ReelViews for PG-13 movies

Revenge of the Sith is the most technically accomplished of all the Star Wars movies. Putting aside other important aspects of the cinematic experience (like storytelling, for example), it’s hard to argue that the special effects work in the th...

It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to label Star Wars as one of the biggest cultural influences of the last half-century. The 1977 release of A New Hope had a seismic impact on the film industry and the ripples expanded far and wide. For 36 years...

Episode VIII arrives in theaters with quieter thunder than its predecessor, The Force Awakens. But, although the box office returns for The Last Jedi will almost certainly fall short of the mark set by the 2015 installment, no one should mist...

Back in 1983, burned-out after completing the original Star Wars trilogy, George Lucas opined that he might be done. 22 years later, with the release of Revenge of the Sith (and after being pilloried by “fans” about the prequels), he said ...

Stardust, based on the acclaimed illustrated novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, takes viewers to the mystical land of Stormhold, where stars walk, ships fly, and magic is real. A fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, Stardust leavens...

There's a fine line between giving homage to something and stealing from it - and the division is usually defined by how creative and enjoyable the final product is. Using that distinction, Stargate is on uncertain ground. This new big-budget sci...

The mining of old television shows continues, and, while one wouldn't expect much from a movie version of the vintage late-1970s TV cop series, Starsky and Hutch, this is one time when the filmmakers have uncovered some surprisingly rich ore. The ...

Starter for 10 is a mildly enjoyable romantic comedy that stays within the safe bounds of the genre's formula. This is a British film, which may make it feel a little quirky to American viewers. The problem with it, to the extent that there is a pr...

The three screenwriters (Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, Billy Ray) credited with adapting Paul Abbott's mini-series into a motion picture have done something remarkable: reduce five hours of material into less than two hours and still produ...

If Rob Cohen's name wasn't attached to this project, I would swear it was the work of Michael Bay. It has all of the crowd-pleasing director's trademarks: plastic characters, chaotic camerawork, lots of things blowing up, and an incredibly dumb sc...