Starring:
Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel
Review:
It’s tempting to dismiss Michael Bay’s long, loud and ludicrous
sequel to 2007’s Transformers with one word —
hunkajunk. On every level this movie is as bankrupt as GM. But
there is more to be said about a movie this gargantuan ($200
million spent on robot hardbodies) and galactically stupid.
Transformers: The Revenge […]

Continue reading " Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen "

Starring:
Michelle Pfeiffer
Review:
As a cougar chasing a teen twink: That’s a crass précis
for the elegant, witty pleasures that Pfeiffer, director Stephen
Frears and writer Christopher Hampton — who last collaborated
on 1988’s Dangerous Liaisons — carve out of this
tale by the French novelist Colette. Set in Paris in the early
1900s, the film begins as retired courtesan […]

Continue reading " Cheri "

Starring:
Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty
Review:
Here’s the Iraq War movie for those who don’t like Iraq War
movies. The Hurt Locker doesn’t preach. Director Kathryn
Bigelow, working from a strong script by embedded journalist Mark
Boal, gets right down to business
(watch Peter Travers’ video review of The Hurt
Locker). She takes us deep into an elite U.S.
bomb-disposal […]

Continue reading " The Hurt Locker "

Starring:
Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin
Review:
Adapted from a bestseller by Jodi Picoult that I hope to never
read, My Sister’s Keeper starts with an intriguing
premise. Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric conceive a child to keep her
leukemic older sister (Sofia Vassilieva) alive through transfusions
and transplants. But when Anna (Abigail Breslin), 11, hires a
lawyer (Alec Baldwin) […]

Continue reading " My Sister’s Keeper "

Starring:
Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson
Review:
Not everything works in Woody Allen?s first New York–based
movie in five years (he?s gone European). Whatever Works
feels like something out of time and, worse, out of step. Hell,
Allen wrote the script back in the 1970s for Zero Mostel. The
grumpy old Jew at the center of this comedy […]

Continue reading " Whatever Works "

Starring:
Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds
Review:
Fact: Critics don?t get beaten down by god–awful movies
(they can be fun—hello, Showgirls!). The ones that
kill are the bland ones, the by–the–numbers movies that
studios grind out like toxic sausage. The latest cinematic
definition of insipid is The Proposal, a romantic comedy
so numbing it feels like Novocaine.
(Watch Peter Travers’ video review of […]

Continue reading " The Proposal "

Starring:
Jeppe Beck Laursen
Review:
Nazis zombies? Who doesn?t want to sign up for that, especially
as they feed on oversexed medical students Easter vacationing in
the Norwegian Alps? If you tamp down your expectations —
those gaping plot holes are dangerous! — there is a storm of
scary fun to be had in this Scandinavian splatterfest.
Conveniently, the vacationers include […]

Continue reading " Dead Snow "

Starring:
Denzel Washinton, John Travolta, John Turturro, Luis Guzman,
Mich…
Review:
Internet buzz pre-slimed this New York subway-hijack thriller as
a douched-up reboot of the 1974 original. Since I revere the first
movie, especially the hangdog genius of Walter Matthau as transit
cop Zachary Garber, I sympathized. Then I saw The Taking of
Pelham 1 2 3, and the sucker grabbed […]

Continue reading " Taking of Pelham 123 "

Starring:
Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan
Review:
Eating can be one dangerous business. Don’t take another bite
till you see Robert Kenner’s Food, Inc., an essential,
indelible documentary that is scarier than anything in the last
five Saw horror shows. Decepticons have nothing on ears of
corn when it comes to transforming into mutant killers. Kenner
keeps his film bouncing with humor, […]

Continue reading " Food, Inc. "

Starring:
Sam Rockwell
Review:
This mesmerizing mind-bender sneaks up and hits you hard. Sam
Rockwell, reliably brilliant, is an astronaut finishing up a
three-year stint on the moon, mining energy from lunar rock.
(Watch Peter Travers’ video review of Moon) He wants
back on Earth with his wife and daughter. His only contact is
GERTY, a robot with the sweet-sinister voice […]

Continue reading " Moon "