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If one was to judge The Goldfinch on the basis of John Crowley’s motion picture adaptation, confusion would be understandable about why the novel is so beloved and acclaimed. Even given ideal circumstances, Donna Tartt’s book, which relies...

With 1964's Goldfinger, the third James Bond story to reach the screen, the "Bond formula" had reached maturity. Screenwriter Richard Maibaum, a participant in the scripting of the previous two movies, Dr. No and From Russia with Love, had id...

Gone Baby Gone is powerful stuff - a movie that derives its plot twists from moral conundrums rather than from narrative sleight of hand. The best mystery novels are the ones that use the genre as a stepping-off point for developing characters and...

Over the years, the tendency when incorporating Nazis into movies has been to use them as the kind of diabolical villain with whom it's difficult (or at least uncomfortable) to sympathize. The concept that there might have been Nazis in Germany du...

One hot summer day in 1988, I emerged from a movie theater exhilarated by what I had just experienced. The film in question was the original Die Hard, one of the best thrillers of the decade and, one could argue, an all-time Top 10 entry for the ge...

A Good Man in Africa, based on William Boyd's novel of the same name, is supposed to be a biting satire on the colonial attitudes of British subjects. The problem with the film is that it's frequently more tedious than funny. The story -- tha...

Although a serviceable thriller, Good People suffers from the disconnect that exists between its narrative structure and its pacing/tone. The "feel" desired by director Henrik Ruben Genz (making his first English-language feature after compiling a...

It's possible that Michael Apted may be the greatest documentarian currently working (although Errol Morris' followers might disagree). His Up Series stands as a cinematic hallmark - something that will probably never be equaled if only because of...

Grease is a perfect way to become immersed in the recent past. Not only was it one of the top box office draws in 1978, but it capped off a decade of '50s frenzy (that began, ironically, with the off-Broadway opening of the play Grease in 1972). ...

The Great Raid seeks to be the kind of epic war film that was popular during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. And, unlike many recent entries in the genre, it does not seek to take a revisionist look at war. The central premise is promising: a factua...