Movies with music written by James Newton Howard

Another so-called YA (Young Adult) motion picture property has reached its cinematic conclusion. Billed as “the next big thing” 3 1/2 years ago with the release of the first Hunger Games movie, the series has lived up to its hype. The mov...

It has been eight years since director Francis Lawrence released Mockingjay Part 2, the second half of the bifurcated film that wrapped up Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy. Although the fourth movie in that series was the weakest entry, Law...

When Snow White and the Huntsman was released four years ago, it successfully transformed one of movie-dom’s beloved fairy tales (known primarily through the Disney animated classic) into a fantasy adventure. The Huntsman: Winter’s War, a part-pr...

The Interpreter is a cut above the average politically-based thriller. Although the events depicted in the film are fictional (as is the country in which some of the action transpires), they bear a more-than-passing resemblance to incidents that h...

Disney’s latest plundering of their own IP library has allowed them to release a live-action film that isn’t a remake of an animated tale. Jungle Cruise represents their third cinematic interpretation of a popular Disneyland/Magic Kingdom ...

The new Ivan Reitman/Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy is a one-joke affair, and it takes surprisingly little time for the potential humor in the situation to wear thin. As a result, the viewer is left with about ninety minutes of suffering through S...

Spoiler Alert: This review assumes that the reader is familiar with the story of King Kong, including the ending. If you're not, and don't want to be spoiled, it's best to stop reading after the fourth paragraph and return once you have seen the ...

When you consider a modern day fairy tale, no matter how twisted, ideal descriptions include "enchanting," "engaging," and "magical." They do not include "silly," "ridiculous," and "laughable." Unfortunately, in the case of Lady in the Water, the...

A dozen years ago, the prospect of a romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts - two of the most bankable actors of the late-'90s and early-'00s - would have created waves of anticipation. In 2011, this second collaboration between the t...

Seen in standard (non-IMAX) 3D. Every since word got out regarding some race-change shenanigans in the motion picture version of The Last Airbender, controversy has hovered over this production. Having seen the movie, I can assure anyone concer...