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What is the difference between a bad melodrama and a good one? The key lies in the emotional response. If the viewer feels that he or she is being forced into reacting in a particular way because of "button pushing," the film makers have erred. ...

When discussing "giants" of the non-English-speaking, international film world, four names leap immediately to mind: Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, and Satyajit Ray. Of these men, Ray has received the least North American e...

"Through the travail of ages Midst the pomp and toils of war, Have I fought and strove and perished Countless times upon a star. As if through a glass, and darkly, The age-old strife I see, For I fought in many guises, many names, But a...

After stumbling through a lackluster first 30 minutes that features all the tepid humor one might reasonably expect from a mediocre comedy, Paul Blart: Mall Cop does something unexpected: it becomes watchable, perhaps even passably enjoyable. That...

Payback is the most viscerally involving thriller to be released in the last several months. Granted, the plot is far from air-tight (in fact, towards the end, it begins to resemble Swiss cheese), but the adrenaline level is heightened to the poin...

When the collaboration of Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen on a new production company was first announced, it became the talk of the entertainment world. Soon, deals were being signed, contracts inked, and films placed into ...

Gene Siskel infamously gave Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure a zero-star review, stating “Obviously, Pee-Wee is tolerable only in Pee-Wee doses…” Although that seems unnecessarily harsh, especially in retrospect (now that the film is commonly viewe...

Larry Flynt, the self-proclaimed king of smut, as an American hero? Unlikely as it may seem, that's the scenario set up and successfully pursued by Milos Forman's (One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Amadeus) latest venture, The People vs. Larry Flynt...

There are times when a filmmaker tries so hard to surprise everyone that he ends up surprising no one. Such is the case with A Perfect Getaway, a film that exists for one reason: the twist. Writer/director David Twohy (Pitch Black) puts so much e...

In the community of elite critics, there are those who would claim that Persona is the best film ever made, placing it in the rarified atmosphere of such classics as Citizen Kane, City Lights, and Tokyo Story. Although I would agree that Perso...