Search for 2007

The press notes for Bee Movie indicate that Jerry Seinfeld came up with the title before he had an inkling what the story might be. Having seen the film, I can believe that. As befits something from Seinfeld's pen, the screenplay contains a smatter...

An Irish toast goes "May you be in heaven half an hour... before the devil knows you're dead," and it's from this source that the latest movie by 83-year-old veteran director Sidney Lumet derives its name. With films like Serpico,Q&A, and Night Fa...

The legend of Beowulf, a mythical hero whose exploits were recounted in an 8th century epic poem, has gained unprecedented popularity some 1250 years after it was first told. With the success of The Lord of the Rings, which (along with the Harry P...

Black Snake Moan is designed to look and sound like a B-grade exploitation flick. It opens with a hot sex scene followed shortly thereafter by the sight of a girl writhing on the ground in apparent sexual frustration. Later, there's booze and blu...

Will Ferrell can be the most maddening of comedians. There are times when he's so funny it hurts to watch him. Then there are times when he's so unfunny it's painful in a different way. Consistency, thy name isn't Ferrell. Blades of Glory is pre...

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 ...

If nothing else, The Bourne Ultimatum represents the best of 2007's inordinately high number of so-called "threequels." Hopefully, that's not damning with faint praise. The Bourne Ultimatum, the third in the movie trilogy loosely based on Robert...

The usual function of the "revenge flick" is to allow the viewer to vicariously experience the brutal pleasure of executing that "dish best served cold." It's a basic case of good versus evil, with the former striking back against the latter. The...

No matter how compelling and intriguing a real-life story may be, it doesn't necessarily translate into an equally compelling and intriguing motion picture. Breach is a case in point. Based on the widely publicized case of turncoat FBI agent Robe...

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home - except when you can't figure out where "home" is. That uncertainty underlies the dynamics of Sarah Gavron's Brick Lane, an adaptation of the novel by Monica Ali. However, while the film tackles t...