ReelViews for R movies

Jason Statham has staked out a claim for this page of the calendar. Two years ago, his movie Transporter II arrived on Labor Day weekend. Last year, it was Crank. This year, it's War (although, to be accurate, this movie opens the weekend before ...

The problem with War Dogs isn’t the dark humor nor is it the cynically accurate deconstruction of military procurement and corruption. The lack of dynamism and depth in the characters is what hamstrings this production. There’s little dou...

When it comes to dark satires of the romantic comedy genre, few films are more vicious than Danny DeVito's 1989 offering, The War of the Roses. The film revels in its blackness in a way that few films during the last several decades have; even th...

Wassup Rockers could easily be seen as an attempt by maverick director Larry Clark to approach the mainstream. With Kids, Clark began his directorial career mired in scandal. (The Weinsteins had to spin off Excalibur Films because Miramax was prohib...

Comedy-based "science fiction" needn't be universally appalling but, to work, it has to be handled with more skill and care than is evident here. The Watch is a studio turd marinated in eau de skunk that stinks worse than week-old fish. It might ha...

Transforming Watchmen, one of the most lauded comic series of all time, into a movie is as ambitious an undertaking as anyone in Hollywood is likely to attempt. For more than 20 years, a variety of people (including Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky...

For his directorial debut, Russell Crowe has attempted to tell a tale of war, tragedy, loss, romance, and healing. The results of his overreaching are evident early on and the final production is so jammed with subplots and secondary characters that ...

Disaster movies have always been popular, but I’ll leave it to psychologists to determine the reason why viewers react positively to tales of mayhem and catastrophe. The making of a disaster movie offers its creators an unusual set of challenge...

The Way Back conflates a sports movie with the tale of an alcoholic struggling to overcome his addiction. It plays out a little like a cross between Hoosiers and Manchester by the Sea. Although director Gavin O’Connor and writer Brad Ingelsb...

We Are Your Friends is presented in three very different acts. The first is at times fresh and inventive, with playful elements that enliven the narrative. The second is solid but familiar. The third is meandering and strangely unsatisfying, even tho...