Search for 2008

Get Smart becomes the latest in a long line of TV series to get a big-screen treatment. While we have come to expect recycled refuse from most of these (Bewitched perhaps occupying the nadir), Get Smart manages to rise above the continuum of regur...

Ghost Town is one of those romantic comedies that never quite clicks. At times, its humor is effective, provoking chuckles and laughs. At other times, the comedy feels forced and awkward. The romantic element is equally hit-and-miss. The chemis...

Gigantic is an offbeat romantic comedy that almost - but not quite - works. The characters and situations are a little too quirky for their own good. Everyone is skewed off-center and, while that can be charming in small measures, Gigantic overdo...

Over the years, the tendency when incorporating Nazis into movies has been to use them as the kind of diabolical villain with whom it's difficult (or at least uncomfortable) to sympathize. The concept that there might have been Nazis in Germany du...

Goodbye Solo is a simple character drama that chronicles the interaction between a man who wants to end his life with dignity on his own terms and the Good Samaritan who believes there must be another way. On the surface, Goodbye Solo might appear...

Gran Torino is an amazingly over-the-top anti-racism parable but, despite its obvious shortcomings, it is nevertheless effective and affecting. The storytelling style is old fashioned in what it does and unsubtle in the way it goes about doing it,...

Hamlet 2 (a great title) does not represent the first time in recent years that something unconventional has been done to one of the Bard's classics. (Although, to be sure, no one has been as audacious as to develop a musical sequel to a play.) S...

Hancock is a hodgepodge of intriguing ideas that, if developed further or presented as more than throw-ins to a confused production, might have made for a unique superhero film. The resulting movie, however, shows all the signs of studio interfere...

M. Night Shyamalan has always been something of an illusionist. Even at his best, he succeeds not because he's a masterful storyteller but because he's an expert at sleight-of-hand and pulling rabbits out of his hat. With The Lady in the Water, S...

Mike Leigh has often been referred to as a prince of misery. His films, grounded in working class reality, are often downbeat. It's hard to argue with their quality or authenticity, but one typically doesn't walk out of a Mike Leigh film with a r...