Billed as a high-concept actioner, Looper is really more a high-concept drama. It works on both levels, but still runs into many of the same plot-hole traps that other time-traveling films encounter. At the same time, there’s something to be said for a pretty original story (remember those?) that poses… Continue reading
Bad Teacher is a solid summer diversion; no more, no less. It will inevitably be compared to 2003’s Bad Santa, a superior and significantly edgier film that really went for awkwardness and black comedy. Bad Teacher has attitude, but it never feels like it wants to be truly “wrong.” This… Continue reading
The Green Hornet represents a pretty big shot in the arm to the recent crop of self-serious superhero films. While those films like reflect on the problems of the times, The Green Hornet is really only interested in having fun, satirizing the genre, and packing in plenty of over-the-top action.… Continue reading
The Social Network represents the type of wide theatrical release that we rarely see these days. It’s smart, brilliantly written, and tells a story that is incredibly absorbable. It’s a miracle of sorts, as computer programming and big-time advertising deals aren’t exactly things that are accessible to the everyday person.… Continue reading
The Other Guys has, arguably, the funniest first thirty minutes of any film this year. Had the rest of the film been as consistently funny, I may have needed oxygen. The problem: the following hour isn’t nearly as funny, or even as clever. The screenplay doesn’t have enough gas, resorting… Continue reading
Who is Salt? The trailers have been posing this question for months, and it’s not likely you’re going to leave with a whole lot of defined answers. Salt is a gloriously preposterous espionage action/thriller, owing its very existence to the Bond and Bourne franchises. As directed by Philip Noyce, working… Continue reading
It’s hard to escape the feeling that the script for Grown Ups was left in someone’s desk drawer for about the past fifteen years. We’re talking about a script that contains not one, but multiple O.J. Simpson jokes. Given the cast, made up mostly of 90’s SNL veterans, one would… Continue reading
Now you’re messing with my childhood! That was my initial response to the news of a Karate Kid remake. While I hardly hold the 1984 original on the same pedestal as many others my age, I regard it as one of the finest “underdog” movies ever. It was formula (though… Continue reading
The Bounty Hunter is an abominable waste of time. Here we have a film with two stars that have no chemistry, no laughs, no romance, and boring “action” sequences. Coming up with justification for its existence is nearly impossible. The premise would seem to offer up some promising black comedy… Continue reading
This film was inevitable. I suppose there is actually a fringe group of people out there who truly believe that, in 2012, the poles will reverse and humanity as we know it will be destroyed by every disaster cliché imaginable. For those who do believe it: I hope you’re in… Continue reading