Movie Reviews
In the Bedroom
Sensitive, penetrating performances elevate "In the Bedroom" from melodrama to high art. Todd Field's script is good, if over-long; his directing style is intuitive, if unspectacular; his actors, though, are masters of their craft.
This is a stor...
Black Knight
You're gonna LOVE this! In "Black Knight," Martin Lawrence works at a castle-themed amusement park, and he falls into the moat, and when he comes up out of the water, he's back in medieval times! And it's all wild and crazy because, you know, he's th...
Spy Game
It is strange that "Spy Game" should be as thrilling as it is, considering most of its action takes place in flashbacks and memories. Even the stuff that happens "now" is set 10 years ago.
And yet, there it is, a satisfying and entertaining spy m...
Out Cold
Here are the relevant facts about "Out Cold": It has a lot of awesome snowboarding sequences, it has some hot babes who take off their tops, the guys in it love to "party" (read: they drink a lot), and there are some cool modern-punk songs on the sou...
The Devil’s Backbone (Spanish)
No matter what your native tongue, the Spanish-language "Devil's Backbone" is sure to give you a serious case of the creeps. The title is nearly irrelevant; one imagines it was chosen just so critics would say, "'The Devil's Backbone' will send shive...
Novocaine
The thing about being attracted to someone, Dr. Frank Sangster tells us, is that "you find yourself doing things and you have no idea why."
"Novocaine" is all about those things, and the insanity they can lead to. In this rather Hitchcockian dark...
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Here's the long and short of it: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is good, but not great.
Director Chris Columbus had the unenviable task of trying to make a blockbuster movie while simultaneously pleasing fans who will be angry if ANYTHING...
Heist
This year already gave us one good old-fashioned caper film with "The Score," and now we get a second one: "Heist," which is good, old-fashioned, and a caper film that has no pretenses about being anything else.
That being the case, you wonder wh...
Shallow Hal
Bobby and Peter Farrelly have a reputation for writing and directing films that are grossly, outrageously funny, movies like "There's Something About Mary" and "Dumb & Dumber." They break taboos, they push the envelope, yada yada yada.
Their ...
Life as a House
In "Life as a House," a teen-age boy tells his girlfriend he's angry at his father for tricking him into loving him. If her father had done that, he says, "You would hate him for the trick."
She replies, "Not if the trick was real."
"Life as ...
Domestic Disturbance
After three bad movies in a row, John Travolta has finally risen above it to an acceptable level of mediocrity. Who knows, maybe the next one will actually be good.
"Domestic Disturbance" is not a bad movie, as bare-bones, right-to-the-point thri...
Monsters, Inc.
In this era of mediocre blockbusters and "family" films full of crudeness and stupidity, it's nice to know there's still a name you can trust: Disney. (Well, Disney animation, anyway; the live-action stuff is hit-or-miss.)
Disney works with Pixar...
The One
As befitting a movie about parallel universes and multiple identities, "The One" tries to be several things: a martial-arts film, a "Matrix"-inspired sci-fi flick, and a regular ol' action movie. But, as we learned in "Highlander" (and as is reiterat...
The Man Who Wasn’t There
"The Man Who Wasn't There" is from Joel and Ethan Coen, the brothers behind such films as "Raising Arizona" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" The new one is paced a bit slower and is more muted in tone than those, recalling instead the Coens' "Fargo" ...
Amelie (French)
"Amelie" is a sunshiny movie that makes sunshininess seem cool. It's "Pollyanna," but without the factor of making you want to smack the protagonist.
Amelie (Audrey Tautou) is a spunky Parisian who grew up lonely, thanks to being the only child of...
Focus
William H. Macy is one of those actors who can appear in something mediocre or even downright stinky, but come out of it smelling like a rose. He can always be counted on to perform well, even when he's surrounded by mediocrity.
"Focus" isn't bad...
