Search for 2009

Crank 2: High Voltage is the freak show act at a carnival. It's so over-the-top that the phrase ceases to have meaning in this context. It's a bizarre concoction of testosterone, adrenaline, and psychedelics. It seeks not only to top its predece...

Crazy Heart is the country music version of The Wrestler: a grizzled veteran whose days in the spotlight are behind him struggles to keep going while seeing the world through a haze of regret and booze. The story is unremarkable; the alcoholic com...

Crossing Over is Wayne Kramer's Crash-inspired look at the world of immigration in Southern California. Like Paul Haggis' Oscar winning film, this one is replete with coincidences and contrivances but, unlike Crash, it also features too many insta...

In the tired world of genre parodies, where Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have become the "go-to guys," Dance Flick manages the seemingly impossible feat of actually generating some big laughs. It doesn't do much else, but for a movie of this ...

Daybreakers argues there still may be some new terrain to be strip-mined in the rush to exploit the bloodsucking undead. As far removed from the Twilight series as possible (with more in common with Children of Men), Daybreakers brings its vampires...

Did You Hear about the Morgans? Yes and, to be perfectly frank, I wish I had been spared the experience. I'm gullible. I'll buy just about any premise Hollywood is selling, provided it is sold well. Did You Hear about the Morgans? proves thes...

When I first saw The Disappearance of Alice Creed at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, I thought it was a sure bet to be picked up for United States art house distribution. I was wrong. Eventually, however, after the dust from the festival had sett...

It is universally acknowledged (at least by those who don't play with Transformers toys) that the best science fiction stories are those that use the devices of aliens, robots, and space ships to illustrate some greater truth. Star Trek (the TV se...

Oliver Parker has made a career out of adapting Oscar Wilde, with versions of An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest already on video store shelves. For his latest, Parker has turned his attention to what may be Wilde's most famous no...

Oh no, not another PG-13 horror film! "But wait," you say. "It's by Sam Raimi." Perhaps, then, it shouldn't be routinely dismissed as just another tale of demons and ghosts that has been emasculated with the goal of appealing to pimple-faced teen...