MOVIE REVIEWS: DREDD 3D

Critics are assuring their readers that it’s OK to enter theaters showing Dredd 3D with low expectations — particularly if they already have seen the flop that Sylvester Stallone created out of the graphic-novel character. Indeed, comments Sean O’Connell in the Washington Post, the new Dredd “proves far superior to the corny misfire attempted by […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT

Critics have given the fourth Ice Age movie, Continental Drift, a mostly cool-to-cold reception. Sean O’Connell in the Washington Post, however, suggests that viewers are likely to overlook its faults. “Logic [in the plot] may be extinct, but, boy, do these movies whiz by like ice cubes zipping across a linoleum floor.” Moreover, he writes, […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN

People either love Rowan Atkinson or hate him. Those among the former amount to a virtual cult in America — although he has a massive following overseas. Those among the latter — well, let’s just say that they represent the vast majority of U.S. moviegoers. Critics in this country are likewise divided over the comedian, […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE SMURFS

The Smurfs is receiving little of the admiration that critics bestowed on that other movie with characters who were blue and in 3D. But here and there it is picking up some mostly favorable reviews. Neil Genzlinger in the New York Times observes that the funniest moments in the movie “are either raunchy or scandalous,” […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: ZOOKEEPER

The MGM lion is the first animal audiences see in Zookeeper. It’s real. The others in the movie are computer generated and they talk, in the voices of Nick Nolte, Sylvester Stallone, Cher, Don Rickles and Adam Sandler. All of them give the character portrayed by Kevin James advice about love. Lou Lumenick gives the […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: GNOMEO AND JULIET

Tangled and Yogi Bear, which are still raking in millions after months in release, are finally getting some new competition for the family audience — the relatively low-budget Gnomeo and Juliet. The reviews aren’t half bad. That is, most are in fact quite good. Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal praises the “smart, spirited […]

MOVIE REVIEWS : BIUTIFUL

Alejandro González Iñárritu, the celebrated Mexican director and co-writer of such films as Babel, 21 Grams, and Amores Perros, may be the creative force behind the Spanish-language Biutiful, which is being rolled out in limited release this weekend, but it is the star of his film, Javier Bardem, who is winning the lions’ share of […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE LAST EXORCISM

Compared with the no-budget likes of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, The Last Exorcism, which cost $2 million to make, is a spendthrift affair. For the most part, critics aren’t impressed. Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel calls it “modestly chilling.” Sean O’Connell in the Washington Post describes it as “unnerving.” Other critics […]