Search for John

The Painted Veil, based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham, takes viewers on a journey into early 20th century rural China, where a cholera epidemic becomes the backdrop for shifts and growing pains in a fractured marriage. Due in large part to e...

How's a studio to proceed when it wants to do something with a classic, family-friendly property but believes a straightforward remake to be redundant? The solution, as recently explored by several would-be franchises, is to expand the canvas. Ma...

Paper Towns is the third coming-of-age story to reach screens during the summer of 2015, following in the wake of the vastly superior Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and Dope. Based on the novel by John Green, Paper Towns is an exercise in artifice. T...

Parker delivers just about what the average viewer would expect from it: a Jason Statham-flavored action thriller (as opposed to, say, a Matt Damon-flavored action thriller or a Rock-flavored action thriller). Statham, like John Wayne in his heyday...

There are so many ancillary issues surrounding the release of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (née The Passion) that they threaten to dwarf the 127-minute movie that lies at the maelstrom's epicenter. (The controversy, whether real, concoc...

To think of uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and action director Michael Bay is to be reminded of popcorn-and-eye candy trifles like The Rock and Armageddon - movies where flashy special effects and lobotomized scripts are arguably assets. The pair...

In 2018, vigilantism is all the rage. I wonder whether that says something about our current culture or whether it’s just something Hollywood has latched onto as a way of making a buck. Peppermint is the third such high-profile film to come t...

For high school kids with college aspirations, the SATs have always been the enemy. Most juniors and seniors try to improve their scores by studying or taking classes focused on SAT preparation. But not the sextet of characters inhabiting Brian R...

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is beautiful in its ugliness. Among other things, it features gorgeously composed scenes of maggots, animal entrails, and human corpses. And, in direct contrast to Marie Antoinette, it portrays 18th century France...