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 [...]

If you’re Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer, how do you go about finding your next “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise? Well, you start by keeping the whole cast in long hair and eyeliner only you relocate them to the desert. “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” is a familiar swashbuckling adventure only transplanted to the [...]

Superhero movie follow-ups have been a tough business lately. “Iron Man 2″ marks Marvel’s first sequel since “Spider-Man 3″ left millions disappointed in 2007. So to quell any lingering fears, “Iron Man 2″ is not a letdown. It’s far from it. To think director Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr. would lose sight of [...]

Every comic-book fan has a fantasy lodged in the back of his or her head about what it would be like to be a superhero. “Kick-Ass” is the story of said average person and plays out that fantasy scenario under the most realistic conditions possible. How would being a superhero actually work in modern day? [...]

A good special-effects era mythology movie is bound to happen at some point, but we’re definitely still waiting. “Clash of the Titans” is merely a modern incarnation of the original that in the age of CGI monsters and impressive fight sequences plops lazily in the category of status quo, something its 1981 cult predecessor was [...]

Noah Baumbach (“The Squid and the Whale”) films are always difficult. The concept of going to the movies for the sake of escapism is lost on him. If anyone tried harder to make real life into a movie, they’d have to compete with Baumbach. If anyone tried to make a film where dialogue is king, [...]

The giant gray cloud that hovers over the setting for almost the entirety of Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” is like the film’s suspense. The truly excellent mysteries in cinema are drawn out, almost at times torturous, hanging questions over our heads like — giant gray clouds. I wouldn’t say “The Ghost Writer” deserves comparison [...]

Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon, you say? So another Bourne movie? Although those names combined with the trailer combined with Damon’s character Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller going rogue combined with mention of a code name person/project that Damon’s character wants answers about might indiscreetly imply the fast-paced action of renegade assassin Jason Bourne, “Green [...]

It’s easy to forget that “An Education” takes place nearly a half century ago. The coming-of- age of a 16-year-old girl is one thing, but in the context of the 1960s, it’s a whole other ordeal. The way women’s roles have changed in society over the years is staggering and “An Education” is a reminder [...]

The goals of today’s reboots have been to update the originals with the special effects of the modern era and add complexity and depth to cinema’s most memorable characters. This is only half true for Universal’s long-delayed “The Wolfman” remake. The full-moon transformations of man to werewolf are enhanced with top-notch gruesome CGI, but the [...]

Many people questioned acclaimed director Martin Scorsese choosing to helm a pure genre film in the psychological thriller “Shutter Island,” but the marriage of one of the masters of crime drama and a Dennis Lehane (“Mystic River,” “Gone Baby Gone”) novel is as close to an ideal match as it sounds. Although Scorsese is capable [...]

There’s no denying that “Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire” is a tough film. The harrowing story of an overweight illiterate 16-year-old girl pregnant by her father for the second time and living with her abusive mother is not the fare most of us go to the theaters for. But sometimes we need [...]