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In late 1977, everyone seemed to believe this. Although UFOs have been a popular subject for speculation, rumination, and investigation for more than 50 years, at no time was the phenomenon more popular than during the 1970s. Along with the Loch ...

Labor Day weekend is arguably the worst time of the year for a U.S. movie release. Films set to open at the end of August/beginning of September are given up for dead by their distributor. This is typically for one of two reasons: the production is...

Based on a perusal of reviews for Cloud Atlas, one might be convinced that the sprawling, ambitious, epic adaptation of David Mitchell's 2004 novel is either a masterpiece or an unmitigated disaster. The reality is somewhere in between. It's hard t...

When Clue was released around Christmas 1985, it was intended to spearhead a wave of based-on-board game movies. The film’s box office failure, coupled with poor critical notices and lukewarm viewer response, stopped the “craze” before i...

The main problem with Coach Carter can be summed up simply: too much sermonizing. In a way, it's hard to fault the film, because its heart is in the right place. The movie wants to impress upon teenagers that education is the first step on the pa...

The “so bad it’s good” tag often applied to co-called “cult classics” is as elusive a categorization as there is in cinema. Most of the time, it evolves organically from the failure of a movie. Planning campiness is more apt to result in...

Tag line #1: "An action-packed international thriller starring Bruce Willis, Sigourney Weaver, and soon-to-be Superman Henry Cavill." Tag line #2: "A box office disaster with perhaps the most uncharismatic action hero of the decade in a preposte...

It's not often that, when the primary thread of a movie fails, the secondary storylines are compelling enough to make the overall experience a positive one. However, that occurs with Cold Mountain, a Civil War era romance where the love affair fiz...

Know, O Prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of... Hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen eyed, sword in han...

Since the release of Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton has become a Hollywood staple. Rights to each new novel are quickly optioned, and the resulting film is on the market as soon as ILM can get the special effects done. Congo is the fourth adapta...