MOVIE REVIEWS: SKYFALL

When the last 007 movie, Quantum of Solace, opened in 2008, critics railed at the decision to turn Bond into an action hero. “He is too good for that!” remarked Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. “He is an attitude. Violence for him is an annoyance.” Peter Howell commented in the Toronto Star: “This is […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: TAKEN

Most critics are clearly not taken with Taken 2. Some, in fact, are downright derisive. “There’s no need to wait for the “Mad” magazine parody of Taken 2, writes Peter Howell in the Toronto Globe and Mail. “It’s already hilariously up there on the screen.” Wesley Morris in the Boston Globe is a little kinder, […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: END OF WATCH

Once again, a small, auteur work is garnering over-the-top praise from critics even while they are pummeling far more lavish productions.  With a handful of dissents, they generally agree that writer-director David Ayer has again created a classic police drama. End of Watch is, writes Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times, “rare in its […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE

Trouble with the Curve isn’t a great Clint Eastwood flick, critics agree, but he certainly gives a more effective performance in it than he did at the Republican National Convention earlier this month, they say. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times calls it “a superior entertainment, moving down somewhat predictable paths with an authenticity and […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: MAGIC MIKE

It may seem surprising that a movie about male strippers would become one of the best-reviewed films of the year, but such is the case with Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike, starring Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey. Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle compares the movie to the best of Howard Hawks and William Wellman. […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: ROCK OF AGES

Over rock and roll’s “ages” since the 1950s — and especially since the 1980s — pop music lovers have split into separate in-groups, each one becoming a veritable religion unto itself, each one scorning the others. That sort of musical disunion is apparent in the reaction to Rock of Ages, even among the critics, many […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: PROMETHEUS

Clearly, given the reputation that Ridley Scott’s Alien had as one of the great classics of sci-fi film, his prequel, Prometheus, has fostered high expectations. Several critics have suggested that they have gone unfulfilled. “Watching Prometheus is like opening a deluxe gift box from Tiffany’s to find a mug from the dollar store,” writes Ty […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING

The best thing that What to Expect When You’re Expecting has got going for it is its production budget — it cost only $25 million to make. And although the film’s publicists have been working overtime trying to find a hook that will appeal to men, it has been tracking heavily among females — only. […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE DICTATOR

Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator is arriving today (Wednesday),, instead of on Friday, in an apparent effort to avoid the fate of several fellow dictators of late. The relatively low-budget comedy is arriving at a time when the box office is deluged with $100-200-million blockbusters. Baron Cohen has been relentlessly promoting the movie for months […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: SAFE

Safe is expected to bomb at the box office this weekend. If it does, however, it won’t be because of the performance of its star, Jason Statham, which is being praised even by many critics who hate the movie. “There’s nothing terribly original about Safe, but it’s a suitably grimy playground for action cinema’s reigning […]

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