Burt and Verona are thirty-somethings, good friends as well as lovers, and will be parents for the first time three months hence. Verona’s parents are both dead, and Burt’s have announced that they’re leaving the country to live abroad for two years. With no real reason to stay near them in their cold house, Burt [...]

Steve Carell has had quite a year. He’s already had a hit earlier in the year with Date Night, and a summer-smash followup with his role as Gru in the animated feature Despicable Me. He has also been fodder for entertainment websites for his announcement that he is leaving his hit television show The Office [...]

A story about infidelity, prostitution, racketeering, and murder set in the swinging, “free love” decade of the 70′s is one that can make for a deliciously trashy melodrama. But that didn’t happen in Taylor Hackford’s, Love Ranch, a bio-pic about the violence that erupts from the marital breakdown of Joe and Sally Conforte, the married [...]

Youth in Revolt is a film I regrettably missed while it was in theaters, but for a film that I had some interest in, it came and went quickly. Despite this, I have heard many positive things from people who I trust, so I am definitely glad it has hit DVD and Blu-Ray. Overall, the [...]

Banksy is a British graffiti street artist. His art is known throughout the world, however his identity is, even now, a complete mystery. The art he creates is often satirical; often taking jabs at government and popular culture. One of his pictures, “Naked Man” is a painting of a naked man hanging outside a window [...]

Atomic apocalypse may still be upon us. That is what the filmmakers behind Countdown to Zero want us to remember. As President Kennedy says, “Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by [...]

Angelina this. Angelina that. I’m sick and tired of hearing about Brad and Angelina and their countless marital problems, but I guess I’m alone on this one because the mass media still manages to profit from the misery of these mediocre (at best) performers. I honestly don’t know whose still in Jolie’s fan base — [...]

When anyone watches a movie, they enter into a non-verbal contract with the director that states that as we place ourselves in their hands for the next two hours; we trust that they will not screw with us. That does not just cover that they won’t plant us back in the Middle Ages and then [...]

When you’ve worked the farm all your life, morning noon and night, it becomes a part of you. When the house on the farm was where you lived with your now-deceased wife for decades, you become a part of it. Abner Cheetham may be eighty, have a bum hip, a weak heart, and need the [...]

It’s always great to see an exciting director’s first film. To say, “Wow! Once that guy polishes up some of his story telling skills, he’s going to make some impressive works.” Harry Brown is Daniel Barber’s first feature length film and it knocks the wind out of you. From the opening scenes, shot on what [...]

The film sub-genre of Mumblecore has been around since 2002. They are characterized by improvised scripts spoken by un-proven actors on shoestring budgets. The plots are simplistic, people talking about what people talk about as they would normally talk. Nothing particularly spectacular happens and it’s okay. Slowly, the directors of these films have been getting [...]

When you heard that Mads Mikkelsen was starring in a film about a Norse crusader, you probably got pretty excited just as I did. However, the marketing, specifically the previews, set this movie up for a fall. It is presented as a hard-hitting, gritty period piece about the Christianization of Scandinavia. But that’s misleading. In [...]

“You are the One.” “No, I’m not.” “Yes, you are. You must believe in your powers.” Bad thing happens. “Oh, okay, I’m the One.” Yes, I’m paraphrasing and no, I’m not regurgitating the dialogue from The Matrix. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the new Jerry Bruckheimer produced Disney film is. The guy trying to do the convincing [...]

I don’t think I had ever been so excited to see a movie as I have been for Inception. For starters, it was directed by Christopher Nolan who has made three of the best movies I’ve ever seen: The Prestige, The Dark Knight and, my all time favorite, Memento. He is a master of his [...]

The life of a musician, no matter how good it may seem in a music video (Lord knows how long and I hard I prayed to be a member of Mötley Crà¼e), it is no picnic — there is a shitload of behind the scenes work to do and more pitfalls than Pitfall Harry could [...]

Close your eyes. Transport yourself back to 1987. The high energy and surprisingly entertaining movie Predator has torn up the box office. A sequel has to follow. But in this alternate reality, Predator 2 never gets made. Neither do those abysmal Alien vs. Predator flicks. Now open your eyes. The sequel, as Robert Rodriguez envisioned [...]

Three sisters: Joy, a flighty hippy chick; Trish, a suburban mother; and Helen, a successful screenwriter. The issue at stake: The ability to forgive and forget. For Joy, the choice is simple. She works with ex-cons, helping them to return to society. She’s even married to an ex-con, a gang member who is trying hard [...]

I think, unless the product is a bankable franchise like Harry Potter or, God forbid, the Twilight saga, the future of cinema is in family friendly computer animated movies. Disney/Pixar blazoned the trail with fantastic imagery and strong underlying stories (Up, Toy Story 3, to name a few). DreamWorks Animation followed suit with their Shrek [...]

When the 2009 Academy Awards happened, there were a lot of shockers. Hurt Locker beating out Avatar, Precious winning best adapted screenplay over Up in the Air. But the biggest shocker for me was the fact that The White Ribbon didn’t win Best Foreign Language Film. I thought the movie was flawless — a masterpiece. [...]

There’s just something about Westerns that screams out, “Mesh me with other genres.” Perhaps it’s because most traditional westerns are one-note bores that fail to gain any recognition (don’t get your panties in a bunch — I said “most”) and the application of futuristic weaponry and demonic spirits seems like a surefire way to breathe [...]

M. Night Shymalagong came to mainstream recognition through his work on The Sixth Sense, which he both wrote and directed. It was nominated for several Academy Awards including: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Oops, excuse me, before I continue on with this review, I must correct myself — I’ve been informed that [...]

Nominated for an Oscar, winner of a BAFTA, A Prophet tells the story of young Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rehim), jailed for six years, and the amount of growing up he has to do in that time. With an Arabic name, but French allegiance, Malik is alone once inside. He cannot read or write and [...]

Winter’s Bone is an unflinchingly gritty Neo-noir thriller. From the trailer it looked absolutely stunning and was high on my list of movies to see this year. Now, after seeing it I can tell you that, while it is a fine film, I wasn’t completely bowled over. Winter’s Bone is about 17 year-old Ree (Jennifer [...]

I’m a middle aged guy (balding, beer belly, etc.), so I’ll admit it: I don’t get this whole Twilight phenomenon. Sparkly vampires and bare-chested werewolves fawning over a human, high school girl who isn’t that hot just don’t mix well with my testosterone (I can’t figure out how it mixes well with estrogen either, but [...]

Woody Allen’s 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a film with a moral: People do not change. No, let me rephrase that: People cannot change. Films of great depth have been made with premises as simple as that. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is not a film of great depth. Great style? Yes. But not depth. Not [...]