Search for 2014

Probably the best way to approach a Jack Ryan movie is to look at it like a James Bond film. The lead actor keeps changing, the supporting actors are rarely the same, and the time period varies. Bond is Bond, whether he's played by Sean Connery, Ge...

Initially, the stage-to-screen transition of the Broadway musical Jersey Boys was expected to be helmed by Jon Favreau. When Favreau withdrew, it opened the door for veteran director Clint Eastwood to take the reins. Eastwood's approach to telling ...

John Wick is a rousing action thriller of the sort rarely encountered in theaters these days. The once popular genre, which was headlined by the likes of Stallone and Schwarzenegger during its heyday, has been a dying breed during the past two deca...

Two words that come to mind when considering The Judge are generic and predictable. It's also well-intentioned and earnest (perhaps to a fault). There are some good scenes and instances of strong acting but the project as a whole is so familiar tha...

The underlying incident presented in first-time director Robert May's documentary, Kids for Cash, has been called one of the most shocking recent judicial scandals. By interweaving talking head interviews with archived news footage, May (who served...

The pen may be mightier than the sword but, as related in Michael Cuesta's Kill the Messenger, whispered innuendo is more deadly than both. Imagine, if you will, All the President's Men with Robert Redford's Bob Woodward brought down by attacks on ...

"Labor" isn't just a word in the title of Jason Reitman's new film, it's a description of what it feels like to sit through the movie. Messy, poorly focused, and overflowing with artifice, Labor Day is an unpleasant surprise to come from the pen of...

Maturity can be an evanescent quality. Sometimes, even when you've acquired it, you don't recognize it. As a grown woman or man, having left childhood long behind, it's still possible to think of oneself as a young person playing the part of an adu...

If one was to clump together all the movies – both narrative and documentary – made about the Vietnam War (or, as it’s called in Asia, the American War), the number would be in the three-digit range. I have seen many of those (although b...

There's no "rule" determining that religion-oriented movies are necessarily poorly made. Indeed, there are examples aplenty of serious minded, reverent motion pictures that work not only for pious viewers but for those with a secular outlook. The ...