I would normally steer clear of giving you two news pieces regarding Leonardo DiCaprio right on top each other, but when “The Dark Knight” director Christopher Nolan tells us anything about an upcoming project, the world should give momentary pause, so do your part and watch this awesome teaser for next July’s “Inception” starring the […]

The recently released trailer for Martin Scorsese’s next feature film “Shutter Island” has just become a teaser. Paramount Pictures announced a couple days ago that the film has moved from its October 2 release date all the way to February 19, 2010. Rabble rabble rabble. Ever since “The Departed” kicked ass and snagged Oscar glory […]

Since I haven’t reviewed an older sci-fi movie and it’s my favorite genre, I reached into my archive and pulled out one of my favorite movie discoveries, “Dark City.” One thing that science-fiction junkies often consider is what aliens would think of us if they studied our planet. Alex Proyas’ mystery thriller “Dark City” tells […]

After completing the Dollars trilogy, one would come to expect Sergio Leone to have reached his peak with “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” just two years earlier, but he doesn’t let up an inch with “Once Upon A Time in the West.” The Italian-born filmmaker delivers once again the kind of western the […]

“Rain Man” might be most remembered for Dustin Hoffman’s brave and remarkable performance as autistic savant Raymond Babbitt, but the film’s greatest strength lies elsewhere: its sense of humor. At first, you’re inclined not to laugh at Raymond’s oddities and especially not at the way his brother Charlie (Tom Cruise) treats him, but as the […]

“Inglourious Basterds” is many things, but one thing it is not is a World War II drama. The setting is an alternate version of history, where Nazi-occupied France becomes the wild west for another of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s Sergio Leone-inspired pulp action movies where various Jews can carry out their revenge fantasies on assorted members […]

To fairly represent myself while sharing my thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s seventh feature film release, “Inglourious Basterds,” I should be forward in mentioning that I’m Jewish, and if you know anything about this movie, it’s more or less a Holocaust revenge fantasy. I recently watched Edward Zwick’s latest film “Defiance” starring Daniel Craig and Liev […]

Unfortunately, there are always films that make a killing at the box office and don’t deserve it, sucking us in with high expectations and visual effects, preying on how easily we are persuaded by advertising and ultimately insulting our intelligence. Truth is, a lot of those films come out in the summer, and 2009 had […]

If you’ve caught any of the buzz from Comic Con this year or know anything about the winter movie schedule, then you’ve heard of “Avatar.” James Cameron, the infamous director of the original Terminator movies and of the single greatest cinematic anomaly of all time, “Titanic,” has reemerged over ten years later to take on what he […]

“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a horror movie for epileptics, a 2.5-hour exhibition of a hurricane in a hardware store, a relentlessly loud first movement in a symphony of destruction. It is a summer blockbuster on steroids: you’d like to laud the accomplishment, but it feels like cheating. In other words, “Fallen” appears to […]

If you’re familiar with Charlie Kaufman’s work, then you understand that “Synecdoche, New York” is going to tell a story that’s abstract, that feels normal but is completely out of the ordinary, and rarely feels like it’s making sense. Now that he’s directing his own film this time, Kaufman, the brilliant but challenging writer behind […]

With the end of Summer 2009 fast approaching  (only two more August release dates), it’s time to wrap up the most fun four months of movies each year, the films that entertain us when the weather is too rainy (or too hot) and end up stuffing stockings come the holiday season instead of vying for […]

Hayao Miyazaki has captured the imagination of audiences young and old across the globe, and his most recent cinematic work of art is “Ponyo,” a children’s fairytale borrowing on story elements from The Little Mermaid. Of course like other Miyazaki classics such as “Spirited Away” and his last film, “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “Ponyo” is full […]

Carjacking is generally a good time, but Dominic Sena manages to make it unexciting in “Gone in Sixty Seconds,” a remake of the 1974 film. Aside from a good final chase, this film spends more time talking about stealing cars than actually doing it. At the least you’d expect a two-hour showcase of some beautiful […]

As I prayed for so fervently, Peter Jackson produced sci-fi alien actioner “District 9” took first at the Box Office with $37.4 M this past weekend. I’m not trying to see to it that all films I like cash in at the box office, but like I said in my review, this is the kind […]