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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Is it unfair to compare Luc Besson to Michael Bay? Some would argue that it is but I’m not sure Besson would be among them. Both directors make the movies they want to make and, although there’s more artistry evident in Besson’s work, th...

Run Time: 2:17
U.S. Release Date: 2017-07-21
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Profanity)
Genre: Science Fiction
Director: Luc Besson
Cast: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, ...
Valkyrie

Going into this film, I wondered whether the filmmakers would succeed at generating tension out of an event whose outcome is so well-known. Even those with only a rudimentary knowledge of history are aware that Hitler did not die as the result of ...

Run Time: 2:00
U.S. Release Date: 2008-12-25
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence)
Genre: THRILLER
Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, ...
Vast of Night, The

The Vast of Night begins with an image of a TV set. A show is just beginning as the camera moves in, allowing all other details but the grainy black-and-white image to fade away. A voice, sounding suspiciously like Rod Serling, tells us “You...

Run Time: 1:29
U.S. Release Date: 2020-05-29
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Profanity)
Genre: Science Fiction
Director: Andrew Patterson
Cast: Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz
Vivo

Back in the late 1980s, the team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman gave new life to Disney animation by re-interpreting several classic stories as musicals. Unlike previous animated films that had incorporated the occasional song, Menken/Ashman...

Run Time: 1:43
U.S. Release Date: 2021-08-06
MPAA Rating: "PG"
Genre: Animated
Director: Kirk DeMicco
Cast: Ynairaly Simo, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Zoe Saldana, ...
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

After a 10-year absence, Aardman Animation's foundation characters, Wallace & Gromit, have returned. The clay man and his dog, who were featured in three animated shorts between 1989 and 1995, were left out in the cold when Nick Park and his crew ...

Run Time: 1:25
U.S. Release Date: 2005-10-07
MPAA Rating: "G" (Nothing Objectionable)
Genre: ANIMATED
Director: Nick Park, Steve Box
Cast: (voices) Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham-Carter, ...
Wander Darkly

There are countless ways a motion picture can address themes of loss and grief. While one can at least give Tara Miele’s Wander Darkly props for trying something different, the film’s success is questionable at best. In trying to blend a T...

Run Time: 1:37
U.S. Release Date: 2020-12-11
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Sexual Content, Nudity)
Genre: Drama/Mystery
Director: Tara Miele
Cast: Sienna Miller, Diego Luna, Beth Grant
War Zone, The

Note to readers: this review contains spoilers. While I do not believe the revelation of certain plot points will in any way compromise the viewing experience, those who wish to see The War Zone without having previous knowledge of a key element w...

Run Time: 1:38
U.S. Release Date: 1999-12-10
MPAA Rating: "NR" (Violence, Nudity, Sexual Situations, Profanity)
Genre: DRAMA
Director: Tim Roth
Cast: Ray Winstone, Tilda Swinton, Lara Belmont, ...
Watchmen

Transforming Watchmen, one of the most lauded comic series of all time, into a movie is as ambitious an undertaking as anyone in Hollywood is likely to attempt. For more than 20 years, a variety of people (including Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky...

Run Time: 2:43
U.S. Release Date: 2009-03-06
MPAA Rating: "R" (Violence, Nudity, Sexual Situations, Profanity)
Genre: SCIENCE FICTION/THRILLER
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman, ...
What Men Want

Although there are too few movies out there with women of color at the top of the marquee, the way to successfully address this situation isn’t by taking an established concept, applying a gender-reversal, and creating an inferior production...

Run Time: 1:55
U.S. Release Date: 2019-02-08
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Sexual Content, Drugs)
Genre: Comedy
Director: Adam Shankman
Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Josh Brener, Tracy Morgan, ...
Wicker

Real-life married filmmakers Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson have provided a surprisingly faithful adaptation of Ursula Wills-Jones's short story, "The Wicker Husband." Although Wicker describes itself as a "fable," it is at its sharpest wh...