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Candy is an Australian film that also offers a dose of familiarity. It's one of those drugs-are-hell movies that follows the time-tested path of watching two generally likable characters embark upon the road to self-destruction that results when re...

Movies like Captain Phillips - taut, white-knuckle thrillers that feature ordinary guys instead of bona fide action heroes - are something of an endangered species. In today's risk-averse movie industry, making an "action" film without an establish...

Reuniting director Todd Phillips with the actor whose name no one can pronounce (the inimitable Zach Galifianakis) would seem to represent an excellent cornerstone for another laugh-till-you-drop comedy. Add Robert Downey Jr., possibly the best Am...

When Yogi Berra said "It's déjà vu all over again," maybe he said it best. Then again, perhaps it was John McClane: "How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?" While neither was specifically referring to The Hangover Part II, Todd Phi...

The Hangover Part III is an obvious example of how wrong things can go when the almighty dollar is allowed to rule what comes out of Hollywood. When the first Hangover stunned analysts by becoming not just successful but a massive hit, director Tod...

The Hangover begins and ends conventionally but, in between, it's not afraid to go off the rails. Unlike most so-called "comedies," this one can claim the virtue of being reasonably funny. It never tries too hard, the actors have a good sense of ...

There are those, including the distributor, who would like audiences to believe that The Ice Harvest is a comedy. At first glance, that's not so hard to accept. After all, director Harold Ramis was one of the Ghostbusters co-writers and scored a ...

In the Batman universe, there are two kinds of darkness: the surface-deep emptiness of the Zack Snyder approach and Christopher Nolan’s baked-into-the-DNA aesthetic. For the stand-alone Joker, which is said to be neither prequel nor the star...

If nothing else, the experience of watching Joker: Folie a Deux argues against its very existence. Sitting in movie theater as this motion picture unspools, one can understand any reluctance director/co-writer Todd Phillips may have had developing...

If you’re in the mood for an overdose of (early) ‘80s nostalgia, Midnight Madness has your fix. Watching the film, which was made in 1980, offers a reflection of the kind of escapism that dominated the teen-oriented cinema of the era. Toda...