Search for John

We have entered the world of post-modern superheroes, where the concept of someone with special powers doing battle against the forces of evil seems quaint, almost boring. Batman is The Dark Knight. Superman is on hiatus because the most interest...

The summer blockbuster season of 2013 is over, so what do we get as we move into the dog days of August? Yet another superhero movie. If there was ever any question about their ubiquitous multiplex presence, this answers it. A sequel to the breath-...

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 ...

Despite having a perfect cast for a title like Killer Elite, Gary McKendry's feature debut comes across as little more than a generic Jason Statham movie with two high-profile guest stars. However, while Clive Owen and Robert De Niro add some star ...

The Killer Inside Me, British director Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of American pulp writer Jim Thompson's novel, is full of nice little touches, but somehow misses the mark when it comes to the big picture. Winterbottom's approach is a littl...

The most important name associated with this new telling of the tale of King Arthur is “Guy Ritchie.” More than most working directors, Ritchie comes to projects with his own specific take on them – one that inevitably rubs some viewers ...

Common wisdom contends that Dino De Laurentiis' big-budget remake of Merian C. Cooper's classic 1933 film, King Kong, is a bad movie. And, viewed from a certain perspective, perhaps it is, but it's also a lot of fun. Certainly, this versi...

Calling a movie a “fairy tale” and having Julie Andrews provide “Once Upon a Time…” bookend narration are not sufficient reasons to abandon things like intelligent plotting and compelling character development. For years, various Disney ...

In Gladiator, director Ridley Scott transported movie audiences to the year 180 AD. Five years and four motion pictures later, the Oscar-winning director has again immersed himself in the blood and gore of hand-to-hand combat, although this time t...