Donnie Darko
I'm predicting "Donnie Darko" will be the year's most overrated film. It smells like the kind of movie that wants you to think it's really deep, causing people to claim they loved it even though they actually found it incomprehensible.
I defy you...
K-PAX
Aliens always take such a condescending view of humans. On the planet K-PAX, Earth is described as a planet in "early evolution, future uncertain." Smug talk from a planet whose name sounds like a radio station!
Those strange visitors from other ...
On the Line
All right, class, get out your textbooks and turn to chapter two: "How to Make a Bad Movie." The film we will use as our example is "On the Line."
First, you need a bad script. You can't go anywhere without a bad script. If you have a good script...
Thirteen Ghosts
In the press notes for "Thirteen Ghosts," we are given the gruesome backstories for all the spirits who appear in the movie, including how they died. Any one of these stories is more imaginative and compelling than anything actually appearing on the ...
Bones
The great rapper/thespian Snoop Doggy Dogg has apparently grown up. In "Bones," as with the other two films he has appeared in this year, he is credited as Snoop Dogg. That silly "doggy dogg" thing must have undermined his great dramatic skills and m...
Trembling Before G-d (documentary)
"If a man lies with a man as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death."
That quote, from Leviticus 20:13, soberly opens "Trembling Before G-d," a documentary about Orthodox Jews who also ...
From Hell
Nowadays, we take for granted that serial killers are often intelligent, well-educated men. Not so in 1888, when Jack the Ripper terrorized London. The notion that he might be a surgeon or professor was preposterous; educated men didn't DO things lik...
Mulholland Drive
One of the most boring things in the world is listening to someone else talk about a dream he or she had. Unless you were in the dream, or unless you can actually re-live the dream yourself, there is simply nothing to hold your interest in hearing ab...
The Last Castle
"The Last Castle" is a crowd-pleaser of a movie, full of rah-rah flag-waving sentiment and stoic patriotism. There is little point in reviewing a movie like this, but all of us have jobs that seem a little pointless at times.
Robert Redford, in hi...
Waking Life
"Waking Life" is an unusual and intriguing film full of philosophy and social theories. It's the sort of thing goateed, coffee-sipping college students tend to like, and the sort of thing film buffs are often impressed by.
Written and directed by...
The Endurance (documentary)
"The Endurance" tells a story of resiliance and courage so amazing, it's hard to believe it's all true. It's only a matter of time before Hollywood gets its hands on it and makes it into something grand and spectacular, but whatever comes of that wil...
My First Mister
With an opening sequence full of doom-rock music, dreary imagery and too much eye makeup, you'd never guess "My First Mister" was going to turn into one of the sweetest, kindest movies in recent memory.
The purveyor of all the gloomy stuff is Jen...
Bandits
"Bandits" is a cheerful movie in which lovable outlaws are the protagonists and law enforcement agencies are practically non-existent. It is tempered by an underlying sense of doom, as we are told up front that our heroes died in a hail of bullets wh...
Corky Romano
Chris Kattan joins the ranks of so many who have gone before him as someone who is funny on "Saturday Night Live" but not in movies.
Maybe some people just can't make the transition from video to film. Maybe there's a filter in the film stock tha...
Iron Monkey (Chinese)
The corrupt leaders of England were no match for Robin Hood, Batman protects Gotham, and Chinese peasants of the 1850s had the Iron Monkey as their protector and champion.
The film "Iron Monkey" was released in 1993 but has now been trimmed, rest...
Fat Girl (French)
A friend of mine who saw "Fat Girl" before I did astutely noted that it's not the sort of film one "enjoys" watching. You might admire many things about it, and it can properly be called a very good movie, but it's not one you'll want to hurry out an...
Joy Ride
It is a joy to watch "Joy Ride," a thriller that appears fresh not by breaking the rules but by actually following them. Since most thrillers ignore matters of logic, character and pacing, "Joy Ride" is an innovation because it doesn't.
It's abou...
