“Crank” is a high-octane concept movie that busts out of the gate and never stops. Unlike most adrenaline-junkie action films, however, “Crank” justifies its juiced-up rip-roaring wackiness because the movie is actually about someone who needs to keep his adrenaline up in order to live. Not many other “action porn” movies can say they have […]

The Prohibition-era “fight” between gangster Al Capone and G-man Eliot Ness over the streets of Chicago is the stuff of legend. For this reason, director Brian De Palma’s next big mob-themed follow-up to “Scarface” is quite a challenge. Capone is an enigma of sorts: the closest thing to a tall tale that history has to […]

“The Men Who Stare At Goats” is like a cleverly written essay only the writer never actually wrote a thesis. When it leaves you wondering “what just happened?” it’s not because you don’t understand it, but because you don’t know what the point is. Included in the definition of art is purpose, and even if […]

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, […]

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is about the closest any major CGI animation studio has come to a classic cartoon done in a modern style. It would appear that somewhere between “Looney Tunes” and Pixar’s “Up” that animation has lost a bit of its rule-bending nature. Phil Lord and Chris Miller, co-executive producers of […]

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 […]

It’s hard to believe a film such as “Harold and Maude” was made in the 1970s. Movies like this one, the off-kilter teen coming-of-age story, haven’t really become common place until today. Hal Ashby and Colin Higgins’ film was undoubtedly ahead of its time. It’s not rooted in pop culture, popular folk-style music is a […]

The American public is no stranger to the MPAA ratings system and its inherent flaws. Everyone has his or her own opinion about the level of censorship that goes on in Hollywood and what is appropriate for what age group and so on. But you don’t really know what it’s about until you watch Kirby […]

Pedro Almodovar’s “Hable Con Ella” is a great film but one that’s hard to diagnose. Foremost it’s a love story, one that explores unreciprocated love in the sense that two women are in a coma and the film is about the men who love them. But it also explores that idea more figuratively because the […]

It goes without saying that “Mystery, Alaska” is all about hockey, but the spin on that is that it’s about more than the sport and that’s the difference maker between a good and great sports film. “Mystery” falls somewhere in between those compliments, but transcending hockey is what this movie can hang its skates on. […]

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 […]

To set the record straight — maybe pun intended — “Humpday” is not a true gay and lesbian film, nor is it a “bromantic comedy” with homophobic slapstick. Lynn Shelton’s film is simple: what if two best heterosexual guy friends somehow got it in their heads that filming themselves having sex with each other would […]

In the wake of World War II, Alfred Hitchcock brought audiences “Notorious,” a romantic thriller with political undertones. To audiences of the era, I’m sure it was slightly scandalous. Not only in its dealing with Germans living in Brazil post-WWII and handling uranium, but also with its co-stars Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman kissing on […]

You might remember nothing else from “In the Loop” other than its landmark insults, but that’s enough. This high-brow dirty British humor from the writing team behind the hit British political comedy show “The Thick of It” is exceptional and its ability to intelligently prod at politics is almost more of a bonus.

The oldest Best Picture winner I have seen … so far “It Happened One Night” is a classic love story yet its best feature is that it surprises you: it’s not chock-full of clichés (though not devoid of them either) and it has an enduring sense of humor that all generations can appreciate. The film […]