MOVIE REVIEWS: DOLPHIN TALE

Several critics suggest that when acting awards are handed out this year, the star of Dolphin Tale should not be overlooked. That’s not Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, or Harry Connick Jr. but Winter the dolphin whose tale is told in this calculatedly uplifting movie. Writes Ty Burr in the Boston Globe: “The dolphin is, quite […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: WARRIOR

Director Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior is depending on positive word-of-mouth for ticket sales, and if reviews are any indication, the mixed-martial-arts movie will get it. They are overwhelmingly positive. Take Roger Ebert’s in the Chicago Sun-Times, for example. “This is a rare fight movie in which we don’t want to see either fighter lose,” he writes. […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: HOODWINKED TOO! HOOD VS. EVIL

Ordinarily, critics pull their punches when they’re writing about relatively low-budget animated movies aimed at kids. After all, what may seem lame to an adult just might delight little tykes. They are not so generous in their reviews of Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil. Consider Kyle Smith’s opening shot in the New York Post: “Parents […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: NO STRINGS ATTACHED

It is being used as either a scornful epithet or a positive compliment, but the adjective “cute” pops up a lot in reviews for the Ashton Kutcher-Natalie Portman romantic comedy No Strings Attached, from veteran director Ivan Reitman. For the most part, the reviews aren’t all that bad, but they’re not all that good, either. […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE DILEMMA

The real dilemma that critics are facing in reviewing The Dilemma, starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, is figuring out what kind of a movie it is. Is it a comedy, like Ron Howard’s Splash or Parenthood, or is it a poignant relationship movie involving two straight male friends? Well, it turns out that it’s […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: SECRETARIAT

Roger Ebert is one of the critics cheering loudest in their reviews for Secretariat. In today’s Chicago Sun-Times, he recalls that his onetime TV colleague, the late Gene Siskel, once told him that his favorite movies were about what people do all day. “That’s what Secretariat is,” Ebert writes. “It pays us the compliment of […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: VAMPIRES SUCK

The critics verdict of Vampires Suck, a spoof of the Twilight movies: it sucks. “Painfully unfunny,” is the way Jen Chaney describes it in the Washington Post. A “limp lampoon,” comments Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times. Bruce DeMara in the Toronto Star calls it “drearily pointless.” And Joe Leydon in Daily Variety remarks: […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: CHARLIE ST. CLOUD

The box-office fate of Charlie St. Cloud probably hinges on the current status of 22-year-old Zac Efron as a teen idol. The former High School Musical star has probably been eclipsed by the Twilight stars, but he still has a sizable following of young female fans who are likely to turn out in droves to […]