Search for 2013

It's difficult to pinpoint how R.I.P.D. fell into the rat-hole in which it exists. Is the problem the director? The screenwriters? Did the studio step in and sabotage the production team's creative vision? Regardless, in R.I.P.D., we have a legitim...

I'm not sure whose idea it was to turn Red into a movie franchise. The first film, based on the DC Comics graphic novel, was an enjoyable throw-away, but there was nothing about the movie or its modest box office success that cried out for a second...

Even after nine years, you can't keep a good man down. The indomitable protagonist of 2000's surprisingly engaging Pitch Black and 2004's disappointing The Chronicles of Riddick is back for his third go-around and, if the open-endedness of the narr...

A staple of high school literature classes, Romeo & Juliet has proven no less popular with filmmakers, who return to this classic on a regular basis. The problem with making a new version of Shakespeare's most read romance is that, like Hamlet, the...

Runner Runner contains elements that, if properly nurtured and presented, could form the basis of a compelling film noir. Unfortunately, director Brad Furman is less interested in developing characters and building tension than he is in shaking the...

Ron Howard is probably best known for making slick, well-produced, crowd pleasing motion pictures. From his early days behind the camera, with light fare such as Splash, to his most accomplished feature, Apollo 13, to his Oscar-winning A Beautiful ...

It's pointless criticizing a Nicholas Sparks movie for being a Nicholas Sparks movie. Sparks, like Barbara Cartland before him, delivers exactly what his fans want: romance between two attractive people. He tugs at heartstrings, acts like an onion ...

For an author of long-form fiction, the writing process isn't merely technical. As absurd as it might seem, the writer bonds with his or her characters to the point where they can become as "real" as any flesh-and-blood person. This is especially t...

One could make a compelling argument that The Secret Life of Walter Mitty does what a good remake should do: it takes the essential premise of the original and, while retaining some of the names and touchstones of its predecessor, moves in a new di...

It's so easy to go wrong with a film like this. So easy to tart it up with sentiment, to turn up the mawkishness to an "11." For an example of how badly wrong this sort of thing can go, just think Patch Adams, where the manipulation never stopped c...