Movie Reviews
Fitting end: Final 'Potter' lives up to hype
Published on Jul 20th, 2011
0 comments After seven earlier films reaching back a decade, the Harry Potter saga comes to a solid and satisfying conclusion in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. The finale conjures up enough awe...
Laugh aloud: 'Horrible Bosses' dirty, hilarious
Published on Jul 14th, 2011
2 comments Horrible Bosses is funny and dirty, in about that order. Of George Carlin's famous "seven words you can never say on television," it omits only the usual one, I think, makes free with the others, and...
Revved up: 'Cars' sequel wins the race
Published on Jul 7th, 2011
0 comments While I was watching Cars 2, an elusive nostalgia tugged at my mind. No, I wasn't remembering Pixar's original Cars from 2006. This was something more deeply buried, and finally, in the middle of one...
Just bad: Diaz's 'Teacher' has audiences dropping out
Published on Jun 29th, 2011
2 comments Jake Kasdan's Bad Teacher immediately brings Bad Santa to mind, and suffers by the comparison. Its bad teacher is neither bad enough nor likable enough. The transgressions of Elizabeth Halsey (...
Dim pleasure: 'Lantern' not quite bright enough
Published on Jun 23rd, 2011
1 comments Green Lantern presents yet another case of a human being given the responsibility of leading the battle of good versus evil, or, in this case, of the will versus fear. We learn that an ancient race...
Simpler time: 'Super 8' a nostalgic thriller
Published on Jun 16th, 2011
0 comments With its night skies filled with mystery, its kids racing around town on bicycles and its flashlights forming visible beams in the air, Super 8 has the visual signatures of an early Spielberg movie....
Pre-heros: New X-Men offers high tech, alternate history
Published on Jun 8th, 2011
2 comments The best acting in X Men: First Class is by President John F. Kennedy, who in his Thanksgiving 1962 message to the nation expresses gratitude for the successful end of the Cuban Missile Crisis while...
Playing offense: Hangover II spares no one
Published on Jun 2nd, 2011
0 comments Is this some kind of a test? The Hangover Part II plays like a challenge to the audience's capacity for raunchiness. It gets laughs, but some of them are in disbelief. As if making sure no one was...
One too many: Latest 'Pirates' should be the last
Published on May 25th, 2011
2 comments Before seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, I had already reached my capacity for Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and with this fourth installment, my cup runneth over. Indeed, so...
Wiig'in out: 'Bridesmaids' gives good laughs
Published on May 19th, 2011
0 comments Three of my good female friends, who I could usually find overcoming hangovers at their Saturday morning Recovery Drunches at Oxford's Pub, once made pinpricks in their thumbs and performed a...
Bad romance: 'Something' isn't quite right
Published on May 11th, 2011
0 comments One of the curious problems with Something Borrowed is that Kate Hudson's performance is too effective. She plays Darcy, the lifelong best friend of the heroine, Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin). Blond,...
The Rock rolls: 'Fast Five' a fun ride
Published on May 5th, 2011
0 comments I don't think you can do this. I don't think you can take two midsize sedans, chain them to a bank vault, and haul it behind you on a high-speed chase through the streets of Rio de Janeiro while...
Circus drama: 'Water for Elephants' an old fashioned love story
Published on Apr 28th, 2011
0 comments There's something endearingly old-fashioned about a love story involving a beautiful bareback rider and a kid who runs off to join the circus. What makes Water for Elephants more intriguing is a...
Humorous horror: Scre4m's smart; its stars are not
Published on Apr 20th, 2011
0 comments The great pleasure in the Scream movies is that the characters have seen other horror films. At times they talk as if they're in the chat room of a horror site. Wes Craven's Scre4m, the...
Indomitable: Soul Surfer inspirational, but realistic?
Published on Apr 14th, 2011
0 comments Soul Surfer is based on the true story of Bethany Hamilton, a champion surfer who in her early teens was attacked by a shark and lost almost all her left arm. One month later, she was back on a...
