Movie Reviews
MOVIE REVIEW- Humor misfire: <i>Beth Cooper</i>'s no fun
Published on Jul 9th, 2009
1 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO People with Tourette syndrome tend to blurt out things– often obscene things– involuntarily.  Well, Tourette is human, but what happens in I Love You, Beth Cooper is...
MOVIE REVIEW- Getting colder: Third <i>Ice Age</i> no match for the first
Published on Jul 2nd, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO The foolishness of wasting millions on celebrity voices for animated films (with occasional exceptions like Robin Williams in Aladdin) was demonstrated in the first two Ice Age...
MOVIE REVIEW- Robots return: Second <i>Transformers</i> even bigger
Published on Jun 25th, 2009
4 comments   PUBLICITY PHOTO Wouldn't it be cool if, with the push of a button, a mild-mannered film critic could be transformed into a huge, fearless, megafreakinawesome creature capable of doing battle...
MOVIE REVIEW- Conned: <i>Brothers Bloom</i> doesn't quite pull it off
Published on Jun 18th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO The more movies you see about con artists (The Sting, The Spanish Gardener, The Grifters, Nine Queens, House of Games, Paper Moon, Confidence, The Flim-Flam Man, Dirty Rotten...
MOVIE REVIEW- Subway sequel: Two big dogs play cat and mouse
Published on Jun 11th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO There was no earthly need to remake The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, except to make the title more text-friendly by substituting digits; but if it had to be done for commercial...
MOVIE REVIEW- Day after: <i>Hangover</i> a feel-bad but funny flick
Published on Jun 4th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO If you've seen any of the films of Todd Phillips (Old School, Road Trip, etc.) you know his favorite topic is men behaving immaturely (or boys behaving infantilely). You also know he...
MOVIE REVIEW- Soar subject: <i>Up</i> is a beauty, not a beast
Published on May 28th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Cars hinted that Pixar wasn't making toons just for children anymore, with a multigenerational appeal that skewed toward nostalgic older viewers. Ratatouille and WALL•E also...
MOVIE REVIEW- Relish relics: Second <i>Night</i> brings laughs
Published on May 21st, 2009
1 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO What do you do when you're barely competent and can't make it anywhere else? You go to Washington. (Sorry, joke left over from the previous administration.) Larry Daley (Ben Stiller...
MOVIE REVIEW- Post-<i>DaVinci </i>delight: <i>Angels &amp; Demons</i> done right
Published on May 14th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Ron Howard faced an interesting dilemma in approaching his follow-up to The Da Vinci Code: If it's broke but people like it, do you still fix it? Da Vinci was a lousy movie, the...
MOVIE REVIEW- 'Star'ting over: Doing sci-fi right
Published on May 7th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Not everything old is new again...yet. After the rejuvenation of the James Bond series and now Star Trek: Starting Over (let's ignore the Pink Panthers and Teenage Mutant Ninja...
MOVIE REVIEW- Fight for Peace: Battle for Terra-ble
Published on Apr 30th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Their parents may have been conceived in a hippie commune, but today's kids don't want to watch movies about people sitting in a circle singing "Kumbaya." Hence the hypocrisy of...
MOVIE REVIEW- Heavenly <i>Earth</i>: Are polar bears the new penguins?
Published on Apr 23rd, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Some of the beautiful nature photography in Earth is enough to make Bill Maher believe in God. Some of the savagery shown in Earth (or implied, to keep it G-rated) is enough to...
MOVIE REVIEW- Albe-quirky: Second <i>Sunshine's </i>sweet
Published on Apr 16th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Independent films are known for their quirks, some endearing and some annoying. Sunshine Cleaning has a surfeit of the former but enough of the latter to keep my enthusiasm in check...
MOVIE REVIEW- Rebel redux: This <i>Che</i> convoluted, confusing
Published on Apr 9th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO There's a history lesson in Che Part One, but it's the kind that puts kids off history lessons. Peter Buchman's screenplay bombards you with details without establishing any...
MOVIE REVIEW- Losing it: <i>Adventureland</i> is virgin territory
Published on Apr 2nd, 2009
1 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO There's a lot of talk in Adventureland about how guys are "wired" to crave meaningless sex. There's no mention of men's need to share their sexual experiences, especially their first...
