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If there's a complaint to be made about Insidious, it's that the film's second half is unable to live up to the impossibly high standards set by the first half. This isn't unusual when it comes to films that include a "reveal"; even Jaws lost a sha...

Insidious: Chapter 2 illustrates that, regardless of his past success in the horror movie field, James Wan is not infallible when it comes to the genre. The second installment of what is likely to become a franchise is disappointing precisely becau...

The International possesses the look and feel of a thriller, but not the heart or soul of one. With a cold, clinical precision, director Tom Tykwer establishes the complex narrative and weaves in a few extraneous action sequences, but it's an exerc...

On some level, I feel that I should have been able to enjoy Into the Blue. It has all the elements one would expect from a "so bad it's good" feature: cheesy dialogue, a script that could have been written by two chimpanzees, acting that would mak...

Into the Storm is as straightforward a disaster film as you're likely to find. It has all the characteristics of the genre. The narrative trajectory is linear and uncomplicated. The two-dimensional characters are entrenched in their own flimsy, soa...

Based on the evidence at hand, it's impossible to say whether director Oliver Hirschbiegel's (Downfall) original cut of The Invasion would have been any good. What can be said is that the mismatched blending of Hirschbiegel's low-key horror and th...

With the election of Barack Obama, we have apparently entered a kinder, gentler world in which films about racial harmony and goodwill to all men are becoming commonplace (at least during awards season). How else to explain the presence of both Th...

With superhero movies, it's almost axiomatic to state that the second film is the best of the series. The reason isn’t difficult to divine: having dispensed with the obligatory origin tale, the movie-makers can weave a more compelling yarn. So ...

In the wake of the massive and massively successful The Avengers, Iron Man 3 wisely doesn't attempt to outdo its immediate superhero predecessor when it comes to big-time action, pyrotechnics, and special effects. Instead, it opts for something a l...

For Nancy Meyers, whose Hollywood career began with screenplay and producer credits for Private Benjamin and whose first stint behind the director's chair occurred in 1998 with the Lindsay Lohan remake of The Parent Trap (back when Lohan was still ...