Search for 2009

Is this a movie or a feature-length advertisement for Qwest? We're not just talking one product placement; this brand name is nearly omnipresent. The title Love Happens is a play on the common phrase "shit happens." However, while the "shit" m...

Maybe there's some truth to the assertion that Alice Sebold's novel is unfilmable. After all, if a visionary like Peter Jackson, who crafted a nearly perfect cinematic adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, can't do it, who can? Perhaps the issue i...

Welcome to George Clooney season. Those who find the actor, who has been described by some as a modern day Cary Grant, engaging will have reason to smile as Hollywood begins its annual push toward the Oscars. Clooney will bring his winning person...

The Merry Gentleman, which represents the feature directorial debut of actor Michael Keaton, is a meditation on loneliness and about the things we do to fill up those big, empty gaps in life. Anchoring the film, which is driven more by characters ...

The latest would-be art-house sensation from French auteur Jean-Pierre Jeunet bears the title Micmacs, and has nothing to do with any entrée available at a certain high-profile fast food restaurant. It is, however, an unusual concoction that woul...

It's Friday the 13th - Figures. Where's Jason when you need him? In order to see Miss March, which was not screened for critics, I spent 90 minutes trapped in a multiplex auditorium on the day it opened. For about the first half-hour, I tried ...

If this is the brave new world to which 3D is transporting us, stop the merry-go-'round. I want to get off. Monsters vs. Aliens, one of the 2009 big movies designed to highlight where 3D could transport audiences, is an example of technology ru...

Moon illustrates a truism forgotten by Hollywood: the best science fiction films are about something. This film does not feature explosions. It does not contain endless, mind-numbing chase sequences. Instead, it's a simple idea-rich storyline th...

Mother is a most atypical murder mystery. This is not only because it features an aging female "detective" who represents a bizarre fusion of Miss Marple and Jane Tennison, but because the surreal style contradicts the normally gritty approach we ...

Words cannot express how weary I am of watching lifeless, hollow movies like My Life in Ruins - generic romantic comedies that have no clue when it comes to either "romance" or "comedy." The films aren't quite poorly enough made to label them "bad...