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March 14
If the celluloid service for "The Call" had run out after 60 minutes, the new film from director Brad Anderson would have been an edge-of-your seat thriller about a 911 operator's valiant efforts to save a kidnapped young girl.
March 14
Comedy -- like magic -- has to be performed quickly, cleanly and with enough intelligence that it makes the improbable entertaining. Fail to do this, and the comedic illusions lead to disillusions.
March 14
This week's new DVDs include an Oscar-nominated effort, a film with performances that should have been nominated and a new release that sounds as if it was up for an Oscar.
March 07
There are plenty of movies in the feature film library vault having to do with every major -- and many minor -- battles of World War II.
March 07
You've never seen "Julius Caesar" like this.
March 07
"Oz the Great and Powerful" should have been called "Oz the Good and Passable." The new film from director Sam Raimi has flashes of brilliance but overall the latest trip down the Yellow Brick Road has a few too many bumps in the road to make this a magical journey.
The latest film production inspired by the writings of L. Frank Baum explains how Oz (James Franco) goes from being a two-bit sideshow magician in Kansas to ruling the land of Munchkins, Quadlings and Flying Monkeys. In true Dorothy fashion, Oz is taken via tornado to the weird and wonderful land. Read more →February 28
In sports and the military, "professionalism" describes people who go about their work with a calm, dispassionate efficiency -- no fuss, no panic when things go wrong, few mistakes, little attention paid to the odds, the chance for glory.
You can apply that word to movie actors, too. The great cast of character actors of "Phantom," a solid Cold War-era submarine thriller of modest ambitions, never reveals that this isn't "The Hunt for Red October" or "K-19: The Widowmaker." Ed Harris, William Fichtner, David Duchovny and Co. show up, hit their marks, give their lines some punch and play the heck out of this B-picture, which could easily have been just a prop (a submarine) in search of a movie. Read more →February 28
Old musicians -- they have the best insults.
"Your singing brought tears ... to my ears." Read more →February 28
"Jack the Giant Slayer" -- the latest film foray into giving classic fairytales a modern look -- combines a likable hero with a fun story and flashy special effects to make the movie fee fi fo fun.
This isn't the typical story of a young farm boy who plants magic beans and climbs the vines to steal a golden harp from a slow-moving giant. In this version, from screen writers Darren Lemke, Christopher McQuarrie and Dan Studney, Jack (Nicholas Hoult) accidentally creates the sky-high vine and in the process puts Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) in danger. Jack joins members of the King's army -- led by the chivalrous Elmont (Ewan McGregor) -- who climb the vines to take on more giants than you will find in San Francisco. Read more →February 21
There is a massive Rock in the way of "Snitch" being the movie it wants to be -- a thought-provoking story about the ills of the legal system.
The casting of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a worried father who becomes a drug runner to get his son out of prison immediately suggests that this is another explosive action film. Wrong! There's some action, but it comes along in the last act -- far too late to wake those who have nodded off and are dreaming of a better movie. Read more →February 21
"Bless Me, Ultima" is like the cobbled memories we might have while reflecting on our own lives during a warm summer day. These bits and pieces of retained memories come skipping back with only a tenuous thread to hold them together. Observed in linear form, there is a disconnection and disruption that is too jarring to ignore.
The film, based on the much beloved novel by Rudolfo Anaya, offers a look at the simple life of a Hispanic family living in New Mexico during World War II. This world is shown through the eyes of Antonio (Luke Ganalon), an elementary school student with a large appetite for learning. This quiet world changes when Ultima (Miriam Colon), comes to live her final days with the family. Read more →February 13
When it comes to trying to make you cry, there are no safe havens in "Safe Haven."
February 13
The plot of "A Good Day to Die Hard" has more holes than a 25-year-old pair of favorite socks. But just like those tattered toe covers, there is something fun about the latest in this long-running film series to make you glad it's still around.
Bruce Willis dusts off the tough guy attitude to reprise his most iconic role, detective John McClane -- a man who always seems to be in the wrong place at the right time. This time, he travels to Russia in hopes of saving his estranged son, Jack (Jai Courtney), from a lifetime in prison. He ends up in the middle of a political and military mess -- the norm for McClane. Read more →February 13
It's easy to try to force "Beautiful Creatures," the film based on the young romance novel of the same name, into the same pigeonhole as other stories about teens -- one mortal, the other supernatural. That's unfair.
While the film includes the basic elements that have been used in everything from "Twilight" to "Harry Potter," they take on a fresh look through some interesting writing, a handful of fascinating characters and a pair of young lovers who look emotionally awake. Read more →February 07
"Identity Thief" is such a gargantuan stinker its stench can't be confined to one theater. Fumigate all you want. A stink this bad lives on forever.
