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I've seen movies like this more often than I'd like to admit: glitzy thrillers with less intelligence than a smart rutabaga where big-name actors pick up a paycheck while trying with limited success not to embarrass themselves and the studio keeps ...

What is the difference between a bad melodrama and a good one? The key lies in the emotional response. If the viewer feels that he or she is being forced into reacting in a particular way because of "button pushing," the film makers have erred. ...

Paul is arguably the best science fiction comedy since Galaxy Quest. Despite being humorous in its outlook and providing numerous "Easter eggs" to fans of Star Wars, Aliens, Close Encounters, and E.T. (amongst others), this isn't a parody. Outside ...

"There are eight million stories in the naked city. This [is] one of them." That iconic closing line from the TV series Naked City is one of the things I thought of at the beginning of Nicolas Pesce’s Piercing, which shows an art deco versio...

Pitch Perfect looks, sounds, and feels like pretty much every other movie that features a singing or dancing competition. With all the effort invested in the musical numbers, the dramatic elements feel like warmed-over John Hughes. And it's not eve...

Spoiler Warning! Because I reveal things about the ending of Pitch Perfect 2 in this review, I am duty-bound to warn readers in case they wish to stop now. (Of course, if you don't care, feel free to continue…) I am as far from the targ...

Popstar, a collaboration between Judd Apatow and Saturday Night Live alum Andy Samberg, is the latest movie to satirize aspects of popular culture (in this case, the music industry). And, although this might have been considered cutting edge 20 or 30...

It would be possible to write pages and pages comparing and contrasting the reality of Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign with the fictional one of Jack Stanton, the candidate in Primary Colors. Likewise, it would be equally possible to dev...

Consider a movie that takes place in the Big Apple and features a heterosexual romance with an age gap, a dose of "Jewishness," a psychoanalyst, and an ending that doesn't pander to all the usual clichés. This may sound like Woody Allen - in fact...

The Producers is a movie based on a play based on a movie about a play. And that's probably the funniest thing about it. In 1968, Mel Brooks made his big-screen directorial and writing debut with The Producers, a slapstick farce about how two B...