Search for 2008

Thus far, the formula has worked almost flawlessly: combine fantasy with a family friendly approach and the recent result has caused studio heads to smile. The Spiderwick Chronicles is the latest in what could be considered "starter" fantasy tales...

The Spirit is an example of what can happen to a comic book-inspired movie when the sense of style becomes so pervasive that it overwhelms everything else, including an unremarkable superhero adventure. Unfortunately, the eye candy quickly grows st...

When I was sitting in a theater during the summer of 1977 enthralled by the spectacle that was Star Wars, never did I imagine that, some 31 years later, I would find myself wishing it would go away. Overmerchandising, fan unfriendliness, and greed...

When did Will Ferrell stop being funny? It wasn't that long ago that this Saturday Night Live alum looked to be following in the footsteps of the likes of Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler but, somewhere along the way, Ferrell's train derailed. Now, on...

With Step Up 2 the Streets, the supposed-but-not-really sequel to 2006's sleeper Step Up, you get what you pay for. That is to say, there are lots of energetic dance moves, throbbing music that uses every channel of the theater's digital sound sys...

Still Walking, the seventh feature from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, is a sublime experience. By "sublime," I don't mean "boring." Although the events depicted in the film cover the 24-hour span of an ordinary family gathering, there's a ...

Despite dismal box office results across-the-board, the major movie studios have yet to figure out that the American public is not interested in preachy movies about the war in Iraq. Filmmakers interested in producing compelling dramatic films abo...

We tend to think of our homes as places of safety and refuge. The illusory nature of such a belief is quickly dispelled in Bryan Bertino's debut feature, The Strangers. A chilling horror film about a home invasion, this movie doesn't break any ne...

Street Kings has the look and feel of an '80s cop thriller. Despite the predictability of the overall story arc, there's suspense and tension to be found between the credit sequences, but the movie is saddled with an ending that is both improbable...

Summer Hours is about death, but not death in the way that it is often packaged and sold to us in movies. Defining grief is a difficult thing. Why do we mourn? Do we grieve for the person who has died or for the ones he (or she) has left behind?...