Jason Bateman plays Sandy Patterson, a hot shot accountant on the verge of making the biggest move in his career. He needs to advance because Patterson, his wife (Amanda Peet) and their two daughters live on a very tight budget. Read more →February 07
WARNING: Watching the movie "Side Effects" may cause drowsiness, a blurred sense of reality, explosive confusion and a slight tingling in the logic center of your brain.
This alert is necessary because the new thriller from director Steven Soderbergh requires so many coincidences, chance meetings, ignored signals and plot oversights that the surprise ending is not that surprising and the story to get there is as illegible as a doctor's handwriting. Read more →January 31
Fisher Stevens hasn't directed a lot of movies, but he shows veteran savvy with his work in "Stand Up Guys."
He's smart enough to know that when you have actors like Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin, the best thing to do is point the camera and let the masters do their jobs. Read more →January 31
Zombie love story "Warm Bodies" introduces a new film genre: the zom rom com. It has all the leg shuffling, brain-eating fun of a horror film played out against a modern day "Romeo & Juliet" tale. The combination might sound as compatible as chicken and chocolate, but director Jonathan Levine makes the odd mix work.
The film is based on Isaac Marion's novel about a not-so-distant future where a weird plague has turned the majority of the population into zombies. One of these walking dead, a zombie (Nicholas Hoult) who can only remember his name starts with an R, shuffles his way through a local airport. Except for a few shared grunts with his best dead bud M (Rob Corddry), life's relatively uneventful. Read more →January 17
"The Last Stand" is the vehicle former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger selected to make his return to starring in action films. If this is an example of his work in the post-governor days, Schwarzenegger should seriously consider a return to politics.
January 17
"Mama" would have been good for a few scares if the biggest plot point made even a tiny bit of sense.
Director Andrés Muschietti's horror film looks at what happens when two small girls spend five years in the forest being raised by a spectre. How they got there is a jumble. It has something to do with the stock market disaster, murder and divorce. Considering that most of the movie has such a slow pace, it would have been nice if Muschietti set up the story. Read more →January 10
LOS ANGELES -- Josh Brolin takes a few puffs on a cigarette before returning from the balcony of the Four Seasons Hotel room where he is spending the day talking about his latest movie, "Gangster Squad."
January 10
Most of the efforts to track down and kill Osama bin Laden remain classified information. The only details readily made to the public have been about his death at the hands of Navy SEALs in 2011, which ended one of the greatest manhunts in history.
"Zero Dark Thirty" (a military term that means 30 minutes past midnight), the new film from Oscar-wining director Kathryn Bigelow, offers a detailed -- very detailed -- accounting of the years the CIA spent following every tiny lead in their quest to find bin Laden. This lengthy accounting is so tedious at times that the finale seems as illusive as the man at the center of the manhunt. Read more →January 10
Chris Colfer has taken the suggestion of "write what you know" to heart. His script for "Struck By Lightning" isn't autobiographical -- he's never been hit by a lightning bolt -- but it's rife with elements of his own less-than-happy days in high school.
January 03
"The Impossible," a film based on the true story of a family's effort to survive after the Indian Ocean tsunami hit their hotel on Boxing Day 2004, generates the deep emotions needed to reach out and put a death grip on your heart.
January 03
In many ways, "Promised Land" travels the same moral pathways that made "Up in the Air" so compelling. Just as that Oscar-nominated film delved into the complicated issues that arrive when human values get mixed in with business, "Promised Land" cast a relatively even light over the unwinnable choice many farmers face when they have to decide between two evils.
December 24
Christmas is one of the busiest movie-going days of the year. But the trick for many families is trying to pick a film that will entertain youngsters, parents and grandparents alike. Here's a clue: "Django Unchained" isn't it.
December 20
Haven't heard the buzz yet about Anne Hathaway's tour de force moment singing "I Dreamed a Dream" in the strong new movie version of "Les Misérables"?
December 20
To transform the much-beloved "Les Misérables" from stage to screen, director Tom Hooper had find a way to maintain -- and amplify -- the emotional power of the original words and music with the trappings of a big-screen production.
December 20
Tom Cruise has found in his latest movie, "Jack Reacher," a fast-moving and interesting action role that could replace his "Mission: Impossible" days, should it become a film franchise. There aren't as many cool gadgets or super spy disguises, but Jack Reacher, the character introduced through a series of best-selling novels by Lee Child, is as rough and tumble as Cruise's Ethan Hunt in the trilogy of spy movies.
December 20
"Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away 3D" uses a rather standard boy-meets-girl plot to take the audience on a fanciful journey to a land of acrobats and artists who look at gravity as more of a suggestion than a law.
December 13
Like walking into a dark movie theater from a sunny day, it'll take your eyes a little while to adjust to director Sacha Gervasi's "Hitchcock." Both the story and Anthony Hopkins's performance as the ground-breaking director Alfred Hitchcock can't be judged at first glance.
