movie reviews

May 24, 2012

Men in Black 3

Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin

Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld

The alien-busters are back, baby. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones still rock that Reservoir Dogs look as two secret agents in the extraterrestrial waste-disposal business. But, jeez, we haven't seen these dudes in 10 years. My memory is that the first Men in Black, in 1997, hit all its marks as creature-feature farce. Five years later, though, the sequel was a giant yawn. The good news is that director Barry Sonnenfeld has reassembled the troops to mostly gangbusters effect. Yeah, Men in... | More »

Moonrise Kingdom

Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bill Murray

Directed by: Wes Anderson

In the immaculately designed, emotionally charged bubble filmmaker Wes Anderson builds around the 1965 New England summer, first love blooms. Sam (Jared Gilman) is an orphan at the mercy of foster parents and his Scout troop. Suzy (Kara Hayward) lives in a lighthouse with three younger brothers, two lawyer parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) and an urge to bust free. Sam, she decides, is her man. No one understands their attraction. Hell, they're both 12. He's a string bean ... | More »

The Intouchables

Omar Sy, François Cluzet

Directed by: Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache

Like Jerry Lewis, this French buddy comedy is a huge hit with Gallic audiences. Senegalese actor Omar Sy, whose sublimely funny and touching performance won the French Oscar, is spectacular as Driss, an ex-con hired to care for Philippe (François Cluzet), a rich white widower paralyzed after a paragliding accident. The Intouchables, an awkward title that translates as "untouchable," is seriously silly business. Co-written and directed by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, the film is b... | More »

May 17, 2012

Battleship

Liam Neeson, Rihanna, Taylor Kitsch

Directed by: Peter Berg

Confession: I'm usually in Peter Berg's corner. Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom and Hancock all show a director with a wild streak Hollywood can't totally tame. But Battleship, based on Hasbro's naval-combat game, shows Berg trying to transform into demon box-office machine Michael Bay. Can you aim lower? Battleship is all noise and crashing metal, sinking to the shallows of Bay's Armageddon and then digging to the brain-extinction level of the Transformers trilogy. ... | More »

What To Expect When You're Expecting

Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Chace Crawford

Directed by: Kirk Jones

What's in the Hollywood water supply? First, director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights), who should know better, clones himself as Michael Bay with Battleship. Now Kirk Jones (Waking Ned Devine) does a Freaky Friday body switch, becoming director Garry Marshall with the still-born What To Expect When You're Expecting, an all-star dud that could be easily confused with Marshall's Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve, except for the absence of Ashton Kutcher. Based on Heid... | More »

May 16, 2012

The Dictator

Sacha Baron Cohen

Directed by: Larry Charles

Say it isn't so. Is Sacha Baron Cohen, a.k.a. Ali G, Borat and Bruno, actually starring in a movie with a semi-coherent plot? Seems like it. There's not a mock-doc, improvised, caught-on-the-fly, "gotcha!" moment in all of The Dictator. Baron Cohen wrote the linear script with Alec Berg, David Mandel, and Jeff Schaffer. And Larry Charles, who directed Borat and Bruno, stages every scene with emotional maturity and military precision. Hell, I'm lying. The Dictator zigs and zags ... | More »

May 10, 2012

Dark Shadows

Johnny Depp

Directed by: Tim Burton

If you're not interested in what Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton are cooking up, you're missing out on one of the best go-your-own-way teams in screen history. Dark Shadows, their eighth collaboration to date, doesn't occupy the rarefied air of Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd. It's too scattershot for the pantheon, but at least as good as Alice and Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Burton's visuals are a sumptuous treat, as is Depp�... | More »

Under African Skies

Paul Simon

Directed by: Joe Berlinger

By all means check out Joe Berlinger's unmissable Under African Skies, a documentary that shows how Paul Simon defied a U.N. cultural boycott to work in South Africa during apartheid to record his landmark Graceland album in 1985. Simon's virtuosity, intensified by a 2011 reunion concert with the South African musicians who helped him make history, raises the potent and still relevant question of artistic freedom versus realpolitik. Powered by Simon's brilliance, Under African ... | More »

May 4, 2012

A Little Bit of Heaven

Kate Hudson, Gael García Bernal, Kathy Bates

Directed by: Nicole Kassell

Kate Hudson, whose career has been sputtering on life support for years, plays a terminal patient in this droolingly stupid weepie.Useful tip: The movie dies way quicker than she does. | More »

May 3, 2012

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Dev Patel, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson

Directed by: John Madden

The MTV Cribs peeps are probably not clamoring to see this tale of British retirees seeking a retirement haven in India. But screw them if they don't give a damn about watching Brit acting royalty nailing every nuance in this comedy laced with genuine emotion. Adapted by Ol Parker from a novel by Deborah Moggach, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel begins by lining up its cast of quirky characters. There's widowed, financially strapped Evelyn (Judi Dench), bigoted Muriel (Maggie Smith), ... | More »