Movies
Movies
Identity Thief: A Road-Trip to Nowhere
Despite their skill, Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman can’t get the engine started on this crude comedy
February 8th, 2013
Debilitatingly witless, Identity Thief strands Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman on the shoulder of its own road-trip premise, an artificial construct reminiscent of Due Date. Remember Due Date, that sour thing with Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis? Neither do Downey and Galifianakis. Read more »
Movies
Stand Up Guys
February 1st, 2013
A writer must eat, which is why most playwrights eventually try their hands at screenwriting. Stand Up Guys, starring Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin, comes from the stage-trained Noah Haidle, whose story premise sounds like a sure (if derivative) thing for a trio of well-worn, well-liked mugs. Read more »
Movies
56 Up
February 1st, 2013
To see 56 Up is to be reunited with an old friend. Make that 13 old friends, together again for a documentary project the likes of which the world has never seen. Read more »
Movies
Their Hearts Will Die On
This fun rom-com asks the eternal question: Can a zombie win the love of a warm-bodied girl?
February 1st, 2013
The tween-minded zombie romance Warm Bodies pulls a comic-romantic twist on a genre better known for its entrails. It is narrated by the undead fellow known as R, played by Nicholas Hoult, soon to be slaying giants in Jack the Giant Slayer. Read more »
Movies
Bullet to the Plot
Director Walter Hill returns to cinema with a cliché action flick
February 1st, 2013
We’ve been here before. The Sylvester Stallone vehicle Bullet to the Head concludes with an ax fight featuring Stallone against his sneering, murderous adversary, played by Jason Momoa, going at it like maniacs in the bowels of an abandoned power plant, the sort of cavernous industrial space featured in a hundred different movies starring Jean-Claude Van Damme or Jason Statham. Or Vin Diesel. I believe it was also used by Scarlett Johansson in The Avengers. Read more »
Short Reviews
Mama
January 31st, 2013
The prologue tells us of a father fleeing scandal, grabbing his children and speeding into the mountains. They crash, wind up at a remote cabin, and then something happens to him. Read more »
Movies
Witch hunt or Wild Goose Chase?
Watching Hansel & Gretel is like trying to follow a trail of breadcrumbs
January 31st, 2013
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is more Gatling guns and grenades than the Brothers Grimm. It takes the kidnapped kiddies into adulthood, where they’ve parlayed their fame at cooking a witch’s goose into a business. Got a witch problem? Call H & G, the extermination experts. Read more »
Short Reviews
Gangster Squad
January 24th, 2013
A triumph of production design but a pretty dull kill-’em-up, this 1940s-set L.A. cops vs. gangsters movie falls short. Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and based on a nonfiction book, the movie’s violence is over the top and its script is underwhelming. Read more »
Short Reviews
The Last Stand
January 24th, 2013
Arnold is back. The results are OK. Schwarzenegger plays Ray Owens, the sheriff of a sleepy Arizona border town. Little does he know that Mexican gangster Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega) has escaped federal custody and is speeding toward them to escape into Mexico. Read more »
Short Reviews
Broken City
January 24th, 2013
Billy (Mark Wahlberg) is a disgraced former cop turned private eye who is hired by the mayor of New York (Russell Crowe) to tail his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), whom he suspects of having an affair. Read more »
