movie reviews

June 28, 2012

The Amazing Spider-Man

Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone

Directed by: Marc Webb

To call it pointless wouldn't be unfair. The last Spider-Man movie was only five years ago. Is it possible to forget the trilogy director Sam Raimi built with Tobey Maguire as the webslinger and Kirsten Dunst as his teen love? I don't think so. Aside from the profit motive of brand milking, I don't really see why the Spidey reboot was needed right now, even in 3D. The newbie is basically retelling the Marvel comic book tale of Peter Parker, the high school loner whose life is c... | More »

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Quvenzhané Wallis

Directed by: Benh Zeitlin

Count on summer's low tide to drag in the usual flotsam. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter: Really? And a recast, rebooted Spider-Man only five years after the last one? I know. Sad, right? So hold on for a game-changer that gets you excited about movies again. It's called Beasts of the Southern Wild. It's won every prize from Sundance to Cannes. It introduces a gifted feature director in Benh Zeitlin, 29, who should soon be introduced to Oscar voters. And it creates a world to g... | More »

Ted

Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis

Directed by: Seth MacFarlane

If you watch the animated hijinks on TV's Family Guy, The Cleveland Show and American Dad, you know that Seth MacFarlane, the brainy, bawdy creator of those kickass shows, does not cater to audiences who call him juvenile, stupid, vulgar and foul-mouthed. So stop reading, MacFarlane haters. Ted is not for you. MacFarlane's debut as a feature director hits all the sweet spots that irritate prudes. Is it dirty? Yes. Does it take full advantage of the R rating? Oh my yes. Is it funny? ... | More »

Magic Mike

Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Before Channing Tatum took the vow as a movie star, he had a short career as a stripper. Out of that fun fact, director Steven Soderbergh has fashioned Magic Mike. It's not a biopic. The script by Reid Carolin simply uses a male strip club in Tampa, Florida as a backdrop to show the blood, sweat and desperation that go into making stripping pay. Tatum plays Mike, who strips to foster his dream job in furniture designing business. He and his fellow bare-assed dudes, including Joe Manganie... | More »

People Like Us

Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks

Directed by: Alex Kurtzman

An emotional family drama hardly seems like familiar ground for producer Alex Kurtzman. He and his writing partner Roberto Orci usually go for the bang of Transformers, Star Trek and Mission: Impossible III. Yet here's Kurtzman making his directing debut with a drama loosely based on his family. Orci and Jody Lambert helped Kurtzman with the script about Sam (Chris Pine), a slick salesman, who learns that Frankie (Elizabeth Banks), an alcoholic bartender and single mom, is the half-siste... | More »

Neil Young Journeys

Neil Young

Directed by: Jonathan Demme

It's essentially a concert film, the third (following Heart of Gold and Trunk Show) in which director Jonathan Demme showcases Neil Young's blazing guitar and bruised wonder of a voice. Demme journeys with the Canadian icon back to his hometown, Omemee, where Young drives through the old neighborhood recalling tales of his youth. Then he moves on to Toronto's Massey Hall, where those tales and snatches of memory are burnished into lasting songs of love and loss. The classics ("... | More »

June 21, 2012

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Benjamin Walker, Rufus Sewell

Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov

And you thought Honest Abe spent most of his time wrestling the Confederacy and trying to free the slaves. Ha! The bestseller list teaches a different history. It was the spawn of Twilight our 16th President was after. Seth Grahame-Smith, following his 2009 book success with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, came up with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and hit the charts again, this time by mashing up vamps with real Lincoln history. It was a fun escapist read. The movie version, with a script... | More »

Brave

Kelly Macdonald

Directed by: Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews

No one seems to review a Pixar film without comparing it to other Pixar films. OK, Brave isn't The Incredibles or Toy Story. So? It's still a rousing, gorgeously animated good time. Merida, voiced by a fine, feisty Kelly Macdonald, is a Scottish Katniss Everdeen, a red-haired princess more into bows than boys. When a witch turns Merida's loving mom (Emma Thompson) into a sometime grizzly bear, Brave takes dark, dazzling turns. The beasts of the Scottish wild are no match for Me... | More »

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Patton Oswalt

Directed by: Lorene Scafaria

Yes, it's the end of days, something about an asteroid hurtling toward Earth. In three weeks, boom, it's over. No second chance. Steve Carell plays Dodge, an insurance exec whose wife dumps him for a last fling at life. Unlike his wife and horny buddy (that's you, Patton Oswalt), Dodge doesn't want to go sex-nuts. Dodge goes to work where there's no need to go. Then he hits on the idea of finding his first love. Penny, played by Keira Knightley, hits on the idea of g... | More »

To Rome With Love

Penélope Cruz, Roberto Benigni, Alec Baldwin

Directed by: Woody Allen

Can Woody Allen do for the Eternal City what he did for the City of Light in his Oscar-winning script for Midnight in Paris? Don't get greedy. To Rome With Love lacks the overarching theme of time and regret that distinguished Allen's last romantic comedy, but it has pleasures galore. Start with a voluptuous Penélope Cruz as a hooker trying and failing hilariously to pass herself off as the wife of a new groom (Alessandro Tiberi) to fool his conservative family. Move on to th... | More »