Statham) must once again move dangerous cargo. His wrist is strapped with a bracelet that explodes if he strays 75 feet from his car, which holds the package. The best sequences involve Franks inventive ability to stay close to his vehicle, but otherwise, it is Franks charismatic, unruffled dexterity in the face of impossible odds that rivets. PG-13

Milk Movie Review

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:00:00

The story of Harvey Milk is a tragedy, but not since Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High has Sean Penn played such a serenely happy individual. Penn is superb as the martyred San Francisco city supervisor, Americas first widely acknowledged openly gay elected official. He was killed by Milks former colleague, Dan White (Josh Brolin, also excellent), minutes after Whites fatal shooting of Mayor George Moscone in 1978. R

Australia Movie Review

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:00:00

En route to love, and to save his ranch from the clutches of a rival, a cattleman known as The Drover (Hugh Jackman) guides a prim Englishwoman (Nicole Kidman), a crew of mixed-race outcasts and 1,500 head of cattle across thousands of miles of Australia during World War II. The second half of director Baz Luhrmann first project since Moulin Rouge develops some momentum. But you have to pass through the first half to get to the second, by which time you may find yourself drowning in high-fructose Aussie corn syrup. PG-13

Four Christmases Movie Review

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:00:00

Christmas itself will survive this acrid, wince-worthy holiday film, but barely. Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn (who both need new agents) play a carefree couple who routinely lie to their respective divorced parents about being unable to visit around the holidays. But bad weather ruins their trip to Fiji and strands them in an airport, they are interviewed on TV, and their families see it, so to save face they speed-visit all four sets of caricatures. The cast, which also includes Sissy Spacek and Robert Duvall, is far better than its material. PG-13

Twilight Movie Review

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:05:00

This highly anticipated, surprisingly low-key vampire movie is a film of intelligent strengths and avoidable weaknesses, a modest adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's publishing phenomenon. It's faithful to its source material, and it's better written than Meyer's frothy book. Teen Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) relocates from Arizona to Washington, where she falls for tortured, sensitive vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Director Catherine Hardwicke was right to concentrate on getting the smoldering down between her stars, but her film lacks visual magic.

Bolt Movie Review

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:05:00

Voiced by John Travolta, the chief asset in a bland ensemble struggling with its material, Bolt is a canine who headlines a TV show co-starring his longtime owner, Penny (Miley Cyrus). Bolt has never been told that his life-or-death adventures are fake, so he's the star of his own depressing version of "The Truman Show." Complications separate Bolt from Penny, sending him to New York City, where his superpowers, which he believes to be real, are useless. This animated Disney feature is stingy on wit, charm, jokes and narrative satisfactions.

A Christmas Tale (Un Conte de Noel) Movie Review

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:05:00

This lovely, vinegary holiday film from French writer-director Arnaud Desplechin is a simple picture about complicated people, the members of the extended Vuillard family. Taking place over a few days around Christmastime, the film's narrative may be more conventional than Desplechin's earlier work ("Kings and Queen," "My Sex Life ... or How I Got Into an Argument"), but it's as juicy and tonally unpredictable as anything he has made. Catherine Deneuve heads a fine cast.

Quantum of Solace New James Bond Movie Review

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:30:00

Chilly-eyed Daniel Craig is the right man for the James Bond franchise, and his second outing confirms it. The trouble is, Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monsters Ball) demonstrates that not every director is well-suited to Bondland. There is plenty of action, but half the time it is visually incoherent. The tale picks up minutes after the end of 2006s Casino Royale. Bond is after the shadowy Quantum organization for killing his lady friend. PG-13 (intense sequences of violence and action, and some sexual content). 1:45. 2-1/2 stars.

