Some things don’t belong together. Most people, I think, would put human defecation and married couples rekindling their romance in that category. Just don’t tell the Farrelly Brothers that, because such things are their bread and butter and they’ve slathered it up again for “Hall Pass.”

The latest modern film to play swords-and-sandals dress-up is “The Eagle,” starring Channing “Pretty Boy” Tatum, a name I bestowed upon him having played “Pretty Boy” Floyd in Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” back in 2008, albeit a part of no significance. I suppose when they coined the term “hunk,” no one expected it to apply […]

Compelling figures make for compelling drama. Compelling characters who feel ordinary make for award-worthy drama. The script that David Seidler assembled into “The King’s Speech” using purely research taps into a story that’s simply gold: a British monarch, whom we are accustomed to view as having an inherent infallibility, with a speech impediment that makes […]

No doubt about it folks, we are in the age of the R-rated sex comedy. This explosive trend among movies stems from filmmakers and producers’ never-ending pursuit of making the rare comedy that costs little but rakes in obscene amounts of money. “No Strings Attached” fits the exact profile of a film quite literally strung […]

When Seth Rogen got his paws on rights to turn the masked crimefighter radio and TV series “The Green Hornet” into a movie, we figured to have it pegged. Rogen would deliver an action comedy “Green Hornet” universe stuffed with his brand of immature moron humor. The only question was whether that combination would work […]

The Coen brothers have delivered some of the most challenging films of the last few years, ever since winning Oscar glory for contemporary Western “No Country for Old Men.” The Coens’ remake of the 1969 film (or as some would say, the second adaptation of the Charles Portis novel) “True Grit” does constitute as a bit of […]

When it comes to winning awards, boxing films seem to always be contenders; as such, the thought of watching “another boxing film” can be off-putting. But “The Fighter” hangs in and fends off those labels, earning every bit of its critical praise. That’s because most of the fighting in this film takes place out of […]

Quality comedies — if they go beyond one sequel — never come in threes. In the case of “Little Fockers,” three’s a Focking mess. But we asked for it; “Meet the Fockers” ranks as the highest-grossing live-action comedy in the U.S., so regardless of quality, we were going to get whatever studios served us. And […]

All the pieces have been put in place for 1982 cult classic “Tron” to reinvent itself as a moder-day sci-fi epic. Between Disney sinking hundreds of millions into “Tron: Legacy,” marketing it like the must-see event of the year and then securing a PG rating to make sure anyone and everyone could see it, the […]

Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” will leave a myriad of lasting impressions on different people for different reasons, but universally, the film will prove to the masses that ballet is most definitely not boring. Beautiful, thrilling, breathtaking — yes, I’m referring to both the art form and the film. “Black Swan” echoes everything there is to […]

As demonstrated by his ability to earn acclaim in everything from zombie films (“28 Days Later”) to foreign coming-of-age love stories (“Slumdog Millionaire”), Danny Boyle has an extraordinary gift as a filmmaker and in “127 Hours,” he channels it into an extraordinary story of human willpower. This could have easily been a compelling but plain […]

Love stories are essentially the same — it’s a matter of how you dress them up. Many will see through “Love and Other Drugs” and count the romance clichés and formulaic characters, others will find the 1996 setting and the pharmaceutical angle refreshing. Both forces are hard at work in this film, but the tipping […]

My how time flies. Not only have we watched three young actors and their respective characters grow up over the course of 10 years before our very eyes, but also the tonal shift from light to dark in the “Harry Potter” movies has been unusually drastic. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1” is […]

Films with a tight premise tend to be reliable; so is the combination of director Tony Scott and Denzel Washington. The two have never struck gold, but they’ve produced solid, dependable box-office results and audience approval. “Unstoppable” has and will continue to achieve both. 90 minutes of entertainment can certainly be as good as gold […]

I’d normally consider it a cop-out to label a film exactly like another and purposefully avoid direct comparison between two films, but “Due Date,”  starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis as polar-opposite travel buddies thrown together by unwelcome circumstances, bears more than just a resemblance to John Hughes’ “Planes, Trains & Automobiles.” In this […]