Weird science: Source Code a mind-bending ride
Published on Apr 7th, 2011
0 comments Source Code is an ingenious thriller that comes billed as science fiction, although its science is preposterous. Does that matter, as long as everyone treats it with the greatest urgency? After all,...
Gothic romance: New 'Jane Eyre' gloomily compelling
Published on Mar 30th, 2011
0 comments Gothic romance attracts us with a deep, tidal force. Part of its appeal is the sense of ungovernable eroticism squirming to escape from just beneath the surface. Its chaste heroines and dark,...
Brain strain: 'Limitless' falls short of brilliance
Published on Mar 24th, 2011
0 comments I know how Eddie Morra feels. Like him, I know almost everything, but have forgotten most of it. We are told time and again that we utilize only a small portion of our brains, and have enough left...
To grandmother's house? You might want to stay home
Published on Mar 16th, 2011
0 comments Of the classics of world literature crying out to be adapted as a sexual fantasy for teenage girls, surely Red Riding Hood is far down on the list. Here's a movie that cross-pollinates the Twilight...
2D miracle: 'Rango' is animation at its best
Published on Mar 10th, 2011
0 comments Rango is some kind of a miracle: an animated comedy for smart moviegoers, wonderfully made, great to look at, wickedly satirical and (gasp!) filmed in glorious 2D. Its brilliant colors and startling...
Derivative: 'Number Four' flawed in countless ways
Published on Mar 3rd, 2011
2 comments I Am Number Four is shameless and unnecessary. That's sad, when a movie casts aside all shame, demonstrates itself willing to rip off anything that might attract audiences, and nevertheless fails....
Un-conventional: "Cedar Rapids" sinfully sweet
Published on Feb 23rd, 2011
1 comments You are making the mistake of thinking of Cedar Rapids as a small town. In Cedar Rapids, a sweet comedy with a dirty mind, it is the metropolis, a sinkhole of sex, sin and high living at an annual...
Don't go with it: Sandler-Aniston vehicle runs out of gas
Published on Feb 16th, 2011
0 comments The people in this movie are dumber than a box of Tinkertoys. One fears they're so unfortunate it's not politically correct to laugh at them. That's not a problem because Just Go With It is so rarely...
Watered down: Sanctum could cave Cameron's reputation
Published on Feb 9th, 2011
1 comments Sanctum tells the story of a terrifying adventure in an incompetent way. Some of it is exciting, the ending is involving, and all of it is a poster child for the horrors of 3D used wrongly. The film...
MOVIE REVIEW-Ineffable loss: Blue Valentine explores the death of love
Published on Jan 27th, 2011
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Who was it who said we get married because we want a witness to our lives? That may provide an insight into the troubled minds of the married couple in "Blue Valentine," which...
MOVIE REVIEW-No sting: <i>Hornet </i>leaves Ebert green around the gills
Published on Jan 20th, 2011
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO The Green Hornet is an almost unendurable demonstration of a movie with nothing to be about. Although it follows the rough storyline of previous versions of the title, it neglects...
MOVIE REVIEW-Cage glory: <i>Season of the Witch</i> over the top
Published on Jan 13th, 2011
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO I lost track of the sieges and battles. Season of the Witch opens with a series of helpfully labeled sequences in which desert battles are fought, sites are sacked, buttresses...
MOVIE REVIEW- Morally bankrupt:<i> Inside Job </i>a chilling look at Wall Street
Published on Dec 3rd, 2010
2 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO I don't fully understand the workings of the derivatives and credit swaps we've heard so much about. But I'm learning. These are ingenious computer-driven schemes in which good money...
MOVIE REVIEW- Armless and dangerous: <i>127 Hours </i>harrowing, compulsively watchable
Published on Nov 25th, 2010
2 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Sometimes a person will make an enormous mistake and get a lot of time to think about it. There was a man who went over Niagara Falls sealed inside a big rubber ball. It never made...
MOVIE REVIEW- Villainous fun: <i>Megamind</i> is clever family fare
Published on Nov 18th, 2010
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Megamind was the third 3D movie I'd seen in a row, and as I struggled to free my glasses from their industrial-strength plastic envelope, I wasn't precisely looking forward to it....