Slumdog Millionaire Movie Review

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:30:00

Slumdog Millionaire is a ruthlessly effective paean to destiny, leaving nothing to chance. It also has a good shot at winning this years Academy Award for best picture, if the pundits have anything to say about it. Every arrow plucked from director Danny Boyles quiver takes aim at the same objective: to leave you exhausted but wowed. An 18-year-old (Dev Patel) in the former Bombay, India, is suspected of cheating his way to national fame on the Hindi version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? R (some violence, disturbing images and some language). 2:00. 3 stars.

JCVD Movie Review JCVD Stars Jean-Claude Van Damme

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:30:00

This unusual vehicle for Jean-Claude Van Damme is an unexpectedly droll game of three-card monte disguised as an action film that turns into a (fake) reality-TV-style documentary and then into a hostage thriller. The stars star has waned, and he has child-custody battles to wage, as well as a drug-and-philandering rep to cloud his recent past. When Van Damme finds himself embroiled in a heist and then a hostage situation, he must draw upon his inner Van Damme to resolve it. The film is more a novelty item than a fully formed work, but it is very entertaining. R (language and some violence). 1:32. 3 stars.

Movie Review - Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 00:30:00

The animated Madagascar (2005) made a mint, but this sequel is a better film less manic, more easygoing. Marooned on Madagascar, Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the hypochondriac giraffe (David Schwimmer) and hippo Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) yearn for home in the Central Park Zoo. The penguins rig up an old, busted plane and zing the quartet (plus stowaways) not to Manhattan, but to Africa. PG (some mild crude humor). 1:28. 3 stars.

Movie Review - Role Models

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 00:30:00

Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott mentor a medieval fantasy prone teenager (the invaluable Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who played McLovin in "Superbad") and a trash talking preteen (Bobb'e J. Thompson) in this sloppy but diverting comedy. The last 20 minutes, climaxing with a Dungeons and Dragons-type battle re-enactment, redeems much of what comes before. R (pervasive language, and sexual content including nudity). 1:43. 2-1/2 stars.

Movie Review - Soul Men

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 00:30:00

Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac play a couple of estranged backup singers who uneasily reunite for a tribute concert dedicated to their recently deceased front man. Crass but not without laughs, and Mac gets most of them. Too much of "Soul Men" relies on violent slapstick and Viagra jokes, but the two stars are having fun, and the fun translates when the script loosens its straps. Mac and Jackson transcend this hopped-up version of "The Sunshine Boys." R (pervasive language, and sexual content including nudity). 1:43. 2-1/2 stars.

Movie Review - Synecdoche, New York

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 00:30:00

This fascinating brain-bender comes from writer-director Charlie Kaufman, whose earlier scripts (such as Being John Malkovich and Adaptation) do not prepare you for the conundrums here. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a theater director who dedicates his fraught life to an autobiographical performance piece he never seems to finish. Is it a dream? A death wish? It's a movie worth seeing, even though a solid percentage of any audience will hate it. R (language and some sexual content/nudity). 2:03. 3-1/2 stars.

Movie Review - Zack and Miri Make A Porno

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:30:00

Pittsburgh residents Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) find themselves strapped for cash and decide to make a porno to pay the rent. The verbal raunch is extreme, though this is essentially a sweet-natured "Let's put on a show!" ensemble comedy. Rogen and Banks are great together in writer-director Kevin Smith's latest. R (strong crude sexual content including dialogue, graphic nudity and pervasive language). 1:41. 3 stars.

Movie Review - Rocknrolla

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:30:00

Except for Tom Wilkinson's steely turn as a London mobster, this elaborately plotted bore from Guy Ritchie goes nowhere slickly. Ritchie, who shoots and cuts everything like an ad for a particularly greasy brand of fragrance for men, delivers the beatings and killings in his trademark atmosphere of morally weightless flash. R (pervasive language, violence, drug use and brief sexuality). 1:54. 1-1/2 stars.

Movie Review - I've Loved You So Long

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:30:00

Kristin Scott Thomas may be a more subtle and expressive performer in French than in English, and in this absorbing if schematic French-language drama, she's superb as a doctor recently released from a 15-year prison sentence. The particulars of her crime, and her uneasy adjustment to a new life, form the basis of writer-director Philippe Claudet's debut feature. Expect an Oscar nomination for Thomas. PG-13 (thematic material and smoking). 1:57. 3 stars.

