Movies

Review: Paranormal Activity 4

The scares — and there have been some good ones — in the Paranormal franchise depend on what's not happening.

By: ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | October 24, 2012

Review: Cloud Atlas

The most disappointing film of the year, Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer's adaptation of David Mitchell's 2004 novel fails on nearly every level.

By: PETER KEOUGH | October 26, 2012

Ask any great actor — Robert De Niro, Christian Bale, Daniel Day-Lewis — if all that physical preparation is necessary for a great performance, and they'll say that sometimes you just have to put your body on the line.

By: PETER KEOUGH | October 24, 2012

Review: The Sessions

Sexual healing
No other film this year pushes as many Academy buttons as Ben Lewin's adaptation of the true story of the Dorchester-born poet and writer Mark O'Brien, a paralyzed polio survivor who hired a sex surrogate to lose his virginity.

By: PETER KEOUGH | November 14, 2012

Review: Sinister

From the producer of the fading Paranormal Activity franchise comes a horror movie that is plainly frightening in a way that so few today are.

By: ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | October 18, 2012

Review: Here Comes The Boom

By: MONICA CASTILLO | October 18, 2012

Review: Taken 2

Retired CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is still trying to remain an active part of the lives of his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).

By: BRETT MICHEL | October 10, 2012

Review: Seven Psychopaths

As in his debut In Bruges , Martin McDonagh here plays self-reflexive games while undermining the gangster genre.

By: PETER KEOUGH | October 11, 2012

Review: Argo

Escapist cinema
There are many heroes in Ben Affleck's spunky, polished political thriller. But the biggest hero is Hollywood itself.

By: PETER KEOUGH | October 12, 2012

Review: Pitch Perfect

Jason Moore's musical doesn't hit all the high notes, but guilty pleasures are seldom perfect.

By: MONICA CASTILLO | October 04, 2012

Review: Frankenweenie

Shaggy dog story
Death becomes Tim Burton, whose best films feature corpses or the undead.

By: PETER KEOUGH | October 04, 2012

Puppy love: Tim Burton's first Frankenweenie

All that is unique and wonderful about the films of Tim Burton can be traced back to "Frankenweenie," a half-hour-long black-and-white live-action short he made while an animator for Disney.

By: PETER KEOUGH | October 04, 2012

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Review: Looper

It takes some concentration to follow a plot where flashbacks are flash-forwards and vice versa. Or both. And sometimes flash-sideways.

By: PETER KEOUGH | September 28, 2012

Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

"Just smile and be yourself," advises Charlie's naïve dad. "That's how you make friends in the real world."

By: BRETT MICHEL | September 25, 2012

Review: Stars in Shorts

There are big names galore in this amalgam of short films — Judi Dench, Colin Firth, Keira Knightley, Kenneth Branagh, etc. — and the celebs are having a holiday good time, even when the stories aren't particularly distinguished.

By: GERALD PEARY | September 25, 2012

Review: House at the End of the Street

A project that's been around the block, Mark Tonderai's horror thriller was slated to go into production nearly a decade ago, with Jonathan Mostow (Breakdown) attached to direct.

By: BRETT MICHEL | September 25, 2012

Review: Hotel Transylvania

Genndy Tartakovsky's crummy cartoon would suck under any circumstances, but its inadequacies are particularly glaring when it comes out the week before Tim Burton's macabre gem, Frankenweenie .

By: PETER KEOUGH | September 28, 2012

Review: Dredd 3D

Slow-mo blow-ups
Johnny Knoxville and his merry band of Jackasses were on to something when they shot their last movie in 3D; their formula of slow-motion + stereoscopic imaging was just about the greatest thing ever.

By: BRETT MICHEL | September 20, 2012

Review: The Master

Evangelical zeal
Paul Thomas Anderson's searchers all wash out from the same starting point: nothing left to lose.

By: HARLAN JACOBSON | September 20, 2012

The Master — P.T. Anderson's controversial tour de force

Although Paul Thomas Anderson insists that all similarities are coincidental, his astounding new film The Master has riled up Scientologists.

By: PETER KEOUGH | September 20, 2012

Review: 2016: Obama's America

Not much of a movie or a documentary
Walking into Dinesh D'Souza and John Sullivan's political hatchet job, I overheard a woman exiting an earlier showing, breathlessly informing someone on her cell phone that "it's not a movie — it's a documentary!"

By: BRETT MICHEL | September 05, 2012