Movie Reviews
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Alice in Wonderland
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Starring:
Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Mia Wasikowska
Review:
Sexual panic is the last thing you'd expect to prod Alice to get
her ass down a rabbit hole. But, hell, this is Tim Burton's
Alice in Wonderland, not your third-grade teacher's
version. Scholars of British author Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) will
no doubt shriek, "Off with Burton's head!" for the liberties he
takes in this 3-D mix of live action and animation. In the script
that Linda Woolverton (The Lion King, Beauty and the
Beast) has woven, often forcibly, from Alice's Adventures
in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, things
have changed — dramatically.
Peter Travers reviews Alice in Wonderland in his weekly
video podcast, "At the Movies With Peter Travers."
For starters, Alice is no longer seven years old. As played with
feminist fire by Mia Wasikowska (so...
Rating:
2.5 Stars
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Brooklyn's Finest
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Starring:
Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle
Review:
Simultaneously full of itself and full of shit, Brooklyn's
Finest is a cop movie so shallow, dumb, derivative and
infuriating that it feels like a parody of bad cop movies. From the
glaringly obnoxious opening scene of a parked car with its turn
signal blinking, blinking, blinking, to the spray of clichés
that blast the audience without mercy, this movie is the cinematic
equivalent of waterboarding. (
Peter Travers reviews Brooklyn's Finest in his weekly
video podcast, "At the Movies With Peter Travers.") We're meant
to weep at the tragedy of three cops out of Brooklyn's hardscrabble
65th Precinct. Should Sal (Ethan Hawke) go on the take to support
his wife and kids? Will Eddie (Richard Gere) make it to retirement?
Can undercover cop Tango (Don Cheadle) come in from the cold
before...
Rating:
Not Rated
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A Prophet
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Starring:
Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup
Review:
Oscar-nominated as Best Foreign Language Film from France, A
Prophet is a prison film like The Godfather is a
gangster film. Meaning this knockout punch of a thriller surpasses
its trappings to speak in a universal language about the ways power
corrupts the human condition. Newcomer Tahar Rahim is astounding as
Malik, 19, an illiterate Arab who begins serving six years by
bootlicking César (Niels Arestrup), an imprisoned Corsican
crime boss. César tests Mailk by forcing him to kill a
fellow Muslim prisoner. Arestrup is altogether remarkable as a Dr.
Frankenstein outmaneuvered by the monster he helps to create.
Director Jacques Audiard (The Beat That My Heart Skipped)
scores a triumph of the highest order with the defiant poetry of
his vision. A Prophet is a new crime...
Rating:
4 Stars
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Cop Out
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Starring:
Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, Seann William Scott
Review:
Kevin Smith has taken so much stupid heat for being "too fat to
fly" that it would be sweet to report that Cop Out is a
return to form for the writer-director of Clerks,
Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike
Back. But Smith didn't even write this hit-and-miss gag
machine. (
Peter Travers reviews Cop Out in his weekly video podcast,
"At the Movies With Peter Travers.") The credit goes to the
Cullen brothers, Robb and Mark. Smith directs, that's it, and
oversees a fun rapport between Bruce Willis and comedy MVP Tracy
Morgan as NYPD partners trying to track down an invaluable baseball
card before getting killed by Mexicans and annoyed to death by a
stoner burglar (Seann William Scott). An early scene of Morgan
scaring a perp with tough dialogue from movies reminded me of
primo...
Rating:
2 Stars
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The Ghost Writer
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Starring:
Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Catrall
Review:
In the craptacular month of February, when Hollywood typically
drowns us in all-star drool like
Valentine?s Day, it?s indecent luck having two films
in play directed by indisputable masters. First Scorsese?s
Shutter Island, and now Roman Polanski?s The Ghost
Writer. The Polish director, currently under house arrest in
Switzerland awaiting possible extradition to the U.S. for having
unlawful sex with a minor in 1977, is in deep doo-doo. But not, in
this critic?s view, as a filmmaker. The Ghost Writer,
based on the Robert Harris bestseller, shows Polanski in brilliant
command of a political thriller that ties you up in knots of
tension while zinging politics and showbiz like two sides of the
same toxic coin.
Polanski, who won a 2002 Oscar for the Holocaust-themed The
Pianist,...
Rating:
3.5 Stars
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Shutter Island
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Starring:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Michelle Williams, Mark Ruffalo
Review:
Martin Scorsese makes movies as if his life depends on it, never
skimping on ferocity and feeling. From Mean Streets to
The Departed, Scorsese?s crime films turn the genre on its
empty head, shaking out the clichés to uncover the violence
of the mind. His latest, Shutter Island, sizzles with so
much nerve-frying suspense that it?s hot to the touch. The time is
1954. The place is Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane,
located off Boston Harbor on a remote island that?s locked as tight
as Alcatraz. A Category 5 hurricane is brewing as U.S. Marshal
Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner, Chuck Aule (Mark
Ruffalo), ferry in to capture Rachel Solando, a killer of her own
children who?s escaped from her cell. The Gothic terror kicks in
when the storm literally breaks down...
Rating:
3.5 Stars
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2012: The end is near—again
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Dan Dick takes a look at our fascination with the end times and suggests we instead focus on the present.
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Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
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Even though the secret of the skull is itself a bit of a letdown, this film has plenty of appealing surprises to compensate for its failings. If Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is not a great film, it's still more than good enough.
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Movie Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
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The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian succeeds not by duplicating The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but by building on it, taking what could have just been “Battle for the Planet of Narnia” and instilling it with spiritual lessons about faith, courage and service.
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Movie Review: Iron Man
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Iron Man is a film of both fun and substance, whose imperfect hero struggles to be on the right side in a violent and complex world.
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The Visitor
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 The Visitor asks us to examine our own humanity, particularly as it relates to immigrants in post 9/11 America and to search our souls to find where compassion ends and a hard heart begins.
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Movie Review: Leatherheads
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Leatherheads provides a good natured, often hilarious look at a bygone era when pro football was more brawl than organized sport. With appealing performances by Clooney, Zellweger and Krasinski—and don’t forget those silly helmets!—Leatherheads scores.
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Movie Review: Bonneville
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Bonneville asks us to consider how we measure a life. The film shows that just like the changing leaves, the autumnal years of life can still yield deeper, richer colors ahead.
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Movie Review: Horton Hears a Who!
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Horton Hears a Who! is a great piece of entertainment—as relevant today as it was 50 years ago—filled with laughs and lessons suitable for the whole family.
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Movie Review: Penelope
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As a modern-day parable, Penelope serves as a clever and good natured reminder that it’s what’s inside a person that counts and that even a girl with the face of a pig can have the heart of a princess.
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Movie Review: The Spiderwick Chronicles
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Although The Spiderwick Chronicles isn’t the next Narnia, the movie succeeds as a delightful 98 minutes of family-friendly fantasy and is filled with stunning visuals, ample excitement and a surprising world where more exists than first meets the eye.
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