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For Vin Diesel, starring in XXX is a wonderfully smart career move. Too bad neither "wonderful" nor "smart" are applicable adjectives to describe this film. XXX is proof positive that it's easier to fail than succeed with the James Bond formula, ...

When the original xXx was released 15 years ago, it was designed as one of several potential franchise properties for a new hot-shot action star named Vin Diesel. In its August 2002 run, the film did respectably at the box office but fell short of th...

Where's the Kryptonite? What many movie producers fail to realize is that one of the keys to making a superhero interesting is to give him an Achilles heel - Kryptonite, so to speak. And one of the big problems with XXX: State of the Union is t...

For his directorial debut, Idris Elba has elected to work in a genre he’s comfortable with – the crime thriller. The actor-turned-director is not, however, content merely to regurgitate bits and pieces of productions in which he has appear...

Two weeks ago, I wrote that, while watching Land of the Lost, I felt a sense of depression. That feeling revisited me during Year One, an inexplicably unfunny comedy made by two people who have proven they can do much better: director/co-writer Ha...

Although the idea behind Yesterday was to craft a love-letter to The Beatles, the end result tastes a lot like a typical Richard Curtis rom-com with a generous helping of John-Paul-George-Ringo gravy. Less reliant on pop music than either Bohe...

The term "Capra-corn" was coined for movies such as this one: feel-good endeavors that emphasize the better portions of human nature over the base, venal ones. With Capra, no matter how dark things got in the middle (and it's tough to get darker ...

Watching You Don't Mess with the Zohan is a little like watching an episode of the TV show of which Adam Sandler is an alum: Saturday Night Live. Zohan feels like an extended collection of skits tied together by a flimsy umbrella story. It feature...

As a writer by trade (at least before he started directing), David Koepp should know that a good ending is at least as important as a good beginning, if not more so.  You Should Have Left, a haunted house movie that doubles as an homage to St...

By their nature, there is a predictable sameness to most romantic comedies. Armed with an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality, filmmakers venturing into this genre rarely attempt anything daring; they are, after all, courting an audience t...