The eternal question of “what happens after we die?” is about as enigmatic as the kind of film Clint Eastwood’s latest, “Hereafter,” tries to be. Supernatural? Thriller? Relationship drama? The film will likely defy most audience expectations, so to be helpful, the answer is all of the above, but mostly “c.) relationship drama,” final answer. Eastwood […]

No genre has defined 2010 like the group-centric comedy-infused action flick that pits betrayed special agents/soldiers against “the man.” So the only chance “RED” had at standing out was to rise above the formula at the hands of an acting core whose mean age would qualify for a senior discount to see said film. In […]

You’d be hard-pressed to think of a film concept  more socially relevant and relatable to 500 million people than a movie about the origins of Facebook. “The Social Network,” however is not some insouciant attempt to capitalize on the world’s most popular social networking site for revenue purposes. It is a loaded drama that unlike […]

Ben Affleck’s second feature film as a director — if nothing else — proves he’s no fluke. In all the ways his sincere and revealing debut “Gone Baby Gone” succeeds, so does “The Town.” Both are Boston-based crime dramas that are both touchingly dramatic at times yet gripping at others. More impressive with his work […]

Through much of the beginning of “Easy A,” you have to find all the ’80s teen comedy homages fishy. Maybe director Will Gluck and Bert V. Royal are trying to dress up a classic Hughesian formula with modern banter and social media references. Then, somewhere near the halfway point, comes the admission. Olive, played by […]

Most “one last job” movies are high-energy action flicks or thrillers driven by a veteran actor playing a character with a troubling back story, but Anton Corbijn’s “The American” operates as a character-driven mood piece, a precise and quiet visual portrayal of a man trying to quit his dangerous profession who is constantly haunted and […]

Family drama can be cliché, but not when that family consists of a teenage brother and sister and their two moms. Hollywood’s family dramas have yet to break out of the traditional family structure for obvious albeit not necessarily defensible reasons, but independent film promoter Focus Features has found a gem of one in Lisa […]

As I left “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” a woman probably in her 40s or 50s exclaimed into her cell phone how it was the worst movie she’s ever seen. I rather liked it, though I’m definitely 20-30 years younger than she. That kind of split is evident of only a few films in cinema […]

The buddy cop comedy sub-genre has been limping about Hollywood as if shot in the leg from an awry 9mm bullet. Now it’s been found by the duo of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the pair behind “Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights” and “Step Brothers,” whose brand of contemporary idiot humor has been steadily met with compounding […]

By the film’s definition, inception is the process of entering someone’s mind through his dreams and planting an idea so deep within the subconscious that when he wakes up, the idea feels organic and natural. I would like to know who broke into Christopher Nolan’s dream space and dropped the seed that would become the […]

If the cliché “sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll” has seemed obscured or irrelevant the last thirty years, it is no longer. “Get Him to the Greek” serves this unholy trinity buffet style. The latest Judd Apatow-produced laugh fest is a spin-off on the character Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) from 2008’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” the […]

There’s only one pair of glasses that will make “The Last Airbender” a tolerable adventure and it’s not the 3-D kind. Based on the Nickelodeon animated TV series, “Airbender” is a kids movie, fully equipped with a PG rating and young protagonists asked to shoulder a majority of the workload. Expect just that: a film […]

Adam Sandler’s movies have almost always had a family element if they weren’t a major part of the story (parental responsibility in 1999’s “Big Daddy,” father-son relationship in “Billy Madison” and “Little Nicky”). But lately, especially since the birth of his first daughter in 2006, it’s begun to drastically shape his film choices. It started […]

Pixar has taken the animation genre literally to infinity and beyond in the 15 years since “Toy Story” first changed the game forever. So when the ground-breaking production company decided to return to an old friend in 2010 after three straight years of cutting-edge family film-making, you had to know there was a compelling reason […]

When it comes to adaptations, sometimes you pity the fool who knows the source material too well. I knew nothing about “The A-Team” outside of premise and having been thoroughly entertained by it, I applaud my own ignorance as it may well have been the difference- maker. Joe Carnahan’s movie version of the ’80s television […]