Serendipity
"Serendipity" is as cute and harmless as its star, John Cusack, who for an entire generation now has excelled at playing likable, ordinary guys.
This time, he's Jonathan Trager, a Manhattan TV producer and hopeless romantic. When we first meet hi...
Training Day
"Training Day" reminds me of the films of the 1970s that were gritty and violent but that also showcased stellar acting, back before blood and intelligence became mutually exclusive in movies.
Denzel Washington, riveting as always, plays Detective...
Don’t Say a Word
"Don't Say a Word" should not exist. It is neither a bad movie nor a good one. It is neither original nor trite. It arouses no strong feelings of any kind, positive or negative. It just sits there, occupying space.
There's a psychiatrist named Na...
Zoolander
Ben Stiller's hilarious new comedy "Zoolander" owes a lot to the principle that something only half-funny on paper can turn out wonderful in the delivery.
"You is talkin' loco and I like it" doesn't sound like much of a line, but coming out of Owe...
Hearts in Atlantis
"Hearts in Atlantis" is that new breed of Stephen King movie, the kind that's sort of warm and fuzzy, where supernatural elements exist only in the margins. Call me crazy, but I prefer the old, scary Stephen King movies -- the kind that were usually ...
The American Astronaut
The filmmakers whose projects didn't make it to the Sundance Film Festival must weep bitter tears when they see "The American Astronaut," a movie that is utterly worthless, yet still made it to the festival. "They thought THIS was better than MY movi...
Ghost World
The attitude of "Ghost World" is best summarized in this exchange between two new high school graduates, watching the cheesy entertainment at their graduation party.
REBECCA: "This is so bad it's almost good."
ENID: "This is so bad, it's gone p...
Go Tigers! (documentary)
Massillon, Ohio, is a blue-collar town where the high school football team's booster club visits maternity wards to congratulate women on delivering boys -- future football players, they say. And the women agree, with a "from your lips to God's ears"...
Hardball
Some movies are good enough up to the point that they do something dreadful and manipulative to yank tears from the audience. "Hardball" pulls that kind of stunt but is at a disadvantage: It was a bad movie already. The shamelessness of its final act...
The Glass House
"The Glass House" begins with our teen-age protagonist, Ruby Baker (Leelee Sobieski), watching a lame slasher flick called "Prom Nightmare." She is bored by its predictability, adherence to its genre and general lack of originality.
All this does...
L.I.E.
Some movies about the seedy underside of American suburbia use a lot of sunny skies and bright colors to serve as contrast to the film's actual themes. Michael Cuesta's compelling, disturbing "L.I.E." takes the opposite route, using overcast skies an...
The Musketeer
As 2001: The Year of the Mediocre Film stumbles toward its dull finale, Hollywood puts in all the stops and foists another cookie-cutter action trauma upon us. It's called "The Musketeer," and guess what? It's exactly like every other movie!
OK, ...
Rock Star
Mark Wahlberg plays a nice young man who gets caught up in a glamorous and sexually charged world, changes his name, realizes he has natural gifts for his new line of work, fornicates with strangers, then discovers life in the fast lane is not all it...
Two Can Play That Game
"Two Can Play That Game" is a most unromantic romantic comedy that shows women to be calculating and manipulative and men to be hormonal dummies. In other words, it tells us nothing we did not already know, though it does it in an entertaining manner...
Our Lady of the Assassins (Spanish)
If there is a worse city to live in than Medellin, Colombia, I'd prefer not to know about it. Decades of civil war, not to mention the evil of the drug trafficking that city is known for, have made it a crumbling, anarchic shell of what was once a lo...
The Iron Ladies (Thai)
You can tell they've been watching our films over in Thailand, because "The Iron Ladies" makes use of every cliche Hollywood has to offer. And since it's both a sports film AND a gay film, it has two genres' worth of stereotypes to choose from, addin...
Djomeh (Farsi)
"Djomeh" is a work of fiction, but every single moment looks, breathes and feels like real life. If it weren't so artfully composed and photographed, you'd think it was a documentary.
