Search for Robert

With each new outing, the Final Destination movies are getting better. At this rate, by the fifth or sixth entry in the series, one of them will finish the year in my Top 10. Or maybe the films' relentless pursuit of creative mayhem and murder is...

Vin Diesel as a Joisey mobster? As improbable as it might sound, Diesel offers a credible turn as Giacomo 'Jackie D' DiNorscio, one of about 20 members of the Lucchese crime family to go on trial for violation of the RICO (Racketeering Influenced ...

If it's Disney (or its subsidiary, Miramax), it must be "inspired by true events." Or maybe it just seems that way. Those words, which appear in a caption at the beginning, are chose with care (more care than the similar preface to Hidalgo). Fin...

Mitchell Y. McDeere (Tom Cruise) has just graduated in the top five of his class from Harvard Law School. With a record like his, there are understandably a lot of people interested in employing him. Offers abound from the large, the prestigious,...

It's something of a mystery how three accomplished comic actresses like Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and Better Midler found themselves in the midst of an atrocious mess like The First Wives Club. My best guess is that the story looked better --...

Flight is about addiction. In particular, it's about the long spiral that comes between the period when a person begins imbibing too much and when he acknowledges that he no longer has control and needs help. This is valid dramatic material, but it...

Flightplan is the latest motion picture to take an intriguing premise and flush it into the septic tank. Despite the participation of selective, talented actress Jodie Foster and a screenplay that borrows heavily from The Lady Vanishes, Flightplan...

Let me say up front that I have never been especially fond of Canadian geese. Sure, they're cute when they're young, but they are long past the adorable stage when they first take to the air. Now that I've made that admission, you might be surpri...

Robert S. McNamara, the Secretary of Defense for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, was an observer of and participant in many of the key events of the 20th century. History has not been more kind to him than his critics have been, so McNamar...

When you think of Christopher Guest, the first thing likely to spring to mind is fake documentaries. He has made his reputation in the arena. From This Is Spinal Tap (which he co-wrote but did not direct) to A Mighty Wind, Guest has turned his came...