Search for 2009

For a while, The Unborn unfolds like a nice little PG-13 horror film should: a dash of atmosphere, a heroine who spends lots of time in her underwear, a general sense of enhanced creepiness, and an effective "boo!" moment or two. Then it commits a...

I'll admit to being surprised that the Underworld series has reached a third installment. Apparently, these films aren't that expensive to make because they have never been big box office performers. With the second movie, Underworld: Evolution, ...

The temptation is to think this: Just what we need - another PG-13 remake of an Asian horror film. These come along so frequently that they have become more like punch lines to bad jokes than serious cinematic endeavors. Not so fast, though. The U...

A film like Up makes it clear that Pixar has moved beyond the point where it feels the need to pander to children. Unlike its main animation competitor, Dreamworks, Pixar allows sophisticated themes and ideas to seep into its movies. Everything d...

Up in the Air is a wonderful little film (the word "little" being relative, of course). It was the best thing I saw at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, and it stand up as well away from the peculiar atmosphere of the festival as it di...

Spoiler warning: The movie is based on real people and events so I am less constrained about revealing certain historical facts than I might be with a fictional account. The story told in Vincere, despite being as faithful to history as one can ...

Transforming Watchmen, one of the most lauded comic series of all time, into a movie is as ambitious an undertaking as anyone in Hollywood is likely to attempt. For more than 20 years, a variety of people (including Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky...

Some might wonder why it has taken so long for comedic icons Woody Allen and Larry David to work together. Their brands of humor - relying more on wit than stupidity - are similar and both inhabit the same geographical and philosophical orbits. A...

Where the Wild Things Are may be the first family film in recent memory to rely not on narrative or character development but on ideas and the director's vision. The result is an involving experience for all but the most fidgety children and an op...

Whip It, the directorial debut of actress Drew Barrymore, is a sports film that uneasily straddles the divide that exists between comedy and drama. Built upon a mountain of clichés, the screenplay wallows in artificiality and, although some of th...