For this reason, I can't imagine it being terribly popular in ...
Jeepers Creepers
It is questionable whether a movie with a title like "Jeepers Creepers" can be the fright-filled scare-fest it wants to be, but this particular "Jeepers Creepers" pulls it off fairly well. Up until the end, that is, when it falls to pieces.
Writt...
O
"O" was filmed in 1999, but not released until now due to some unfortunate resemblances it allegedly bore to the Columbine shooting. Lions Gate delayed the film to avoid stirring up bad memories and appearing exploitative.
All of this is good for...
Bubble Boy
As if the first 80 minutes of "Bubble Boy" were not insufferable enough, the last four insult the intelligence of the viewer beyond all hope of redemption. The film has written itself into a corner by putting its protagonist in a lose-lose situation,...
Ghosts of Mars
In the future, zombie movies will take place on Mars. They will still be trashy, predictable affairs with more blood than brains, but the change of venue will be nice.
The future is here with "Ghosts of Mars," properly titled "John Carpenter's Gh...
Made
Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn try to recapture their "Swingers" glory with "Made," a film about two L.A. losers who try to become gangsters. As is usually the case with people trying to recapture their glory, they do not succeed. Lightning rarely stri...
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
Woody Allen has lost it. Last year's "Small Time Crooks," while funny, was so slight it went unnoticed. Now, "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" is so limp and weak it practically evaporates on the screen.
It's not a film you dislike. Nothing in it ...
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Through films like "Clerks" and "Mallrats," Kevin Smith has created a universe that moviegoers love to watch, though most wouldn't want to live there. In his dimension, even the dumbest people speak in fluid, well-punctuated sentences. Everyone watch...
Summer Catch
You can't blame Freddie Prinze Jr. for his movies being bad. The little guy sure TRIES to act. He's out there in the new movie, "Summer Catch," sweating, yelling, laughing and doing all those other actor-y things that real live actors do. He's giving...
American Outlaws
The intentions of "American Outlaws" are unclear. It is not, from what I gather, a particularly true account of the life of Jesse James. There are no characters, plot points or action sequences which have not already been created in other films. It i...
Rat Race
Director David Zucker revisits his zany "Airplane!" and "Top Secret!" days with a broad, physical comedy called "Rat Race." The title is ironic, however, given how slow and without momentum the thing is.
Zillionaire casino owner Donald Sinclair (...
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Director John Madden's last film was "Shakespeare in Love," a widely praised Oscar-winner full of life and wit. Apparently, Madden used up everything he had in that film, as his new one, "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," is sluggish, dull and altogether ...
Aberdeen
A dying woman wants her daughter and the daughter's long-estranged father to reunite at her bedside. Is that too much for a dying woman to ask? Is it too much for a comedy to ask that we should find humor AND pathos in the events her request causes t...
American Pie 2
Sequels are infamous for being smug about the success of their predecessors. They repeat key lines, re-create key situations, or re-do key jokes, all with this subtext: "We KNOW you saw the first movie and LOVED every minute of it. Now you're gonna l...
Osmosis Jones
The City of Frank is a bustling metropolis with ghettos, criminals, a hard-working police department and a fat-cat political system. It is just like any other major city, except that it is located within Bill Murray's body.
In "Osmosis Jones," Bi...
The Others
"The Others" is nearly a perfect thriller, using tension and intrigue -- not blood and gore -- to create suspense that is at times almost unbearable.
The facts are laid out for us quickly, with each new revelation making the situation seem even m...
The Princess and the Warrior (German)
Because "Run, Lola, Run" was such an astonishing piece of work, it is inevitable that its writer/director, Tom Tykwer, should be scrutinized heavily upon the release of his next film, "The Princess and the Warrior."
The result of that scrutiny: n...
The Deep End
Margaret Hall would be the quintessential hard-nosed movie heroine, battling enemies and saving the day, if only she didn't have to spend so much time getting the kids ready for school.
