Is it possible to not recommend a movie headlined by Robert De Niro and Al Pacino? One would think it to be an impossible feat, but leave it to screenwriter Russell Gewirtz and director Jon Avnet to muck up the whole works. There’s nary a bad thing to say about… Continue reading
Traitor is a serviceable thriller with a couple of nice twists and some amazing locations, but it never really decides what it wants to be. As an action/suspense film, it misses the mark by being too talky. As a drama and commentary on current geopolitical and religious themes, it’s too… Continue reading
I have no doubt that the notion of a “working man’s” superhero reads great on the written page. Hellboy is such a character, but for the second time on the big screen he really fails to be all that engaging. He’s a big brute with an attitude that is easy… Continue reading
It’s going to take a mound of evidence to convince me that Street Kings isn’t a parody. The film is entertaining, yes, but that often comes with police dramas laced with over-the-top tough-guy dialogue, brute violence, and a penchant for implausible plot twists. We know that director David Ayer and… Continue reading
I have no doubt that a 70’s funk-style basketball comedy starring Will Ferrell with giant, frizzy hair sounded great at a pitch meeting. Had a script been written, I’m confident that we could have had a great comedy on our hands. Instead, we get what largely looks to be drawn-out… Continue reading
I Am Legend is a prime example of a great idea gone wrong in the hopes of pleasing everyone. What starts off as a compelling drama descends into a stock B-grade horror flick with some of the worst big budget special effects of recent memory. It’s really a shame, because… Continue reading
It’s a terrible feeling as a viewer when you can see the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making a movie – and the end result is indifference and disappointment. Such is the case with The Golden Compass, an adaptation of the first entry of Philip Pullman’s His Dark… Continue reading
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
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