The first “Night at the Museum” worked despite conventions for a few reasons, but the main one was that it eased into its premise of museum exhibits coming to life and didn’t take it for granted like “Night of the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian” does. I’m actually surprised the writers of the first […]

The first major weekend of 2010 is upon us, but does it matter? Audiences across the country are still all up in Avatar‘s business. It’s going to be hard for these early January films to become surprise winter hits until the buzz wears off and America wakes up to find a man or woman (your […]

More than a half century after “Sunset Blvd.,” audiences are well aware that Hollywood is not all glitz and glamor — that there’s a stark reality. Yet despite that knowledge, “Sunset Blvd.” is still an eye-opening and deeply affecting motion picture today as it was in the 1950s. Because even though our “access” to Hollywood […]

As promised, here are some other films that might pan out that didn’t quite have the chops for my Top 10 list. Check out the trailers below on YouTube and decide for yourself if they should’ve been Top 10 material. — Leap Year (Jan. 8) The Word: The impossible-to-dislike-even-slightly Amy Adams stars with handsome Brit […]

One would suppose if Sam Raimi really wanted to do a masterfully frightening horror film that he could easily do so — but that would be too easy. “Drag Me to Hell” is like a thesis statement for why horror films should stop wasting their time with realism and trying to frighten people in the […]

Not long before this news broke, we heard the first bit of news about Bond 23: it wasn’t happening, at least not until the future of MGM was determined. So the last thing anybody expected was to hear news of who would be brought in to direct the third installment of the revamped Daniel Craig […]

As I present you the Top 5 movies on my list of films to watch these next couple of winter months (click here for the first five), I’m getting a bit nervous. The reason is because when it comes to January and February, it’s hard to say with certainty that anything will be good. But […]

Sometimes all it takes to make a movie is a good story with a director and a cast capable of seeing it for what it is. “The Blind Side” is an excellent example of why our interest continues to peak at the tagline “based on a true story” in movie trailers. You get the sense […]

Winter is a season where bad movies are like landmines. These are all the movies every year that the studios lost confidence in so they release them during months when the box office historically does so-so and cross the fingers on making money back through a surprise hit. The only exception is usually Valentine’s Day […]

Well, the film of the new decade at the box office might end up not having even been made in this decade. Avatar has done what everyone figured possible but no one actually stated outright: pass the $1 Billion mark at the worldwide box office. And in 17 days. The only thing more impressive is […]

Winter is upon us! The first films of 2010 will vie to become the surprise first hits of the year. Last year, these films were Liam Neeson in Taken and sadly, Paul Blart: Mall Cop. As I mentioned during my Holiday Movie Preview, there’s a difference between Holiday and Winter – in my world. Any […]

Call me old fashioned, but I like movies with plots. I thought “stoner comedy” was just a way to more specifically describe a comedy in which lots of weed is smoked and the people watching it are more apt to enjoy it high. “Grandma’s Boy,” however, has decided this is a full-blown niche and that […]

There aren’t many overcoming-the-odds stories quite like that of Christy Brown. Born with cerebral palsy in 1930s Dublin, his parents thought his handicap was mental as well as physical. Though eventually properly diagnosed, Brown, in a lower working-class family with nearly 20 children, had to push himself just to be appreciated by his family. Through […]

Films are taking a breather this New Year’s Day, although you can bet theaters will be busy considering how well Avatar, Sherlock Holmes and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel did on Christmas. I myself will probably find something I didn’t see just because I won’t have much else going on this weekend. Nevertheless, I […]