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Here's one important rule about film criticism and review writing: the harder you have to think to find something noteworthy or laudable about a motion picture, the less likely it is to get a recommendation. So, although there are some things to ...

Imagine, if you will, the dispiriting experience of listening to an awful cover of one of your favorite songs. That's how I felt sitting through Die Another Day, the 20th official outing for Ian Fleming's super-spy. This is a train wreck of an ac...

As "survival in the wilderness" films go, The Edge is a strange example. Leaving the theater, I didn't quite know what to make of it. In fact, I'll even admit to enjoying it on a certain level. I laughed frequently, but the problem is that I'm n...

From Rocky to Raging Bull, boxing movies with a variety of themes and intentions have been staples at Oscar time. On the one hand, there are the crowd-pleasing stories: tales of woebegone underdogs given a chance at redemption by going 15 rounds in...

Spoilers for those who don’t know the true-life history of the protagonist’s Olympic story.For about an hour, The Fire Inside feels like a traditional boxing movie. Some of the elements – specifically those that relate to issues associated w...

The original Godzilla (or Gojira, as its die-hard adherents refer to it), released in Japan during 1954, officially ushered in the Japanese movie monster craze that would, in due time, become a subgenre all to itself. When the film reached U.S. shor...

What’s in a name? It would be disingenuous to assume that Nick Hornby was ignorant of the titillation value of calling something “Juliet, Naked.” However, to be clear, there’s nothing prurient about the movie. The title refers to a son...

Spoiler Alert: This review contains oblique spoilers. It doesn’t reveal any specifics but there’s an argument that even hinting at something (without discussing it in detail) can be considered a spoiler. You have been warned. The October 2...

In his famous 1944 speech to the Third Army, General George S. Patton said the following: “The Nazis are the enemy. Wade into them. Spill their blood. Shoot them in the belly.” I don’t know whether director Guy Ritchie thought of those w...

At the heart of Mudbound, director Dee Rees’ adaptation of Hillary Jordan’s novel, is the relationship that forms (and the consequences of that relationship) between two World War 2 veterans – one white and one black – in the deeply se...