Movies
Movies
They’ve Sunk This Battleship
Film based on a board game is about as dumb as they come
May 24th, 2012
There will be bigger movies this summer, and better ones and worse ones. But there will not be a dumber movie than Battleship. Ponderous and pandering, shameless and head-slappingly silly, this Navy vs. Aliens epic delivers a few thrills and a few laughs. In between the head-slaps, that is. Read more »
Movies
What to Expect When You’re Expecting
May 24th, 2012
Assorted couples cope with pregnancies planned and unplanned, adoption, and the epic change coming to their lives. Read more »
Movies
Dark Shadows
May 24th, 2012
The latest Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaboration, based on the cult-classic ‘60s TV show, doesn’t shine like some of their other work. Read more »
Movies
It Doesn’t Rule
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Dictator fares better than Bruno but worse than Borat
May 24th, 2012
For most of its quick and extremely dirty running time, the new Sacha Baron Cohen offender The Dictator wages war with itself, crude nonsense up against crude nonsense that’s really funny. Read more »
Movies
Join This
Precision, tension and an angelic cult leader make for a nifty paranoid thriller
May 17th, 2012
As the skillfully told, small-scale drama Sound of My Voice unfolds, a young couple—Peter (Christopher Denham) and Lorna (Nicole Vicius)—join a mysterious, smock-wearing cult of budding survivalists operating secretly, and seemingly benignly, out of a suburban basement. Read more »
Movies
Fanged Out
This Tim Burton/Johnny Depp reboot of a classic TV soap feels too familiar
May 17th, 2012
Some of director Tim Burton’s costume parties are livelier than others, and the new Dark Shadows—from the man who gave us Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland and other chalkface-makeup spectaculars starring Johnny Depp—feels like a placeholder, a meandering first draft of an adaptation of the supernatural soap opera that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971. Read more »
Short Reviews
The Five-Year Engagement
May 10th, 2012
Believe it or not, this is actually a quality, enjoyable rom-com, starring Jason Segal and the fabulous Emily Blunt. Read more »
Short Reviews
Safe
May 10th, 2012
Mei (Catherine Chan) has a string of memorized numbers that the Chinese and Russian mafias want. Read more »
Short Reviews
The Avengers
May 10th, 2012
Here it is. The great conjunction. The culmination of it all. Read more »
Movies
Outsourcing Charm
A great cast elevates this predictable tale of a British retirement home in India
May 10th, 2012
A comedy-drama saved by the casting bell, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel arranges for a tiptop collection of British character women and men to bring out the best in a pleasantly predictable story. Wait. Shouldn’t that be “unhappily predictable?” Read more »
