It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a good cat-and-mouse thriller done old school, and that’s exactly what “Public Enemies” is. Merely trade in your usual summer crime movie full of thieves in ski masks wielding uzis for ones wearing suits and fedoras armed with tommy guns and suddenly you’re getting entertained Great Depression-style. “Public Enemies” [...]

In the tradition of the many other Will Ferrell-Adam McKay produced comedies with a colon in the title that’s focused on a quirky character, “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” makes a pitch for awkward humor from a wide range of messed up characters. If you’re an easy sell on that kind of humor “The [...]

Somewhere between “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Observe and Report,” there has to be at least a decent movie about a mall security guard. Or maybe Hollywood should just forget about this cliché-ripe “genre” altogether. “Observe and Report” is the latest film to shove a tubby comedian (Seth Rogen) into a mock police officer’s uniform [...]

For those wondering what happened to the old Woody Allen, here he is. “Whatever Works” is a script from the 1970s. I noticed that without even knowing Allen has been forthright about it. A few script rewrites — talk about the Taliban and not the Communists — and old Woody works in a modern context. [...]

Here’s a link to my Funny People review, another DVD released today If we learned anything from the film adaptation of “The Da Vinci Code,” it’s that Dan Brown’s best-selling religion-centered mystery novels don’t translate into great films. Entertaining, sure, but great, no. The dialogue gets bogged down with historical explanation and the characters get [...]

There is nothing one can do to prepare for the homo-erotic ridiculousness of “Bruno.” The boundaries of R-rated comedy have been pushed and pushed over the last ten years and “Bruno” is the point on the scale in which we realize just how far we’ve gone. The shock value of deeply committed character actor Sacha [...]

In a decade of reboots comes perhaps the most daring and challenging: the Star Trek franchise. With 40 years of history including a total of around 15 movies and/or TV spin- offs, a database of hardcore fans and a recent history of trailing off into oblivion, Star Trek has been on life support for about [...]

After tackling rats with chef skills and voiceless robots on journeys of self-discovery, leave it to Pixar to make the star of its latest film an elderly man and continue to defy Hollywood’s long-held belief that animated films have to zero in on children and concepts that can be marketed into hats and toys and [...]

Let’s be real, nobody actually wants to be 17 again, but it makes for decent comedy. “17 Again” borrows on that classic age reversal concept as made famous by “Big,” “Freaky Friday,” and “13 Going on 30″ only it’s aimed at guys. I know, hard to believe that’s who would like this movie most, especially [...]

“The Brothers Bloom” sounds like a traditional con movie: two talented con men brothers are known for their epic, almost literary cons, when one brother wanting out leads to a concession that the next one, cheating a lonely heiress out of a million or so, will be their last. There’s a bit of the classic [...]

The superhero genre reached a higher echelon in 2008 with “Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight,” and considering the success of 2/3 of the X-Men franchise so far, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” can certainly be held to those standards, especially a movie whose title alone suggests getting right down to its hero’s adamantium core. But “Wolverine” [...]

The first thing to know about “Adventureland” is that although it was directed and written by Greg Mottola (“Superbad”) and it has Bill Hader in it, it is in know way in the mainstream vein of Judd Apatow-brand comedies. It’s not outrageously dirty or over-the-top hysterical ever. It prides itself on humor through character and [...]

Most investigative thrillers focus on detectives digging around for the answers, but “State of Play” opts to center around the desperate, miserable and dying newspaper industry. Simply put, the forces and pressures motivating a reporter are not like that on a detective, which makes for a much more unique plot with characters an audience can [...]