Movie Review - High School Musical 3: Senior Year

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:00:00

The High School Musical series is not aimed at high schoolers, who presumably know by now that grades 9-12 are not a candy-coated wonderland. It is aimed at preteens willing to bet high school will be the best thing ever. The first two HSM movies, made for TVs Disney Channel, broke cable viewership records, and the first films soundtrack was 2006s top-selling record. HSM 3 may be shallow, but what it lacks in narrative ambition, it makes up for in dazzling choreography that is certain to leave its target audience transfixed. Consider it is harmlessly fluffy fun. G. 1:52. 3 stars.

Movie Review - Changeling

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:00:00

Based on infamous Southern California Wineville chicken coop murders of the 1920s, this film, a combination of serial-killer saga and triumph of the human spirit, is a solid addition to Clint Eastwood directorial career. Eastwood tells a painful true story neatly and well, with one foot in rousing Hollywood melodrama and the other in a story that resists tidy resolution. Angelina Jolie shines as the mother of a missing boy, crusading against the law-enforcement officials who shut her away in hopes of shutting her up. R (some violent and disturbing content and language). 2:21. 3 stars.

Movie Review - Pride and Glory

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:00:00

Edward Norton, Colin Farrell and Jon Voight star in this dirty-cops thriller involving conflicted family loyalties and lots of drug money. The film is full of interesting little grace notes, and the cast is excellent, yet it grows more and more frustrating. The plot is too familiar, too reliant on coincidence and expediency. R (strong violence, pervasive language and brief drug content). 2:09. 2 stars.

Movie Review - Happy Go Lucky

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:00:00

This is accomplished director Mike Leigh most buoyantly comic feature, and it is a marvelous showcase for Sally Hawkins, who stars as the perpetually cheery Poppy, a grade school teacher in North London. Happy-Go-Lucky is an ode to the power of irrational exuberance, and Leigh keeps the narrative machinery to a minimum. Everything is a bit neat, but a lot of Leighs work tends toward a heightened theatrical neatness. When it works, the result is a slice of life that, in terms of honest cinematic storytelling, is more like a slice of cake. R (language). 1:58. 3-1/2 stars.

Movie Review - Oliver Stone W.

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:30:00

Oliver Stone's film about the life and exceptional good luck enjoyed (and squandered, if you agree with Stone) by George W. Bush may be ill-timed, unnecessary and no more psychologically probing than any other Stone movie. But much of it works as deft, brisk, slyly engaging docudrama. As with any Stone film, the swing between truth and fantasy is willful and wide. A wily and exacting Josh Brolin plays W., going just far enough with certain traits to ring the bell (the little heh-heh-heh chuckle, for instance). PG-13 (language including sexual references, some alcohol abuse, smoking and brief disturbing war images). 2:09. 3 stars.

Movie Review - What Just Happened

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:30:00

Small, mild, easy to watch and easier to forget, this adaptation of producer Art Linson's Hollywood memoirs has the virtue of breeziness, and of Robert De Niro unwinding, after one too many tense performances, in the role of Linson's alter ego, a twice-divorced and multi-directionally frazzled movie producer. Yet you leave wanting more, and funnier. R (language, some violent images, sexual content and some drug material). 1:50. 2 stars.

Movie Review - Sex Drive

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:30:00

This derivative gross-out movie is easier to take if you accept that the answer to every baffling plot question is "because it's a teen sex comedy." Protagonist Ian (Josh Zuckerman) and two pals (Amanda Crew, Clark Duke) drive from Chicago to Tennessee so that Ian can meet an Internet chat partner who, he hopes, will relieve him of his virginity. It's just a loose framework for a joyously crass celebration of adolescent hormones. R (strong crude and sexual content, nudity, language, some drug and alcohol use -- all involving teens). 1:54. 1-1/2 stars.

