ReelViews for R movies

Vengeance tries for something different and succeeds. But, although screenwriter/director B.J. Novak swings for the fences, he doesn’t quite get the ball out of the park. This Blumhouse production marries fish-out-of-water elements with some phi...

The Oscar buzz surrounding Peter O'Toole is deafening. Despite having been nominated seven times, he has never won an Academy Award (unless you consider the honorary statue presented to him a few years ago). Roger Michell's Venus, which may be O'...

Although Vera Drake is about the downfall of an abortionist working during a time when the law in England decreed that it was unlawful to perform an "unauthorized" operation, this isn't really an "abortion movie." That's the context, but the tale ...

A Very Long Engagment is Jean-Pierre Jeunet's follow-up to his international success, Amelie. However, despite the return of elfin star Audrey Tautou, this is nothing like a sequel. Based on the novel by Sébastien Japrisot, A Very Long Engagment...

Just because someone’s life was interesting as viewed through the lens of the nightly news doesn’t mean it’s worthy of a feature film. Or, in the case of former Vice President Dick Cheney, perhaps the filmmakers’ unwillingness to peel ...

Violent Night, Tommy Wirkola’s contribution to the Santa Claus legend, is better than it has a right to be but not as good as it could have been. Using a similar premise to the one botched by 2020’s Fatman (with Mel Gibson as the Man in Red), ...

The Virgin Suicides is Sofia Coppola's directorial debut, and its effectiveness illustrates that she's better behind the camera than she is in front of it. (Most movie-goers will remember her ill-fated attempt to portray Michael Corleone's daughte...

The Virginity Hit takes the first-person, pseudo-documentary approach popularized by horror films such as The Blair Witch Project and applies it to the coming-of-age/teen comedy genre. Perhaps surprisingly, it proves to be a good fit, although que...

A general rule of summer film watching is to beware any August release featuring a major star. The only reason for a distributor to hold back such a production is a lack of faith in the picture's ability to succeed in the highly-competitive early ...

Maybe I just don't understand the French sense of humor. After all, they think Jerry Lewis is a comic genius. Whatever the reason, I rarely find "lowbrow" French comedies more than passably watchable (and, in the case of Little Indian, Big City, ...