Category: Movie Reviews

A decade ago, Steven Soderbergh won an Academy Award for Traffic, a multi-layered potboiler highlighting the hypocrisy and corruption permeating political bureaucracies entrusted with waging the war on drugs. With Contagion, the iconoclastic director has fashioned another international mindbender, although the focus this go-round is on the medical community’s attempt to allay the public’s fears […]

BIG BUDGET FILMS Apollo 18 (Unrated) Found-footage horror flick, set in 1974, shedding light on a government cover-up of a NASA space mission on which the crew of astronauts were attacked by parasitic life forms they discovered on the moon. The Debt (R for violence and profanity) International espionage thriller, set in 1997, about three […]

BIG BUDGET FILMS Columbiana (PG-13 for violence, sexuality, intense action sequences, disturbing images and brief profanity) Revenge thriller, set in Bogota, Colombia, about a young girl (Zoe Saldana) who grows up to be a cold-blooded assassin after witnessing the murder of her parents. With Michael Vartan, Cliff Curtis and Callum Blue. Don’t Be Afraid of […]

Trinity Goodheart (Erica Gluck) is inconsolable from the moment her mother (Kellin Watson) vanishes into thin air through the fateful day she finds half of a heart-shaped pendant lying on her bed. Convincing herself that the precious keepsake was delivered by a guardian angel on behalf of her long-lost mother, the desperate 12 year-old seizes […]

Kathryn Stockett made an auspicious debut in 2009 with the publication of The Help, a poignant period piece examining the unquestioned relationships of entitled, White socialites and their deferential Black maids in Mississippi. Although the story is set in the author’s hometown of Jackson in the early Sixties, her best-selling novel is more fictional than […]

Cowboys & Aliens might be the most poorly-executed blend of movie genres since custard pie slapstick was mixed with a Martian invasion in The Three Stooges in Orbit back in 1962. The good news about this campy Western/sci-fi combination is that it has about just as many laughs per minute as the Stooges’ ill-advised adventure. […]

BIG BUDGET FILMS The Change-Up (R for crude sexuality, pervasive profanity, drug use and graphic nudity) Body swap comedy about a fatigued family man (Jason Bateman) and a jaded bachelor (Ryan Reynolds) whose prayers are instantly answered when they ask for each other’s lives while relieving themselves in a magical wishing well. With Leslie Mann, […]

BIG BUDGET FILMS Attack the Block (R for violence, drug use and pervasive profanity) Horror comedy chronicling the valiant effort of a gang of teenagers from South London to defend their ‘hood during an alien invasion. Starring Nick Frost, Jodie Whittaker, Alex Esmail, John Boyega and Luke Treadaway. Cowboys & Aliens (PG-13 for violence, brief […]

At the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, three very different and remarkable Mississippi women develop an unlikely friendship as they embark on a secret project that breaks societal rules and puts them all at risk. Based on Kathryn Stockett’s No. 1 New York Times best-selling novel, The Help stars Emma Stone as Skeeter, Octavia […]

When three best friends meet for drinks after work one evening, each shares a tale of woe worse than the next about his boss from hell. Dale (Charlie Day) complains about how his, Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston), has been pressuring him to sleep with her, despite the fact that he’s head-over-heels in love with […]

BIG BUDGET FILMS Captain America: The First Avenger (PG-13 for intense sci-fi violence) Marvel Comics adaptation revolving around the patriotic exploits of a soldier-turned-superhero (Chris Evans) who, with the help of his trusty sidekick (Sebastian Stan), comes to the aid of the Allies during World War II when a Hitler henchman (Hugo Weaving) bent on […]

This summer, a number of sequels have re-imagined the past by placing fictional characters at the center of critical historical events. For instance, X-Men 4 implied that mutants might have played a pivotal role in the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, while Pirates of the Caribbean 4 featured Captain Jack in a race with […]