Search for 2011

When it comes to Christmas movies, although most are quickly forgotten, a select few go on to become touchstones, beloved and re-watched by families year after year after year. Arthur Christmas may have what it takes to join the latter category. Wi...

To label The Artist as an homage to the silent era is to undervalue what director Michel Hazanavicius has achieved with this movie. In a time when bigger, louder, and more spectacular is interpreted as being "better," he has turned the clock back t...

Bad Teacher takes a delicious premise and leaves a sour aftertaste. Despite the promise of something nasty and cutting, the film turns out to be as edgy as a dull razor with limp "raunchy" comedy and an unwillingness to push envelopes. The concept ...

Perhaps it's a backhanded compliment to acknowledge that, as would-be "event" films about alien invasions go, Battle Los Angeles is superior to both Independence Day and Skyline. Nevertheless, the movie is likely to miss the mark for anyone in sear...

Beastly is Beauty and the Beast for the Twilight generation. Featuring a cast top-heavy with TV actors and a screenplay that could have been given an assist by Stephanie Meyer, the end result would have ended up on the ABC Family Channel if it had ...

When a murderous rampage occurs involving a high school or college-age perpetrator, the initial spotlight shines upon the killer. The usual questions - notably "Why?" - are asked. Inevitably, others, especially the parents, will be pulled into the...

One of the positive qualities often attributed to movies in which Judd Apatow claims involvement (here, he's listed as a producer) is that, beneath all the raunchiness and profanity, lies a core of sweetness. It's the Tootsie Pop philosophy of R-ra...

Columbine has never been a mystery to me. A tragedy, yes, but not mystery. The most surprising thing about Columbine is that it took so long for something like that to happen. Anyone who has been bullied probably understands this, and there's litt...

Note: The Cabin in the Woods works best if left unspoiled. Its impact relies not on a single unexpected twist but upon the cumulative impact of little unanticipated actions and incidents. It's virtually impossible to write anything coherent without...

It's fair to say that superhero saturation has set in. Not many years ago, every cinematic version of a comic book protagonist's adventures was awaited with baited breath. Now, because of an unceasing and sometimes careless flood of such titles, ma...