Movie Review - The Secret Life of Bees

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:30:00

Based on Sue Monk Kidd 2002 novel, a hugely popular exploration of family, love and the brutal politics of race in 1964 South Carolina, this adaptation forces the characters through their paces at breakneck speed, never allowing a moment for reflection. Dakota Fanning plays Lily, a lonely budding writer who ends up in the care of four black women (Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo). It's all very neat and tidy, but not very satisfying. PG-13 (thematic material and some violence). 1:50. 2 stars

Movie Review - Max Payne

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:30:00

Based on a 2001 video game, this joyless adaptation is sluggish as well as hard on the eyes. "Max Payne" offers max pain along with min invention, and the only thing that keeps it out of the bottom of the Dumpster is the presence of Mark Wahlberg as the vengeance-driven title character. PG-13 (violence including intense shooting sequences, drug content, some sexuality and brief strong language). 1:40. 1 star

Movie Review - The Express

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:30:00

A sincere but formulaic biopic of running back Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy. Dennis Quaid gets top billing as Syracuse U. coach Ben Schwartzwalder, and the movie tilts too far in his direction. I wish the characterization of Davis came to more than general goodwill and great on-field maneuvers. Everything in The Express has a stilted and slightly artificial air. PG (thematic content, violence and language involving racism, and for brief sensuality). 2:09. 2 stars.

Movie Review - Body of Lies

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:30:00

Ridley Scott directs this slick, busy international thriller that stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the CIAs top man in Jordan, on the hunt of an Osama bin Laden-style terrorist. Russell Crowe gets most of screenwriter William The Departed Monahans best lines as the spymaster back home. R (strong violence, including some torture, and language throughout). 2:08. 2-1/2 stars.

Movie Review - Rachel Getting Married

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:30:00

Jonathan Demme most bracing narrative feature since The Silence of the Lambs combines a wedding with a tense family reunion, starring Anne Hathaway as a recovering addict returning home for her sisters nuptials. -- M.P. A triumph of ambience, this is the first Demme film since the 1980s that feels like a party -- bittersweet, but a party nonetheless. R (language and brief sexuality). 1:51. 3-1/2 stars.

Movie Review - City of Ember

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:30:00

This richly designed fantasy is set in an underground city, where a couple of resourceful kids hold the key to civilizations future. While life above ground regenerates after the end of the world as we know it, the citizens of Ember (including a mayor played by Bill Murray) cope with their makeshift metropolis, built to last for 200 years. Times almost up. Gil Kenan of Monster House directs, and he gets the texture, tone and spirit of this movie just right. PG (mild peril and some thematic elements). 1:35. 3 stars.

Movie Review - Nick and Norahs Infinite Playlist

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:00:00

Taking place during one offhandedly eventful night, this modest charmer stars Michael Cera and Kat Dennings as a couple of Jersey kids crisscrossing Manhattan with their respective posses in search of their favorite band rumored to be playing somewhere in the city, the two eventually intersecting long enough to realize they're interested in each other. The film coasts on the appeal of its stars and its depiction of Manhattan as a place where your true self can find true love.

Movie Review - Appaloosa

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:00:00

This leisurely, off-and-on buddy Western, set in the New Mexico territory in 1882, stars Ed Harris (who also co-wrote the screenplay and directed) as a gunslinger who goes up against a ruthless rancher (Jeremy Irons). This film could have used a real sense of danger to go along with all the neat, tidy, highfalutin' honor and decency.

Movie Review - Blindness

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:00:00

A disparate group of citizens in a large city are afflicted by sudden sightlessness, and the world around them becomes chaos. The government confines the afflicted to an asylum, and much of this film concerns the battle between Ward One, run like a caring commune by a doctor (Mark Ruffalo) and his take-charge wife (Julianne Moore), and the louts running Ward Three, headed by a bartender (Gael Garcia Bernal) and an accountant (Maury Chaykin). Jose Saramago's good, challenging book doesn't quite make the jump to the big screen.

