Movies

Review: A Perfect Getaway

Well-crafted, entertaining pulp
David Twohy's film may be pulp, but it's well-crafted, entertaining pulp.

By: JEREMY MASSLER | August 13, 2009

Paper Heart wears its heart on its sleeve
Is there anything more heartwarming than watching a little girl officiating at the marriage of two of her favorite dolls? Is there a purer form of love than the kind that a pre-pubescent might project onto the union of a plush Miss Piggy and a put-upon Kermit the Frog?

By: BRETT MICHEL | August 10, 2009

Review: Adam

Sensitive and subtle
As opposed to what happens in most films about mentally challenged characters, the protagonist of Max Mayer's debut feature does not regress into a stereotype. Instead, he shows by contrast how stereotyped all the other characters are.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 06, 2009

Review: Aliens in the Attic

No amount of shitty CGI can save it
As a kid, I was absurdly unpicky about my entertainment: shoddy '80s anime , reruns of This Old House , staring cross-eyed at our basement's pegboard wall to achieve a Magic Eye 3-D effect — these were all totally acceptable ways of whiling away an afternoon.

By: SHAULA CLARK | August 04, 2009

Child's play

Ephron and Streep cook up a feast
Here's something I never thought I'd write: Nora Ephron has made one of the best movies of the year.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 10, 2009

Interview: Judd Apatow

On the making of his Citizen Kane
Behind every successful comedian, there's . . . a personal assistant. Who, given how egomaniacal and utterly misanthropic the funnyman in question is, is probably his best friend, too.

By: LANCE GOULD | July 29, 2009

Review: Orphan

Delightfully gonzo
John (Peter Sarsgaard) and Kate (Vera Farmiga) don't have eight children to contend with, but after the miscarriage of their daughter, they adopt, bringing their brood to three. Perhaps they should have cut their losses.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 28, 2009

Review: G-Force

Surprisingly satirical
A hero named Darwin and a convoluted plot about "global extermination" are the first clues that director Hoyt Yeatman isn't taking the cute route with his cast of animated guinea pigs.

By: ALICIA POTTER | July 28, 2009

Review: Shrink

A pastiche of derivative movie pitches devoid of human feeling
Dr. Henry Carter (Kevin Spacey), the psychiatrist-to-the-stars of the title, has written a bestselling book on how to be happy. But — go figure — he isn't happy himself.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 28, 2009

Review: Funny People

Judd Apatow pulls no punchlines
What if Terms of Endearment had had more dick jokes?

By: LANCE GOULD | July 29, 2009

Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Half-Blood isn't half bad
For teenagers, everything seems like the end of the world: popularity, school, love, family, treacherous conspiracies, the war between good and evil wizards.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 17, 2009

Review: (500) Days of Summer

An odd romantic comedy, but a romantic comedy nonetheless
"This is not a love story," (500) Days of Summer 's disembodied narrator tells us. That's mostly a lie.

By: SHAULA CLARK | July 15, 2009

Review: Brüno

Sacha Baron Cohen's Brüno restores bad taste to its rightful place
Candide camera

By: A.S. HAMRAH | July 08, 2009

Review: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Pummeling awfulness
Directed by Carlos Saldanha and Mike Thurmeier, the third go-round of the animated franchise — this time in 3-D — is as numbing as its geological era.

By: ALICIA POTTER | July 01, 2009

Review: Public Enemies

Michael Mann's reheated crime waive
The gangster movie ruled Depression-era cinema — and that might be cause for concern about our present economic difficulties should the genre make a comeback.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 01, 2009

Review: My Sister's Keeper

Not quite the sum of its parts
Nick Cassavetes ( The Notebook ) gives competent direction to this weepie of the highest order, and there's an eclectic cast headed by Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric, and Little Miss Sunshine, Abigail Breslin.

By: TOM MEEK | July 01, 2009

Review: Transformers

Mechanical failure; expect no change from this Transformers
Revenge of the Fallen has already achieved at least one Hollywood first: it's the only major movie I know of to be released without press notes.

By: PETER KEOUGH | June 24, 2009

Review: Year One

Not everything Judd Apatow touches is gold.
Mel Brooks and the lads from Monty Python stormed through this territory with fierce farce. Here there's little farce, just a fusillade of flaccid dick jokes.

By: TOM MEEK | June 23, 2009

Review: Whatever Works

Look on Works and despair
It happens to everyone: getting old means getting more annoying. Those endearing little quirks degenerate into insufferable pathologies, the funny stories become less funny with repetition, and in general the same old self-depreciating ironies and obsessive-compulsive hedges against mortality stop working.

By: PETER KEOUGH | June 23, 2009

Review: The Proposal

Predictability and Betty White have much to do with the film's modest success
Anne Fletcher's comedy proves funnier and warmer than the dog-eared premise it hangs on: ice-bitch boss turns to her abused, resentful underling for an out-of-office favor, shows a shred of humanity, and love blossoms.

By: TOM MEEK | June 16, 2009

Review: Food, Inc.

As visually flashy as it is viscerally alarming
You are what you eat. And if you're like most Americans, you eat hamburgers made from cows who likely spent their lives crowded in fetid factory farms, ankle-deep in mud and excrement.

By: MIKE MILIARD | June 16, 2009