MOVIE REVIEWS: APOLLO 18
September 5, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Apollo 18 is sort of a Blair Witch Project on the moon. Critics didn’t much care for Blair Witch Project, either, giving it barely a passing grade. That’s mostly the case with the moon movie. Robert Abele in the Los Angeles Times described it as “a low-key and unassuming film of rising tension rather than […]
MOVIE REVIEWS: SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD IN 4D
August 22, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
It is rare, if not unprecedented, for a studio not to hold press screenings for a movie aimed at children. But The Weinstein Company was no doubt expecting the worst when it decided not to show Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D to critics in advance of this weekend’s opening. In […]
MOVIE REVIEWS: FINAL DESTINATION 5
August 12, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Horror movies rarely receive positive reviews, and the fifth Final Destination movie is no exception. (The previous four didn’t fare much better.) Mike Hale refers to a line in the movie in which a character remarks, “It’s just that I’ve seen this before.” Hale calls the line “too depressingly true to be funny.” Likewise Betsy […]
BREAKING IN BREAKS IN
April 7, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Fox used a 90-minute edition of American Idol Wednesday night to usher in a new comedy series, Breaking In, starring Christian Slater and Bret Harrison. But while the new show placed second in its time period at 9:30, a reading of the phone book might have garnered similar numbers. The 9:00-9:30 segment of Idol attracted […]
MOVIE REVIEWS: INSIDIOUS
April 3, 2011 by admin · 2 Comments
Generally speaking, critics give short shrift to horror movies produced on shoestring budgets. In fact studios rarely bother to schedule press screenings for them at all. So it’s no surprise that some of the reviews for Insidious are pretty frightful. What is surprising is that several critics have some positive things to say about it. […]
MOVIE REVIEWS: DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: RODRICK RULES
March 25, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Critics aren’t exactly beating up on Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. But most aren’t coming to its defense either. “About the most you can say for it is that it’s inoffensive, which isn’t necessarily what you want in a movie about the humiliations of being a seventh grader with a bullying older brother,” […]
MOVIE REVIEWS: BIG MOMMAS: LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
February 21, 2011 by admin · 3 Comments
Like Martin Lawrence’s two previous Big Momma capers, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son was not screened in advance for critics. Those who dutifully caught the movie were therefore forced to stand in line and buy tickets like everyone else on Friday. And some may have wished that they could have spent their Friday night […]
MOVIE REVIEWS: YOGI BEAR
There’s barely a kind, friendly word from any leading critic about the big-screen version of Yogi Bear. Here are some of the descriptors: Mike Hale in the New York Times: “misbegotten;” Dan Kois in the Washington Post: “Uninspired studio product;” Ty Burr in the Boston Globe: “a frenetic, unfunny mix of action, romance, dud dialogue, […]
MOVIE REVIEWS: ALPHA AND OMEGA
September 17, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Alpha and Omega, the critics suggest, is barely a step above the familiar fare found most hours of the day on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel or on just about any broadcast network channel on Saturday morning. Except that it’s in 3D. And people in the industry will be waiting to see the results, which should […]
MOVIE REVIEWS: NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS
Many critics did not regard the terribly British Nanny McPhee as their cup of tea when it was released in 2005. They’re even less enthusiastic about Nanny McPhee Returns. The film’s star, Emma Thompson, “who made a vivid, even unsettling impression in Nanny McPhee, is relatively innocuous this time around, like a walk-on in her […]
