MOVIE REVIEWS: FRANKENWEENIE

The last time we saw Tim Burton’s name in movie reviews, he was being kicked around painfully for a movie that eventually flopped despite the fact that it starred Johnny Depp. But most critics agree that Frankenweenie is no Dark Shadows. In fact, many are suggesting that Burton has come forth with a classic. Amy […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: ARBITRAGE

Although it is opening in fewer than 200 theaters this weekend, critics are suggesting that you pass up the movies playing in thousands of them and take in Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage starring Richard Gere. This is Jarecki’s debut as a writer-director, and it is an auspicious one. Writes Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal: […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: PARANORMAN

The animated ParaNorman is generally drawing favorable reviews, but those critics who dislike it do so intensely. Manohla Dargis, the generally tough critic for the New York Times, calls it “beautiful-looking, charmingly heartfelt.” Each scene, she writes, is turned “into an occasion for discovery and sometimes delight.” And Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune, who […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE BOURNE LEGACY

OK, let’s get the obvious puns over with without further ado: Critics are about equally divided over whether The Bourne Legacy is a Bourne winner or was Bourne to lose. In the camp of the former is Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times. “Complex, unexpected and dazzling, alternating relentless tension with resonant emotional moments,” […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: TOTAL RECALL

A remake of a movie titled Total Recall practically begs for puns. And the press has obliged with an outpouring of groaners. Ty Burr in the Boston Globe quips: “In the end, here’s the worst sin of this slick, high-octane memory play: It’s forgettable.” The headline of Joe Morgenstern’s review in the Wall Street Journal […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: BRAVE

Pixar’s latest entry, Brave, is not receiving the unanimous praise from critics that the studio’s early entries did, but it is not receiving the slams that Cars 2 did, and the criticism that it does encounter is not particularly brutal. For example, Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal finds it “enjoyable, consistently beautiful, fairly […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightly, has found few friends among the critics. The story takes place as a massive asteroid is hurtling towards Earth, dooming it to annihilation. “At least it’s an ambitious misfire,” is about the best Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times […]

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: THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT

In 2012 a movie with a title like The Five-Year Engagement hardly seems as provocative as one with a title like The 40-Year-Old Virgin but, despite the innocuous title, the movie is picking up some decent reviews, and even those that aren’t overwhelmingly positive aren’t exactly caustic. “Perhaps the tale of a couple who love […]

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