Played with fierce energy by Tilda Swinton in "The Deep End,...
The Princess Diaries
Julie Andrews is one of the classiest, most well-loved actresses in the world. She doesn't do very many movies anymore, which prevents audiences from growing tired of her, and which puts her on a higher pedestal than actors who show up three or four ...
Original Sin
"Original Sin" begins with a close-up of Angelina Jolie's grotesque lips. She is the heroine of the film and its occasional narrator, and she says, "This is not a love story. But it is a story about love."
Though that sounds contradictory, it act...
Rush Hour 2
I've never understood why people cheer when sequels repeat the same jokes and tag lines from their predecessors. It's nice that we recognize them, but shouldn't we acknowledge that it's a prime example of why sequels suck -- i.e., they're usually jus...
Wet Hot American Summer
Janeane Garofalo -- who we thought we would get tired of a few years ago, but whom we still love -- is perfectly suited for a spoofy parody like "Wet Hot American Summer." The film's purpose is to mock the conventions of '80s "summer camp" movies, an...
Planet of the Apes
From beginning to end, Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" toys with our expectations. It doesn't count on our being familiar with the original sci-fi classic -- this version certainly stands on its own -- but those who know a little something about th...
Bread and Tulips (Italian)
One of the first real movie reviews I ever tried to write was of "That Thing You Do!," the charming Tom Hanks nostalgia piece from 1996. I remember being very pleased with myself for making what I thought was a rather astute observation: That movie h...
101 Reykjavik (Icelandic)
"101 Reykjavik" is a useless but fun movie that purports to be about a man whose mother begins a lesbian love affair with one of the man's former partners, but is really about life in a dull, sleepy town.
The implication, witting or not, is that i...
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
John Cameron Mitchell's off-Broadway camp smash "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" translates to the screen in a way that recalls "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (the audience is even invited to sing along at one point, and transsexuality is an ongoing them...
America’s Sweethearts
"America's Sweethearts" is a romantic comedy that also parodies the film industry and was co-written by Billy Crystal. If you watched only the first five minutes of it, you'd figure all that out for yourself.
It's certainly a romantic comedy beca...
Jurassic Park III
This is not a common complaint among film critics, but "Jurassic Park III" may not be long enough.
At 94 minutes, this droll and unnecessary sequel is certainly lean, and to some extent, not a lot of exposition is needed. We already know from 1993...
Legally Blonde
"Legally Blonde" is a larkish comedy that is delightfully unencumbered by logic or reason. Not a bit of it makes any sense whatsoever, and I do not believe anything that transpires in the film could happen in real life.
Normally, these are liabil...
The Score
A movie starring Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton should be, mathematically speaking, just about the best-acted movie ever made. "The Score" comes nowhere near meeting those impossible expectations, but it is successful at being a compe...
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
The latest in a series of films to replace old-fashioned things like "story" and "character" with nifty special effects is "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within."
Yet again, filmmakers have forgotten that movie-goers are savvy. We've seen special ef...
Lost and Delirious
You know a film is in for some tragedy when the characters start studying Shakespeare in their English classes. Certainly some key line spoken by one of the Bard's many doomed lovers, highlighted by the dowdy old schoolmarm in a scene half-way throug...
Jump Tomorrow
"Smile! You're getting married!" That's what people keep telling George (Tunde Adebimpe), a timid, bespectacled man who, following tradition, is about to become one half of an arranged marriage in "Jump Tomorrow."
George doesn't want to marry thi...
Kiss of the Dragon
The first image in "Kiss of the Dragon" is of a bunny rabbit licking its paws while crouched next to a dead, bloody rabbit. That shot has absolutely nothing to do with the movie, even on a metaphoric level, but do not be surprised. The movie leaves p...
Scary Movie 2
There are seven writers credited for "Scary Movie 2." That's approximately two writers per laugh.
