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The Jane Austen Book Club is an example of how a movie can follow the general plot of a book yet fail to capture the spirit. The problem is a simple one to identify: much of the enjoyment derived from Karen Joy Fowler's novel comes from the way in...

Janet Planet explores the mother/daughter relationship between single mom Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and her strong-willed, socially awkward child, 11-year old Lacy (Zoe Ziegler). Although characterized by strong performances across-the-board, the...

"Every war is different. Every war is the same." So says the voiceover narration in the closing moments of Sam Mendes' Jarhead. I might add: Every war movie is different. Every war movie is the same. This is Mendes' Gulf War answer to Apocalyp...

Fourteen years after the release of The Bourne Identity, the Bourne movies have deviated so drastically from Robert Ludlum’s source novels that, like James Bond, the film character exists separately from his written inspiration. Over the course...

For the first time in more than a decade, teen films are all the rage. Stars from TV shows like "Dawson's Creek" and "Party of Five" are crossing over to the big screen in droves, resulting in such lackluster fare as Can't Hardly Wait and She's Al...

Fifty years after scaring the bejeezus out of beach-loving movie-goers, Jaws is back to celebrate its golden anniversary after being exhumed from its watery grave at the behest of Universal Studios. While the original summer blockbuster has long b...

In addition to scaring the living daylights out of millions of movie-goers and putting a cramp in the revenue stream of nearly every North American beach resort, two significant developments can be attributed to Jaws. With its more than $250 milli...

Jeff, Who Lives at Home is the second mainstream offering from mumblecore* directors Jay & Mark Duplass. The brothers took their first stab at reaching a broader audience with 2010's Cyrus, an affecting drama that demonstrated Jonah Hill's ability ...

The Bostonians. A Room With A View. Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. Howards End. The Remains of the Day. These represent the best of Merchant-Ivory -- a category in which their latest, Jefferson in Paris, does not belong. Nevertheless, although this exa...

Jennifer's Body mixes, matches, and crosses three popular genres: horror, comedy, and teen angst. Unfortunately, it fails at all of them - and "fails" might be too kind a term. This movie is a spectacular disaster, the kind of thing a cat might b...