Movie Review - How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:00:00

A rom-com reorganizing of Toby Young's satiric memoir of a brief celebrity journalism career at Vanity Fair. This putrid showbiz comedy largely wastes the talents of cast members Simon Pegg, Jeff Bridges and Kirsten Dunst.

Movie Review - Religulous

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:00:00

Bill Maher and director Larry Charles get a fair number of laughs as they take aim at religious extremism in many forms. Yet even if you share Maher's skepticism on his subject, you may wish he'd set up his straight men and straight women in a way that doesn't merely score the cheapest possible laughs.

Movie Review - Eagle Eye

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:00:00

Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan are dragooned into a vast cyber conspiracy involving a super-secret Pentagon surveillance weapon that's basically a humorless female version of HAL 9000. The screenplay tries like the devil to get you all fussed up about omnivorous cyber-surveillance on a scale George Orwell never imagined, but the result is a hyperactive jumble that fails to whip up the right mixture of dread and propulsion. PG-13 (intense sequences of action and violence and for language). 1:58. 1-1/2 stars.

Movie Review - Nights in Rodanthe

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:00:00

A recently separated woman (Diane Lane) leaves her kids with her ex and heads to the scenic coastal burg of Rodanthe, N.C., where her pal owns the a picturesque inn. She's there to spend time alone and prepare the inn for an incoming nor'easter, but the sole scheduled visitor is a doctor (Richard Gere) who recently lost a patient during a routine operation and has come to amends with the grieving widower (Scott Glenn). The result is a feather-light romance based on a feather-light novel by Nicholas Sparks. PG-13 (some sensuality). 1:37. 2 stars.

Movie Review - Miracle at Saint Anna

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:00:00

Spike Lee tackles a great, sprawling subject, adapting James McBride's novel about four African-American soldiers stranded behind enemy lines in WWII but welcomed by members of a besieged Tuscan community. Lee shoots the story, which spans wrenching battlefield realism and folkloric magical-realism flourishes, every which way, and the tone is uncertain. Why can't he bring the same clarity and force to his fictional features that he does to his documentaries? R (strong war violence, language and some sexual content/nudity). 2:46. 2 stars.

Movie Review - The Lucky Ones

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:00:00

Three U.S. Army veterans home from Iraq are thrown together and embark on a cross-country road trip full of earnest speeches and awkward narrative contrivances. Director and co-writer Neil Burger has real facility with actors, but Rachel McAdams, Michael Pena and a miscast Tim Robbins cannot make three-dimensional characters out of two-dimensional archetypes. R (language and some sexual content). 1:53. 2 stars

Movie Review - The Duchess

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:00:00

This film dramatizes Amanda Foreman's popular biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (played by Keira Knightley), a cultishly adored (and sometimes loathed) celebrity of the 18th century known for her outspoken politics as much as her influence over British fashions. "The Duchess" is a beautifully crafted period piece, but it's also disturbingly shallow, focused so tightly on one woman's feelings of repression and loneliness that it lacks any perspective on her causes. PG-13 (sexual content, brief nudity and thematic material). 1:49. 2-1/2 stars.

Movie Review - Ghost Town

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:45:00

Here's a welcome surprise: a supernatural romantic comedy that works, graced with a cast just off-center enough to make it distinctive. A freak accident during a routine colonoscopy takes a loner dentist (Ricky Gervais) to the other side for seven seconds. When he comes back, he can see and hear all the spirits of the dead caught in limbo with unfinished business. One such spirit (Greg Kinnear) promises to leave the dentist alone if he'll break up the impending marriage of his widow (Tea Leoni). PG-13 (some strong language, sexual humor and drug references). 1:43. 3-1/2 stars.

