Movies starring Jack

Even in his early roles, like a supporting part in John Hughes' Sixteen Candles and the male lead in Rob Reiner's delightful The Sure Thing, there was something idiosyncratic about John Cusack's work. Recently, however, this quality has become mor...

The Hitman’s Bodyguard is a throwback to the mixed-race buddy films of the 1990s. Think Bruce Willis/Damon Wayans in The Last Boyscout or Willis (again)/Samuel L. Jackson in Die Hard with a Vengeance. Those movies, and others like them, emph...

Four years ago, when I reviewed The Hitman’s Bodyguard, I described it as a fun throwback to the mixed-race buddy pictures of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Due in large part to the combustible chemistry between lead actors Ryan Reynolds (w...

The Holiday is no vacation. Sloppy writing, an overindulgent editor, and poor casting have taken an intriguing premise and transformed it into an uneven mess. The movie follows the lives of two women at Christmastime who trade houses. One story,...

Home of the Brave starts out with promise as it shows to good effect the chaos and uncertainty inherent in "battling" in current-day Iraq. Unfortunately, after the action shifts from the deserts of the Middle East to the relative calm of the home ...

The awkwardly-titled The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a classic example of a film that works better for children than adults. Seemingly made with the under-10 crowd in mind, the screenplay (credited to Eric Kripke, adapting the book by J...

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 ...

There are some who wrongfully assume that The Hustler is about pool. It is a natural assumption: much of the action takes place in billiards rooms and pool halls, but this movie is no more about pool than Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull is about bo...

This is what happens when a less-talented director tries to make a Christopher Nolan movie. The convoluted result – low on thrills, lower on coherence, and lowest on acting – is more confusing than compelling. Boiled down to the essential deta...

The concept of a child creating an imaginary world as a retreat from reality isn’t new to either movies or literature. In fact, one of the most beloved of all family films, The Wizard of Oz, employs this conceit. More recent endeavors like Pa...