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When J.J. Abrams released Cloverfield in 2008, it arrived cloaked in secrecy. Now, some eight years later, the film’s so-called “blood relative” (Abrams’ term, not mine), comes with a similar marketing strategy. Going-in, viewers are unlikely...

Benghazi. Few words have become more politicized in the last decade than this one, the Libyan city where, on September 11, 2012, two U.S. diplomatic compounds were sacked and four men (including Ambassador Chris Stevens) killed. It became a political...

Had The Adventures of Tintin been a live motion picture rather than a motion capture-driven animated endeavor, it would have been compared to Raiders of the Lost Ark and Pirates of the Caribbean. As it is, however, with the cartoonish characters se...

I'll never understand why studios sometimes choose to withhold films from critics. The lack of advance screenings of Aeon Flux establishes an expectation that the film is likely to be tough to sit through. It's the studio's way of throwing in th...

Airplane! has not aged well. The fine wine hasn't turned into vinegar but it's not as pleasant to the palate as it once was. Viewed more than 25 years after its initial release, Airplane! retains the capacity to tickle the funny bone, but someone u...

Allied is a World War II movie where all the action happens far from the front lines. Whether in the cafes and reception halls of Casablanca or the bombed-out streets of London, the characters face the tribulations that characterize life away from th...

Here's one important rule about film criticism and review writing: the harder you have to think to find something noteworthy or laudable about a motion picture, the less likely it is to get a recommendation. So, although there are some things to ...

American Teen, which has captured audience awards and drawn standing ovations at film festivals from coast-to-coast, is the latest example of a growing genre called "DINO" (Documentaries In Name Only). Combining candid footage with staged events,...

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues could easily be called Anchorman 2: More of the Same. However, when it comes to comedy sequels, is there a reason to expect anything different? More importantly, is there a reason to want anything different? People...

Science fiction means different things to different people. For some, it’s the quasi-fantasy/space opera of Star Wars. For others, it’s allegorical space-faring material like Star Trek. And for still others, it encompasses a strongly techni...