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It takes something lackluster like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to remind viewers why movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier are considered superior. In the superhero genre, it's too easy to become sloppy and fall back on clichés. The fifth S...

2003’s Bad Santa was a milestone in feel-bad black comedy. Directed by Terry Zwigoff, written by Glenn Ficarra & John Requa, and co-executive produced by the Coen Brothers, it was a holiday movie unlike any previous holiday movie. Although ...

Being There, Hal Ashby’s 1979 adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski’s novel, is a delightfully dark comedy that, despite a cynical bent, offers viewers a good time. At the heart of Being There’s popularity is a recognition that even the most simp...

How do you get a werewolf movie to earn a PG-13 rating? Turn it into a Harlequin romance. Actually, Blood and Chocolate still shows signs of neutering but what has been toned down to get the teen-friendly classification is the sex and nudity not ...

Based on a perusal of reviews for Cloud Atlas, one might be convinced that the sprawling, ambitious, epic adaptation of David Mitchell's 2004 novel is either a masterpiece or an unmitigated disaster. The reality is somewhere in between. It's hard t...

I’m willing to admit that perhaps my expectations were too high for this twisted, offbeat Christmas movie. But, when one considers the title and the premise – Mel Gibson playing a disgruntled, gun-toting Santa Claus – is it any wonder th...

Flight Risk represents Mel Gibson’s seventh outing as a director and it’s easily his worst. Best-known for the Oscar-winning Braveheart, Gibson shows that his strengths behind the camera don’t extend to Hitchcockian thrillers, although the l...

Sometimes the films I enjoy the most aren't the ones that get four stars. For example, while Farewell My Concubine is an example of superior, powerful film making, it isn't the sort of movie you embrace for the pure magic of the entertainment it...

"From the producers of Underworld." Hmmm. Is that supposed to get me excited? Truth be told, such a tag line might be effective because, as pointless and shallow as the Underworld films are, they have a devoted following. Sadly, as apt as comparis...