Zap2it.com - Movie Reviews

'The Twilight Saga: New Moon'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The novel demands that Bella and Edward be kept apart, robbing the movie of the crazy love that made 'Twilight' such a guilty pleasure. And about the director ....

"This is the last time you'll ever see me," Edward Cullen says to Bella Swan. As if.

'The Blind Side'

editorial@zap2it.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Sandra Bullock retrieves much of the career momentum that "The Proposal" gave her and that "All About Steve" threatened to kill with " The Blind Side ," a surprisingly smart and moving drama about a Memphis steel magnolia who doesn't truly bloom until she takes in a homeless teen and gives him a life.

'Planet 51'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

How might a teenager protect himself from that dreaded fate described in legions of sci-fi movies -- the probe? If you weren't thinking "champagne cork," you were way off, according to the sci-fi kids cartoon " Planet 51 ."

'2012'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Nothing like a dandy evening's apocalypse to take the edge off recession, unemployment, Afghanistan and Glenn Beck. With "2012," Roland "Day After Tomorrow" Emmerich serves up World's End 4.0, with cataclysmic effects showcasing what volcanoes, tidal waves and earthquakes will do once that fabled Mayan calendar runs out on 12-21-12.

'Pirate Radio'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The new rock-saturated "Pirate Radio" proves life really is better when it's set to a '60s soundtrack.

'The Men Who Stare at Goats'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

"The Men Who Stare at Goats" sounds like some ethnographic documentary about the bushmen of the Kalahari or the Bakhtiari herders of old Persia. Anyone expecting anything like that, or even a Disney family film like "Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar," is going to be surprised.

'Disney's A Christmas Carol'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

This version of the Dickens' classic is appropriately dark, but a little human warmth would help

The new Disney "A Christmas Carol" is another epic achievement in motion-capture animation, advancing the art form closer to photo-realism than "The Polar Express" or "Beowulf." Dazzling, ornate visuals take us to the snowy London of 1837, swooping over its digital rooftops and down its digital chimneys. Faces take on musculature, expression and detail.

'Precious'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The first 20 minutes of "Precious," the full title of which is "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," are so intense and pitched so high, you may not feel like sticking it out. My advice: Stick it out. This is an exceptional film about nearly unendurable circumstances, endured. You will come out the other side of it a markedly enriched filmgoer.

'The Box'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

In "The Box," which is fairly insane by the standards of most Hollywood packages, writer-director Richard Kelly takes the 10-page story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson (who wrote "I Am Legend" and many other works adapted for the screen) and stuffs it so full of cockamamie speculative fictions, from magical lightning strikes to NASA projects to the metaphorical uses of Sartre's "No Exit," by the end you can only think: This guy needed a bigger box.

'Michael Jackson's This Is It'

editorial@zap2it.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

How much of "Michael Jackson's This Is It" can we believe?