December 13
Sometimes the smallest among us can do great deeds, Gandalf the Grey tells us.
November 29
Movies like "Anna Karenina" are what people mean when talking about Hollywood magic. Director Joe Wright has taken the much-told tale of the late 19th-century Russia heroine and cast a cinematic spell to make his film version as compelling as it is creative.
November 20
"Red Dawn," the remake of the 1984 film about a group of teens who band together to fight an invading army, features the same patriotic bravado and coming-of-age emotions that made the original so popular. It's like waving the American flag each time this rag-tag team of teens show maturity beyond their years to make life miserable for the North Korean Army that's taken over Spokane, Wash.
November 20
November 15
A driving theme of Steven Spielberg movies is how ordinary men with strong moral cores find the strength to do extraordinary things in the face of great opposition. Those characters include the never-say-die Indiana Jones, the determined Captain Miller in "Saving Private Ryan" and the heroic Oskar Schindler in "Schindler's List."
Spielberg's latest examination of that theme comes in "Lincoln," which concentrates on the efforts by the 16th president to get the 13th Amendment passed to constitutionally abolish slavery. It's a little-told story in the Lincoln legacy despite how much this effort defined his legacy. Read more →November 15
The best performances emerge when actors are able to strip away all of the trappings of their own lives and slip into the skin of the character they're playing. This only works if the actors are able to bare their acting soul without any fear or hesitation.
November 13
Writer Melissa Rosenberg faced a serious dilemma in adapting Stephenie Meyer's last book in the "Twilight" series into the screenplay for "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2." Staying true to the conclusion of the story of Edward (Robert Pattinson), Bella (Kristen Stewart), Jacob (Taylor Lautner) and the whole Cullen gang would leave the film with as much bite as a toothless vampire.
November 06
Daniel Craig takes his third turn at playing 007 in the new "Skyfall" (a Bond movie title that actually makes sense). The stunts have gotten bigger and Craig's the latest to play super spy Bond, James Bond, but in the end, the formula for these high-octane espionage movies hasn't changed in a half-century.
November 01
"Wreck-It Ralph," a kid's version of "Tron," suggests all of the electronic characters in arcade video games have their own personal lives when no one's shoving quarters into the machine's slot.
November 01
The crash at the beginning of "Flight" -- the most realistic plane disaster ever put to film -- is the kind of on-screen moment that will stick with viewers long after the movie is over. But it also doesn't take long to realize that the more spectacular crash-and-burn moments are the ones Denzel Washington's character experiences after the big fall.
October 25
Not since "2001: A Space Odyssey" has a film come along that's such a marvel of moviemaking and a frustrating test of comprehension as "Cloud Atlas."
October 18
"Alex Cross," the latest attempt to turn one of James Patterson's crime novels into a movie, should have been Tyler Perry's opportunity to establish a film franchise where he didn't have to wear a dress. But the attempt falls short because of an uneven script and sloppy pacing. If this is the best Perry can do, then he'd better stick to the pantyhose.
October 11
There are three ways to generate scares in a horror film: smart writing, a creepy filming style or an interesting creature. The better these elements, the better the film.
"Sinister" fails on all three counts. Read more →October 11
Ah, those smelly French. Julie Delpy's manic and sort of unsatisfying "2 Days in New York," which reads like a caffeinated version of a Woody Allen comedy, manages to throw in just about every stereotype about visitors from France:
October 11
The plot of "Argo" -- the CIA fakes filming a science-fiction movie to get Americans out of Iran in 1979 -- sounds like a rejected plot line for "Mission: Impossible." If the new film weren't based on a real story, the audacity and absurdity of what transpires would be almost too ridiculous even in a fictional story.
October 11
"Seven Psychopaths" has two huge things going for it -- a superb script by writer/director Martin McDonagh and the best cast of screwball con men who shoot to thrill since "The Usual Suspects." Both turn what would have been a rather tepid tale of dognapping gone bad into crazy fun.
The focal point for the movie's oddball insanity is Marty (Colin Farrell), a writer who's creatively blocked. All he has is a title for his next book -- Seven Psychopaths -- and a best friend, Billy (Sam Rockwell), who splits his time between stealing dogs with Hans (Christopher Walken) and trying to be part of Marty's next book. Read more →October 04
In 1984, a relatively unknown Tim Burton created the 30-minute short "Frankenweenie." It was a loving -- and quite creepy -- tale of a young boy who takes a page from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" when his dog is hit by a car and dies.
October 04
This week's top videos take viewers into the future and the past.
September 28
This movie about college a cappella groups isn't sharp or flat. The script and cast are in such harmony in "Pitch Perfect," it is definitely a Glee-ful hit.
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