You know you are in trouble when the four main cast members in a film use their own first names for their characters. This is an embarrassingly amateurish, feeble attempt at moviemaking. The flimsy plot, about a group of high schoolers putting on the same play during which a student died during a freak accident […]
This film, based on Michael Lewis’ best seller about the real estate bubble of the 2000s, uses humor and wit to simplify the complexity of the 2008 financial crisis, showing the absolute corruption and greed of the Wall Street investment bankers that allowed this cataclysmic collapse to occur, which nearly caused the end of the […]
This Cold War tale, based on circumstances surrounding the Francis Gary Powers U-2 spy plane incident, is another solid, socially moral, pleasing Steven Spielberg effort. And Tom Hanks is, as usual, great. But the film just isn’t particularly remarkable.
Kirsten Dunst stars in this doomsday drama about a young woman suffering from depression on her wedding day just as Earth is about to be destroyed by another planet. You’ll find yourself rooting for the planet that will destroy Earth in this dreary, tedious film. Moviegoers walked out – not from the shock of controversy-seeking […]
This is the classic, scary movie we’ve all been waiting for – a well-written, well-acted, terrifying tale, based on the 1970s story of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren and their experiences with a family being terrorized by a demonic presence in their Rhode Island farmhouse. Director James Wan uses old-fashioned storytelling to create frightful […]
While this remake of Invasion of The Body Snatchers starring Nicole Kidman has some more modern elements to it, and it does have some good moments, it never quite overcomes its flimsy plot. One fun bit of trivia – Veronica Cartwright, who was in the 1978 remake starring Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams, is back […]
Clever dialogue, fast pacing and a super cute story combine to make this tale, about married superheroes (Holly Hunter, Craig T. Nelson) who come out of retirement to fight a villain who’s been knocking off their colleagues, an instant classic. The film made history (deservedly so) as Pixar’s first multiple Oscar winner – for Best […]
What is most noteworthy about this well-produced documentary, about the ongoing mass exploitation and slaughter of dolphins in the Japanese coastal town of Taiji, is not just the meticulous lengths the filmmakers went to capture this detailed, shocking footage, but the effective manner in which they make filmgoers care about these intelligent, self-aware mammals, while […]
Despite a promising trailer, think of this as “Cloverfield Goes on a Low Budget, Apocalyptic Holiday to Jerusalem,” sponsored by Google Glass. (I’m not kidding.) While the premise is interesting, the low budget execution, flimsy script (it seems to take a biblical eternity to get to the good stuff) and protagonist’s constant demon-attracting sobbing had […]
Nina is an emotionally-stunted yet technically perfect ballerina who finally has a shot at fame – but will her paranoia, self-doubt and obsession leave her pirouetting on the verge of madness? Natalie Portman is intense and mesmerizing in her Oscar-winning role.