Archive By Section - Movies
Review: 'Secretariat'
In a world of inspiring real-life sports stories, the tale of Secretariat is one of a kind. It's too bad the Hollywood version about the legendary racehorse is just another one of the pack. "Secretariat" does what the horse and its caretakers never did on the way to Triple Crown glory in 1973. The movie plays it completely safe, offering a classy but standard Disney-fication of the tale, whose thrilling race scenes are offset by ...
Review: 'Going the Distance'
In "Going the Distance," Drew Barrymore plays a quick-to-laugh, ambitious young hipster who loves cool indie bands, "Shawshank Redemption" and playing the old arcade games in bars. Jason Long, on the other hand, plays a quick-to-laugh, ambitious young hipster who loves cool indie bands, "Shawshank Redemption" and playing old arcade games in bars. The characters - Erin and Garrett - might as well have the same brain. As soon as they meet, their patter and ...
Review: 'Machete'
Certainly, "Machete" is the best feature-length extension of a fake movie trailer in Hollywood history. Fans who saw the trailer in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's 2007 "Grindhouse" double-feature continually asked Rodriguez to turn the make-believe ad featuring Danny Trejo into a real blood-and-guts vengeance flick. Rodriguez has complied, maintaining a fair amount of the wicked humor and all the savage bloodshed the trailer promised. Viewers get precisely what they're paying for: beheadings, skewerings and ...
Review: 'The Switch'
Not a single moment rings true in "The Switch," which is unfortunate because it's actually about a situation in which a lot of women find themselves. Jennifer Aniston's character, Kassie, is a single, 40-year-old New York TV producer who wants to have a baby but doesn't want to wait around for a man - or worse yet, the wrong man - to make that happen. So she turns to a sperm donor, only to have ...
Review: 'Nanny McPhee Returns'
The Nanny McPhee movies may be principally for kids, but make no mistake about it: They are, quite literally, a parent's dream. Overwhelmed single parents with unruly kids are rescued by a magical nanny who seemingly appears out of nowhere. And at no cost! For some older moviegoers escorting little ones, this premise might be impossibly alluring. And they said fans of "Avatar" were depressed when they left the theater. "Nanny McPhee Returns" is the ...
Review: 'The Other Guys'
If the mismatched-buddy cop movie seems egregiously overdone, the idea of a parody of that genre would seem especially needless - which is what makes "The Other Guys" such a wonderful surprise. On paper, this could have been painfully lame. Will Ferrell is doing a variation on his tried-and-true film persona: the overly earnest guy who's totally confident and oblivious to his buffoonery. Mark Wahlberg, meanwhile, is playing with his screen image as a tough ...
Review: 'Charlie St. Cloud'
Zac Efron and the rest of the crew behind "Charlie St. Cloud" want their movie to be weepy, soulful, inspirational, cathartic, ethereal, life-affirming and who knows what else on the New Age emotional barometer. Too bad they didn't aim to make it a little interesting. This melodrama about a young man who puts his life in stasis after his kid brother's death is a bore, despite a somewhat clever twist - somewhat because it momentarily ...
Review: 'Cats & Dogs'
Dogs and cats, living together ... mass hysteria? Maybe not so much. While these animals were resourceful and well-equipped enemies in the original "Cats & Dogs" from 2001, now they're forced to band together to fight a common foe in the sequel "Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore." As you can tell from the name, this is a spy send-up, specifically of James Bond movies - the opening titles alone are super clever, ...
Review: 'Salt'
"Salt" is, quite literally, a shaggy dog story. Despite the cryptic ads that pose the question, "Who Is Salt?" and regardless of the various twists and turns designed to throw us off, the intentions of Angelina Jolie's super-spy character, Evelyn Salt, are never really in question. This is obvious, based on one comparatively small gesture in an early scene. Salt, a CIA officer accused of being a Russian spy, dashes home to grab the supplies ...
Right at the 'Inception'
Driving home from a screening of "Inception" the other night, my husband said to me, "I don't know how you're going to write about this movie." "What, you mean without giving anything away?" I asked. "No," he said. "I don't know how you're going to explain what it's about." Well, yes. There is that, too. We can begin by announcing, with great relief, that all the hype is justified. Writer-director Christopher Nolan's first film since ...
Review: 'The Karate Kid'
If you've seen "The Karate Kid" (1984), the memories will come back during this 2010 remake of the original. That's a compliment. The original story was durable enough to inspire three sequels, and now we have an entertaining version filmed mostly on location in China, with 56-year-old Jackie Chan in the role of Mr. Miyagi.
Review: 'Splice'
Well-timed to open soon after Craig Venter's announcement of a self-replicating cell, here's a halfway serious science fiction movie about two researchers who slip some human DNA into a cloning experiment, and end up with an unexpected outcome, or a child, or a monster, take your pick. The screenplay blends human psychology with scientific speculation and has genuine interest until it goes on autopilot with one of the chase scenes Hollywood now permits few pictures ...
Review: 'Get Him to the Greek'
Finally this summer, a movie that lives up to its hype. "Get Him to the Greek" is a complete blast, a much-needed breath of fresh air - well, as much fresh air as you can get in crowded clubs, packed rock shows and trashed hotel suites. But you get the idea. Its energy is what's so refreshing, its lack of pretension or self-seriousness, especially during a season of bloated, boring blockbusters. Like the 2008 hit ...
Review: 'Marmaduke'
Dogs cannot talk. This we know. Dogs can talk in the movies. This we also know. But when we see them lip-synching with their dialogue, it's just plain grotesque. The best approach is the one used by "Garfield" in which we saw the cat and heard Bill Murray, but there was no nonsense about Garfield's mouth moving. The moment I saw Marmaduke's big drooling lips moving, I knew I was in trouble. There is nothing ...
Review: 'Prince of Persia'
"Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" is a children's story beefed up to appeal to young teens. It's based on a video game, but don't make me play it, let me guess: The push-button magic dagger is used in the game to let you rewind and try something again, right? Since anything in the story (any death, for example) can be reversed, the stakes are several degrees below urgent. And there's a romance in ...
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