MOVIE REVIEW- Cast vs. script: <i>Monster</i>'s voices soar; story sinks
Published on Mar 26th, 2009
0 comments A great voice cast battles an undernourished script to a draw in Monsters vs. Aliens, which doesn't involve drawing because it's all computer-animated. In the annual Oscar smackdown, an occasional...
MOVIE REVIEW- Bro-mance: <i>Love You</i> full of laughs
Published on Mar 19th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO I Love You, Man is a "pleasure-giver," though not the way the term is defined in the movie. This bro-mantic comedy has fun upsetting preconceived definitions of gender roles and...
MOVIE REVIEW- Re-tried scenes: <i>Last House</i> will thrill... sickos
Published on Mar 12th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO In an age of somewhat more original movies Wes Craven was able to remake The Virgin Spring as The Last House on the Left without spawning a rash of horror remakes of Ingmar Bergman...
MOVIE REVIEW- Unfilmable? <i>Watchmen </i>thrills fans, confuses the rest
Published on Mar 5th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO There are two kinds of people in the world: "Watchdawgs," or whatever the out-and-proud geeks who are familiar with the Watchmen comic books/graphic novel call themselves; and "...
MOVIE REVIEW- Big box: Not-so-funny Madea packs 'em in.
Published on Feb 26th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO "Do you have to be in control of everything all the time?" Dr. Phil (playing himself) asks Madea (Tyler Perry) during anger management counseling in Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail...
MOVIE REVIEW- Reel life: Docu-drama shows truth behind family pictures
Published on Feb 19th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO Once upon a time, if a person learned some shocking news about their family's dysfunctionality they either repressed it or shared it with their best friend. Another generation told...
MOVIE REVIEW- Art imitates: International intrigue conjures current crisis
Published on Feb 12th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO The International may be the first movie of the post-post-ironic age. The screenplay by Eric Warren Singer acknowledges the unstoppability of the economic forces that control our...
MOVIE REVIEW- Oscar survey: Academy gets it right, competition still fierce
Published on Feb 5th, 2009
0 comments The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has gotten a lot of things right in their nominations for the 81st annual Academy Awards. Of course being "right" means they agree with me. All five...
MOVIE REVIEW- A Marriage: From perfect match to cage match
Published on Jan 29th, 2009
0 comments If enough young people see Revolutionary Road, the marriage rate should drop significantly. It could even inspire Constitutional amendments to defend the sanctity of marriage by forbidding...
MOVIE REVIEW- Rourke's comeback: <i>Wrestler </i>is fallen actor's best
Published on Jan 22nd, 2009
0 comments Everybody loves a comeback, and The Wrestler gives you two for the price of one. Three, if you throw in director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream), who needed one after The Fountain. First...
MOVIE REVIEW- More holocaust: <i>Defiance </i>can't match <i>Reader</i>
Published on Jan 15th, 2009
0 comments It wouldn't be Award Season without a Holocaust-related movie or two– or, this year, four or five. Defiance, which is better than Valkyrie but not as good as The Reader, has the most direct...
MOVIE REVIEW- <i>Gran</i>'s grand: Eastwood is older and better
Published on Jan 8th, 2009
0 comments This may turn into a love letter to Clint Eastwood, for which I apologize in advance. The guy is the personification of, "I'm not getting older, I'm getting better." At 78, he's still doing some of...
MOVIE REVIEW- Season's jeer: Nothing cheerful about <i>Holidays</i>
Published on Dec 18th, 2008
0 comments The 12 Plots of Christmas, courtesy of Nothing Like the Holidays: 1. The family converges on the Chicago home of Edy (Alfred Molina) and Anna Rodriguez (Elizabeth Peña) for Christmas. 2. Son...
MOVIE REVIEW- Get <i>Milk</i> : Penn gives award-worthy performance
Published on Dec 11th, 2008
0 comments Having lived in San Francisco for 15 years, starting two months after the murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, I felt too close to the events and people depicted in Milk to be...
MOVIE REVIEW- <i>Oz-stralia</i> : Down under flick's a downer
Published on Dec 4th, 2008
0 comments If you're keeping track of the supposed award contenders being released at the end of the year, you can cross Australia off the list. Baz Luhrmann's pseudo-retro mystical historical Western romance...