Search for 2010

It's safe to say that, as a director, Clint Eastwood shows no fear. Only a few years beyond telling the story of Iwo Jima from the Japanese point-of-view, Eastwood ventures down another little traveled cinematic avenue by making what is essentiall...

In the case of Hot Tub Time Machine, the title is arguably more inventive than the movie. An attempt to flavor The Hangover with a little Back to the Future, this film argues that what happens in the '80s stays in the '80s, but does so with middli...

James L. Brooks' movies have often been characterized by a rambling quality, and nowhere has that been more evident than in How Do You Know, the closest he has come to a conventional romantic comedy. The problem with the film has little to do with ...

Seen in standard digital 3-D. When Dreamworks released Shrek in 2001, it appeared the company was ready to challenge Disney/Pixar in the family film arena. Since then, however, Dreamworks' animated efforts have been made more with kids in mind ...

I Love You Phillip Morris begins by telling us that it's based on a true story. Then, as if we might be disbelieving of that claim, it reinforces it. Truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction. (Not really, but the phrase sounds good, so we use ...

Undoubtedly, some reviews are going to describe Inception as confusing. Such a description confounds me, and may be more indicative of how accepting people have become of screenplays that allow for no ambiguity and traverse plotlines by blazing tr...

With superhero movies, it's almost axiomatic to state that the second film is the best of the series. The reason isn’t difficult to divine: having dispensed with the obligatory origin tale, the movie-makers can weave a more compelling yarn. So ...

It's rare that a story set within the confines of a mental ward/hospital/asylum cannot be said to owe a debt to Milos Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. It's Kind of a Funny Story is a case in point. Even though the basic narrative bears l...

With its skinny running length (80 minutes, including credits), often incoherent narrative, and neutered violence, Jonah Hex shows all the signs of having been re-worked in the editing room. The resultant production, as is often the case in situat...

In many ways, The Karate Kid is the perfect remake: faithful to the source material in large part yet offering enough nuanced differences to allow it to stand on its own. The problem with the film is that that story, hackneyed when it first made i...