Search for 2011

The same questions accompany The Thing that accompany any revival of an '80s property, be it Conan the Barbarian, Fright Night, or Footloose (to name only a few of many, many candidates). First and foremost is "Why?" However, while it may seem unne...

Note: Thor is available in both 2-D and 3-D formats. I chose to see it in the former because of my growing dislike for the latter. I'm satisfied with the decision. Thor is not a native 3-D production; it was converted after the fact. By all accoun...

For decades, the spy thriller has been dominated by one name: Bond. 007's trappings, which include pyrotechnics, high-octane chases, death-defying stunts, gorgeous women, and the like, have come to define the genre. While it's unquestionable that I...

Whether suffused with tension or laced with humor, the heist movie has enjoyed enduring appeal since the heyday of film noir. Good heist movies proceed according to an established template that includes meticulous attention to the details of the sc...

In the wake of widespread criticism of the second live action Transformers movie, Revenge of the Fallen, director Michael Bay admitted dissatisfaction with the screenplay and blamed it on the writers' strike. So what's the excuse this time? If any...

At its least, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life is an ambitious slice of cinema by a major filmmaker. Striving for no less than the pinnacle of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Tree of Life falls short of masterful but retains a power ...

Spoiler warning: Technically, this review contains spoilers. But does anyone really care? By writing this, I am reviewing a direct-to-DVD movie. True, Trespass is opening in a select number of theaters in mid-October 2011 (the word "select" bein...

With the Twilight movies, you get out of them what you put into them. If you're a fan, this represents a delirious opportunity to see moments and characters from a favorite book come to life on the big screen. If you're indifferent to the hackney...

Spoilers! Yeah, I talk about the ending. Although the name makes it sound like a monster movie (which it could be, after a fashion), Tyrannosaur is actually a member of a peculiar class of film unique to the U.K.: the "feel bad" tale of working...

Yes, Unknown is preposterous. That in and of itself is not a reason to avoid the movie. The problems lie in the way the absurdity is presented and the manner in which the screenplay resolves once the "truth" is revealed. Alfred Hitchcock rarely me...