Movie Review - Lakeview Terrace

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:45:00

In a sleepy L.A. suburb, a tightly wound widower and LAPD officer (Samuel L. Jackson), who also happens to be a racial separatist, isn't happy about a mixed-race couple (Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington) moving in next door. Director Neil LaBute ("In the Company of Men") stage-manages a race war played out in a cul-de-sac. One wishes LaBute, a bleak satirist and, at his best, a crudely compelling dramatist, had made the script his own sort of twisted comedy instead of a routine thriller. PG-13 (intense thematic material, violence, sexuality, language and some drug references). 1:46. 2 stars.

Movie Review - Igor

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:45:00

In the Kingdom of Malaria, Igors are sent to Igor School for a Yes Masters Degree, destined for a servile existence in the employ of the country's many evil scientists. The Igor Igor concerns itself with is voiced by John Cusack. His boss (John Cleese) dies while tinkering with his invention for the Evil Science Fair, leaving Igor to freely experiment with his own creation: a destructive force of mayhem voiced by Molly Shannon. This animated feature isn't particularly funny, but my kid went with it, and I had a fairly good time with it. PG (some thematic elements, scary images, action and mild language). 1:26. 2-1/2 stars.

Movie Review - Towelhead

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:45:00

Islamic groups are protesting the ethnically charged name of director Alan Ball's film, which comes packed with so many issues -- racial, social, political, familial and particularly sexual -- that it often winds up feeling overheated and overburdened, though it's impossible to look away. Newcomer Summer Bishil stars as Jasira, a precocious, half-Lebanese 13-year-old whose coming of age takes place in an oppressively unloving environment. R (strong disturbing sexual content and abuse involving a young teen, and for language). 1:54. 3 stars

Movie Review - A Girl Cut in Two

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:30:00

This France-set tale of a TV weather girl and two wolfish suitors is a cool marvel of tone, acted about as well as it possibly could be. The story isn't a mystery by narrative definition, yet director Claude Chabrol's longtime mastery of the mystery genre comes in very handy as he sets up his characters like figures in a boulevard comedy, only to reveal their darker impulses gradually, in surprising little splinters.

Movie Review - The Women

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:30:00

Across nearly 70 years, no one adapting Clare Boothe Luce's play "The Women" has figured out how women actually talk and act. That was fine for Luce and George Cukor (director of 1939 version), who were deliberately mocking rich, spoiled society wives. But first-time writer-director Diane English seems to want viewers to sympathize with her toxic, shallow characters, and that's far harder than laughing at them.

Movie Review - Burn After Reading

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:30:00

An imperious former spook (John Malkovich) accuses his blackmailers (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand) of heading a league of morons, in the latest film from Joel and Ethan Coen. As in all Coen japes, stupid has at least a 40 percent chance of getting you killed in spectacularly violent fashion. But the cosmic joke being played on the morons here isn't much fun in the telling.

Movie Review - I Served the King of England

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 11:30:00

This film from Czech writer-director Jiri Menzel is tasty enough but inoffensive even when it should offend, provoke, startle. It's an assured and attractive piece, but with a hollow ring. The story follows a prison parolee whose young adulthood and various liaisons are recounted in flashback. Unfortunately, the two versions of the man, Jan Dite (the younger version played by Ivan Barnev, the older version played by Oldrich Kaiser) never seem to match up.

Movie Review - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 11:30:00

In the current popular culture, female friendships -- at any age -- are generally considered secondary to life's "important" relationships, the romantic bonds between men and women. Nowhere is this depressing trend more evident than in Hollywood, where story lines putatively about women's friendships tend toward the saccharine ("Mona Lisa Smile"), the malicious ("Mean Girls") or the boy-crazy (take your pick). Which is why it's such a pleasure (and a relief) to encounter movies such as "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2."

Movie Review - Traitor

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:30:00

"Traitor" asks a question that can only be answered by that cruel mistress, the marketplace: How much moral ambiguity and narrative intricacy will an audience handle in the realm of a terrorism-themed contemporary thriller? Enough, I hope, to respond to "Traitor." It tells a good, snakelike story, slithering in some unpredictable directions.

