Watching Juno is like spending ninety minutes with the wiseass office “intellectual”; the kind of person who quotes movies like The Matrix with a straight face and thinks Dennis Miller ruled on Monday Night Football. The Indie comedy used to have something to say, but now it’s just a front… Continue reading
Hitman, based upon the hit video game franchise of the same name, contains just about everything you’d expect in a film with that title. Targets are picked off from afar, stabbed, strangled, and beaten to death. On the surface the film is a serviceable action diversion, but it suffers and… Continue reading
No Country for Old Men is a true original, and that’s virtually impossible to come by these days. Smart, taut, suspenseful, and ever-so-weirdly funny, the film manages to attempt and succeed at nearly every genre under the sun. The Coen brothers have always been uniquely skilled filmmakers, but No Country… Continue reading
There’s a scene in Lions for Lambs in which reporter Janine Roth (Streep), during one of several down times in her interview with Senator Jasper Irving (Cruise), takes a stroll around the Senator’s office. The camera pans across a photo of Irving with President Bush, who is giving the trademark… Continue reading
Martian Child is a film without an audience. It’s a largely dreary time at the movies and offers next to nothing for the kids that it’s advertising to. That in itself explains the release date musical chairs that New Line Cinema has played. While far from bad, this is certainly… Continue reading
American Gangster is a formidable piece of work, not to mention director Ridley Scott’s finest effort since 2001’s Black Hawk Down. It personifies the genre that many feared extinct in this era of CGI – the gritty cops and gangsters thriller. Stuck in development hell since 2004 and even dropped… Continue reading
Dan in Real Life is a mixed bag of misery, tenderness, and moderate wit; all wrapped around a wonderful performance by Steve Carell. The film suffers from the usual issues: contrivances are piled as high as one character’s famous pancakes, there are too many characters, and the humor is truly… Continue reading
Gone Baby Gone is a sterling thriller, the kind of raw cinematic power that you tell your friends about as if you’ve just been put through the spin cycle. Helmed by first-time director Ben Affleck, and starring his brother, Casey, the film scorches a raw nerve from frame one and… Continue reading
We Own the Night, with its top-drawer cast and sleek production, never distinguishes itself from the countless family-driven crime yarns of years past. It’s not to say that this is bad film; just one we’ve all seen before, repackaged nicely for a Fall release. Above all else, it’s a dour… Continue reading
“I’m not the guy you kill. I’m the guy you buy off.” – Michael Clayton Michael Clayton is the kind of slow burn that only makes its way to theaters at this time of year. It’s the kind of film whose suspense comes from silence, whose dialogue is first-rate, and… Continue reading