Movies starring Dan

Nicholas Sparks wasn't involved with the development of The Words, but he might as well have been. There's a distinctly "Sparks-ian" feel to the movie, and its awkward framing device recalls the one from The Notebook. In fact, structure more than t...

World War Z contains some impressive set pieces - sequences that, taken on their own, are either tense or visually arresting. As a whole, however, it's a letdown with a strange mixture of epic apocalyptic material and generic zombie stuff. The epis...

For those with a burning curiosity to know how The Lord of the Rings as directed by Michael Bay might look, Wrath of the Titans provides an idea. This is epic fantasy for teenage boys as only Hollywood can do it: with plenty of grotesque monsters a...

There are two kinds of viewers for The X-Files movie: those have seen at least a few episodes of the TV series and those who have never watched it. I am a member of the latter group, so that's the perspective from which this review is written. ...

2008 was the year in which the comic book superhero came of age. Films like Iron Man and especially The Dark Knight illustrated what was possible when a motion picture dared to take its characters out of the comfortable box in which too many super...

If there’s an obstacle to the potential box office success of X-Men: Apocalypse, it’s the growing sense of superhero movie fatigue. Counting Deadpool, this is the fourth superhero movie to reach screens in the last three-plus months. With...

How’s this for an alternate history scenario: What if tech companies had failed to identify or address the Y2K bug prior to 12:01 on January 1, 2000? I have always thought this concept might make for a fascinating movie. Sadly, that movie is...

When assessing the small motion picture sub-genre of the "fantasy comedy," it's necessary to acknowledge that the impregnable pinnacle is occupied by Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride, a classic whose prominence may never be challenged. Your Highnes...

Watching Youth, you’d swear Fellini had risen from his grave and returned to make another movie. With minimal narrative thrust, this film gets by on its spellbinding images, superior acting, and dreamlike tone. Most movies tell a story; Youth i...

Not every movie about the Holocaust is expected to be on the same high level as Sophie’s Choice or Schindler’s List, but (especially when the source material is factual) more is expected than the familiar melodrama and faux tension delive...