Movie Review - Sixty Six Starring Gregg Sulkin, Eddie Marsan, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Rea, Ben Newton

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:30:00

Inspired by director Paul Weiland's childhood, notably a fraught bar mitzvah that coincided with the 1966 World Cup final, the British comedy "Sixty Six" recalls Neil Simon, but the good Neil Simon -- the one who delivered commercial mainstream comedy with just enough honest sentiment to make it stick, as in "Brighton Beach Memoirs."

Movie Review - The Rocker Starring Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate, Jeff Garlin, Josh Gad, Teddy Geiger, Emma Stone

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:30:00

"The Rocker" is an amiable vehicle for Rainn Wilson of "The Office," the bitter alum of an '80s hair band lands behind the drumkit of his nephew's high school quartet. "The Rocker" is a modest but fun comedy, and for once, the high school characters look, sound and act like high school characters.

Movie Review - Death Race Starring Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Joan Allen, Ian McShane, Natalie Martinez

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:30:00

This fun remake of the 1975 movie "Death Race 2000" stars Jason Statham as a wrongly incarcerated resident of the most maximum of all maximum-security prisons, where rough men lead rough lives and the bravest of them compete in the nation's most popular sporting event: Death Race. Joan Allen plays the prison warden running the murderous race, the most popular live sporting event of the near-future.

Movie Review - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 Starring America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn, Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:30:00

Movie Review - Tropic Thunder Movie Review by Film Critic Michael Phillips

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:00:00

Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black play the leading actors stuck in a quagmire of a Vietnam War film, Tropic Thunder, based on the memoirs of Four-Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte). The Vietnam veteran and the film's hapless director decide to break loose and go native, aided by the special-effects explosives expert. For maximum realism they venture deep into the jungle.

Movie Review - Pineapple Express Movie Review by Film Critic Michael Phillips

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 12:00:00

A dope dealer (James Franco) and his steady customer (Seth Rogen) go on the run after the latter witnesses a drug-related murder and drops a precious joint at the scene of the crime. Few recent comedies have started so well and ended so poorly.

Movie Review - The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Movie Review by Film Critic Michael Phillips

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 12:00:00

This over-the-top action sequel, starring Brendan Fraser, is likely to click with the public, given the enormous profitability of the first two "Mummy" movies.

Movie Review - Step Brothers Movie Review by Film Critic Michael Phillips

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:00:00

This movie is stupid, predictable and fairly funny, though even its bigger laughs make you wonder if the whole arrested-adolescent streak in contemporary screen comedy may be running its course.

Movie Review - The Dark Knight Movie Review by Film Critic Michael Phillips

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:00:00

Sensational, grandly sinister and not for the kids, "The Dark Knight" elevates pulp to a very high level.

Movie Review - Journey to the Center of the Earth Movie Review by Film Critic Michael Phillips

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:00:00

http://www.ihavenet.com/journey-to-the-center-of-the-earth-movie-review-by-michael-phillips-on-video.html

Movie Review - Hancock by Film Critic Michael Phillips

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 09:00:00

The idea sounds ripe: Will Smith, one of the screen's most engaging stars, playing a surly wino of a superhero, making a mess of Los Angeles as he comes to the occasional aid of those in need.

Movie Review - WALL-E by Film Critic Michael Phillips

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:00:00 -0500

A hunk of metal with binoculars for eyes - can this be the screen's latest true hero - Yes.

Movie Review - Get Smart by Film Critic Michael Phillips

Wed, 19 Jun 2008 09:00:00 -0500

The action comedy "Get Smart" sends CONTROL agent Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) on his most dangerous and important mission: to thwart the latest plot for world domination by the evil crime syndicate known as KAOS.

Movie Review - The Incredible Hulk by Film Critic Michael Phillips