MOVIE REVIEWS: THIS MEANS WAR

This Means War is taking a volley of shots from the nation’s leading newspaper film critics, many of whom suggest that it’s simply not worth the price of today’s admissions. With a series of “what if?” questions, Wesley Morris in the Boston Globe provides a summary of the improbable plot, then asks, “What if people [...]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY

The Secret World of Arrietty is the latest in a long line of hand-drawn animated films from Japan’s Studio Ghibli that invariably garner rapturous reviews but disappointing receipts. Manohla Dargis in the New York Times welcomes the return of animation created by artists with pen and ink. “Computers create extraordinarily photorealistic visuals,” she writes, “but [...]

MOVIE REVIEWS: SAFE HOUSE

Several critics are drubbing the script for Safe House, starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, but they’re missing the point, other critics argue. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times suggests that the “business-as-usual” script is offset by “expert direction” by Daniel Espinosa. The Swedish director, says Turan, has given Safe House “an unmistakably stylish [...]

MOVIE REVIEWS: JOURNEY: MYSTERIOUS ISLAND

There’s not much point in approaching Journey 2: Mysterious Island as serious cinema fare. It’s one of those “lost island” tales with volcanoes threatening to erupt, prehistoric creatures on the loose, and pristine jungles with nary a dead leaf to spoil the greenery. “This is transcendently goofy,” Roger Ebert remarks in the Chicago Sun-Times, remarking [...]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE VOW

The Vow Is the kind of movie that requires a package of Kleenex to sit through — a “weepie,” the critics call it. The problem, some of them say, is that it’s not weepie enough. Writes Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times: “This is a movie that leaves you wanting more. To care more, [...]

TV REVIEWS: SMASH

Pinning its recovery hopes on a show about a Broadway show, NBC is launching Smash tonight (Monday) with a $7-million pilot that will be followed by a weekly series costing $4 million per episode. (The network has also reportedly spent as much as $25 million to promote the series.) If the public’s reaction is anything [...]

MOVIE REVIEWS: CHRONICLE

There will be something other than the Super Bowl that will be super this weekend. A movie about three dorky Seattle teenagers — the sort who would never be seen dead in front of a TV set on Super Sunday — who are suddenly gifted with super powers. Chronicle begins when they discover a crystalline [...]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE WOMAN IN BLACK

The reviews for Daniel Radcliffe’s first post-Harry Potter film are decidedly mixed. The Woman in Black is a period piece, a ghost story and a stage for Radcliffe to prove that he can transform himself into a far different character than Harry. Manohla Dargis in the New York Times suggests that he has only partially [...]

MOVIE REVIEWS: MAN ON A LEDGE

Virtually all the critics are avoiding using the term “gripping” to describe Man on a Ledge, the drama starring Sam Worthington in which for most of the film he is seen perched on a 14-inch ledge on the 21st floor of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York. The reason, it would seem, has less to [...]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE GREY

Box-office forecasters are predicting that The Grey, starring Liam Neeson, will become this weekend’s box office champ. Kyle Smith in the New York Post is not so sure. “It may be too conventional for the art-house crowd, yet too arty for the megaplex. I prefer to call it an unusually reflective blood-and-guts saga,” he writes. [...]

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