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“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...

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...

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...

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...

"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...

Jesus Revolution takes a fascinating period of American history – the hippie movement and its associated fallout within the Christian community – and transforms it into a bland, TV movie-of-the-week experience. While neither badly made (the pe...

To what extent has the narrative surrounding the Black Panthers been developed by government and law enforcement agencies whose impartiality has been, to put it mildly, suspect? Although it’s beyond question that the Panthers weren’t compr...

Apparently, the producers of Jumanji wanted this film to be a Jurassic Park for 1995's holiday season. If so, it's a badly misplaced, and ultimately futile, hope. For, although no one would suspect Steven Spielberg's 1993 dino-picture of having a...

The process of transforming beloved animated classics into live-action versions has become a modern cottage industry. This self-cannibalization has included titles like Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and now The Jungle Book (with Beauty and...

On a small island off the coast of Costa Rica exists a most unusual animal preserve by the name of Jurassic Park. Operated by dinosaur lover John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), Jurassic Park is the first of its kind. Its population of creatures ...