Search for Brothers

For those familiar with director Shane Black’s oeuvre, The Nice Guys is closer to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang than Iron Man 3. Featuring the same blend of high octane action and Tarantino-esque humor as Black’s 2005 debut, The Nice Guys doubles as a come...

I can kind-of, sort-of see how this story might work as a novel. Bad dialogue doesn't sound as howlingly awful when not spoken aloud. Idiotic plot contrivances don't seem as painful and obvious. A love affair depends only on the spell woven by t...

No Reservations is an adequate adaptation of Sandra Nettelbeck's 2001 German feature, Mostly Martha. While not as emotionally resonant as its inspiration and tending a little more toward melodrama, No Reservations is nevertheless a uplifting tale ...

Watching No Sudden Move, the thought came to me that, if I didn’t know the director beforehand, I might guess Steven Soderbergh or the Coen Brothers. It’s the kind of production that only those filmmakers (or their proteges) would make, using...

In the tradition of Norma Rae and Silkwood, North Country is the story of one woman's struggle against an inflexible corporation. Despite some third-act flaws that weaken the conclusion, North Country does what it sets out to do: inspire and uplif...

Probably every review written of Observe and Report will mention, in one context or another, Paul Blart: Mall Cop. The connection is understandable: both are satirical looks at the trials and tribulations of life as a private security guard (a.k.a...

There are three rules for any self-respecting heist movie: (1) the caper should be interesting, convoluted, but easily explained/decoded at the end; (2) although no heist is airtight, the holes shouldn’t be apparent to the audience in real t...

The good news is that the 2001 version of Ocean's Eleven represents one of the rarest of Hollywood rarities: a re-make that is actually better than the original. That's not to say that this motion picture is an unqualified success - one tends to e...

I may be in the minority, but I don't consider Ocean's Twelve to be the dog that some critics have labeled it. Sure, it's a little self-indulgent, but it's a genial caper drama that allows us to spend some time in the company of the survivors of t...