You should know that I enjoyed the first "Scary Movie" as an outrageous, fast-paced parody -- a MAD Magazine movie satire, but filthier. The sequel ...
Cats & Dogs
Continuing in the vein of this year's clever "Spy Kids," "Cats & Dogs" is an inventive and fanciful children's movie that will more than adequately entertain the kids while amusing adults, too.
It's a live-action movie that plays like a carto...
The Closet (French)
"The Closet" is a silly French farce about a low-level condom-factory accountant named Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) who, in order to avoid being fired, spreads the rumor that he's gay. The company won't fire him now, because it will look like his sexual o...
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
"A.I. Artificial Intelligence" is every bit a Stanley Kubrick/Steven Spielberg film, with all the tripped-out futuristic weirdness of the former and the childlike fantasy of the latter.
As has been widely publicized, Kubrick discussed "A.I." with...
crazy/beautiful
Home-movie images of snapshots and postcards accompanied by a voice-over that begins "I remember..." let us know that "crazy/beautiful" will be a sentimental film.
Trust your instincts; those first few moments are not misleading. They give way to...
Baby Boy
The central theme of "Baby Boy," writer/director John Singleton's follow-up to 1991's "Boyz N the Hood," is that because of racism and other factors, the American black man is in essence still a baby. He calls his women "mama," his friends his "boys,...
Chain Camera (documentary)
Though "Chain Camera" presents many views of many different teen-agers, one theme is overriding: The kids are all right.
Plenty of TV shows and movies purport to show the "real teen experience," but these usually make the kids out to be either ho...
Dr. Dolittle 2
Yes, there is a scene in "Dr. Dolittle 2" in which a bear has a sudden bowel attack while sitting on a toilet. Yes, this scene is disgusting, a word that Hollywood now considers to be a synonym for "funny." No, I don't know when this trend will ever ...
The Fast and the Furious
Mere minutes into "The Fast and the Furious," there's a scene in which two men engage in a fistfight in front of two gorgeous racecars while three hot women look on. I expected them to start drinking beer, watching a football game and listening to th...
Sexy Beast
One of the best things about Jonathan Glazer's brightly colored gangster film "Sexy Beast" is that the title is completely irrelevant. No one in the movie is sexy, though I guess Ben Kingsley's character could be considered a beast.
After that, t...
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Walt Disney Pictures made billions from its string of animated musical hits in the '90s. It was a simple formula: Retell a familiar story, put in some Broadway-style songs, make sure you've got some animals blessed with the power of speech, and watch...
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Though video games have developed more intricate backstories and characters since the days of "Pong" and "Pac-Man," the fact remains that the game itself is nothing more than leading a hero through a series of obstacles. That's perfect for a video ga...
Evolution
What a joy it is to watch a comedy like "Evolution," where these rules are followed:
• The main characters are funny and even frantic, but never cloying, hammy or over-eager.
• The story is not adhered to religiously, but neither ...
Swordfish
John Travolta continues his slippery slide back down to the hell whence he sprang with "Swordfish," a very loud yet curiously half-hearted attempt at cyber suspense.
Travolta plays Gabriel Shear, a man who has become wealthy through high-tech ban...
The Anniversary Party
"The Anniversary Party" is a marvelous achievement in that it was shot on digital video, which is normally a hard sell for major motion pictures ("Blair Witch" notwithstanding).
That format was a smart move on the part of Alan Cumming and Jennife...
Divided We Fall (Czech)
Like "Life Is Beautiful" -- another great foreign film set during World War II -- the Czech picture "Divided We Fall" portrays the ability of humanity and decency to overcome all evil.
Written and directed by Jan Hrebejk, this 2001 Academy Award ...
Moulin Rouge
The Moulin Rouge was an actual place in Montmartre, just outside Paris, at the end of the 19th century. It was a nightclub of legendary proportions, where the Bohemians bohemed till all hours of the night with the cancan dancers, prostitutes and bart...
