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Jack Reacher has the distinction of being little more than it initially appears to be: a clumsily condensed mystery/thriller novel made into a movie that offers little more than every other clumsily condensed mystery/thriller novel made into a movi...

“I wouldn't bet the mortgage on there being a Jack Reacher 2.” - James Berardinelli, December 2012 Shows how much I know. Even though Tom Cruise’s tarnished star is burning up in the atmosphere and it would be an exaggeration...

Probably the best way to approach a Jack Ryan movie is to look at it like a James Bond film. The lead actor keeps changing, the supporting actors are rarely the same, and the time period varies. Bond is Bond, whether he's played by Sean Connery, Ge...

Jack the Giant Slayer is an enjoyable fantasy/adventure whose magic is partially undermined by marginal 3-D. Once again, the ugliest aspects of this format rear their heads: dim and fuzzy images, lackluster colors, and poor definition. Everything i...

A well-known saying goes something like, "In for a penny, in for a pound," and that seems to be an appropriate way to begin a discussion of John Maybury's The Jacket. A moody psychological thriller tinged with science fiction elements, The Jacket ...

Feature film biographies like Jackie inhabit difficult terrain. They are servants to two masters: the historical record and the needs of artistry. From time-to-time, a great one like Patton or Lincoln comes along but most are run-of-the-mill affairs ...

Of the nine films credited to Quentin Tarantino as a director (combining Kill Bill Volume 1 and Kill Bill Volume 2 into a single entity), Jackie Brown may be the one most deserving of a re-assessment. Released after a three-year break following the...

It has been three long years since Quentin Tarantino stunned the cinema world by claiming the Cannes Film Festival's Palme D'Or, a $100 million-plus box office gross, and an Oscar nomination – all for his sophomore outing, Pulp Fiction. Sinc...

Jade is for cinematic anglers. There are a lot of fish inhabiting the murky, muddy waters of Joe Eszterhas' latest script, and, except for the occasional shark or two, most of them are herrings -- red herrings, to be precise. However, unlik...

Almost everything that was true of 1993's Nightmare Before Christmas holds for 1996's James and the Giant Peach. Based (rather faithfully) on Roald Dahl's children's story, this movie uses a combination of live-action sequences and stop-motion an...