7 HOME MOVIES REVIEWS
Smith can't save 'Hancock'
7/4/2008 | REVIEW | Nitpicky viewers will love the chipper opening scene of "Hancock." As the film's initial action sequence which features Will Smith's airborne superhero character wrecking cars, thrashing highways and wiping out several hundred thousand square feet of office space as he brings a group of thugs to justice comes to an end, a news-reporter voiceover informs us of the price tag for the mayhem: a whopping $9 million. A personal record!
Poor premise, stellar sights
6/27/2008 | REVIEW | Blend the killer-in-training elements of "La Femme Nikita" with the physics-defying stunts of "The Matrix," whip in the Oedipal angst of "The Empire Strikes Back" and sprinkle liberally with "Fight Club's" bad attitude.
'WALL-E' worth taking a look at
6/27/2008 | REVIEW | The late, great Stanley Kubrick ("2001:A Space Odyssey") used to say that if you can turn off the sound and still follow the story, you've made a film.
Myers' 'Love Guru' will leave you pining for 'Shrek'
6/20/2008 | REVIEW | Even before it opened, "The Love Guru," Mike Myers' new film, stirred up controversy among Hindu groups concerned that his take on a self-help guru would be offensive on religious grounds.
'Missed it by that much'
6/20/2008 | REVIEW | Apparently there are two actors named Steve Carell. One appears in sharp-witted, humanistic, "small" movies like "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Dan in Real Life" and the occasional smart comedy blockbuster like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" not to mention starring in "The Office," one of TV's edgiest comedies.
New 'Hulk' offers plenty of eye candy, old story lines
6/13/2008 | REVIEW | Ever since receiving a massive dose of gamma radiation, scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) has had to curb his emotions lest he morph into an angry green giant.
'Zohan' makes the cut
6/6/2008 | REVIEW | There's a spirit of avant-garde goofiness to the new Adam Sandler movie that sets it apart from his usual sophomoric work. Sprung from the fertile comic imaginations of Robert Smigel ("Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog") and Judd Apatow (the grand vizier of film comedy), it exists in a slap-happy parallel universe.
Achieving awesomeness
6/6/2008 | REVIEW | Po dreams of being a great martial artist. He longs to have skills, "an awesome aura so awesome, his enemies would go blind from overdoses of pure awesomeness!
This 'Sex' hardly sells
5/30/2008 | REVIEW | Carrie Bradshaw's jaw drops. Mr. Big beams. "Oh my God," she gasps. "Oh! Oh, you did me proud!" "Like it," he asks modestly. "Love at first sight!" she exclaims. Yes, true to his name, the tall, dark and handsome figure in Carrie's storied love life has given her what every woman dreams of: a huge, French-doored closet all her own, with recessed lighting, a lushly carpeted floor, and shelves and shelves and shelves for all her shoes.
'Home Alone,' it's not
5/30/2008 | REVIEW | Little Mauro (Michel Joelsas) is more concerned with his game of tabletop soccer than the hurried actions of his parents. The year is 1970, and the 12-year-old's imagination is pinned on the approaching World Cup, which Brazil stands a good chance of winning.
Indiana Jones shows his age
5/23/2008 | REVIEW | There is no getting around it: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is shackled with the burden of unreasonable expectations. Does it live up to them?
The sound of youth
5/23/2008 | REVIEW | "Young @ Heart" follows a choir of generally peppy septuagenarians through six weeks of practice, trial, tribulation and performance. The gimmick that has propelled the group, named Young @ Heart, to a small measure of fame is that rather than sing standbys such as "Sweet Adeline" and "As Time Goes By," they're rockers, rappers and punkers.
'Narnia' worth a return
5/16/2008 | REVIEW | More is more in "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," the follow-up to the 2005 fantasy hit "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe."
This adaptation of the second book in C.S. Lewis' fantasy series is simultaneously darker and funnier, more substantive and more engaging, more violent and more technically accomplished.
Still, seeing its predecessor is a must to understand what's going on and it'll make you appreciate how much better this movie is.
Not over fast enough
5/9/2008 | REVIEW | "Speed Racer" runs for a gluteus-deadening two hours and nine minutes. Episodes of the animated '60s TV series that inspired it ran for only 22 minutes. And that was too long.
A super relatable hero
5/2/2008 | REVIEW | Much of the allure of "Iron Man" comes from the fact that we are indeed talking about a man a real man who has lived a life and made mistakes and experienced regret not some scrawny, teenage boy who received his superhero powers through a bite from a radioactive spider.
Not Made to last
5/2/2008 | REVIEW | It starts out as a tribute to "When Harry Met Sally . . . " and steadily backslides toward a less-than-honorable "My Best Friend's Wedding" remake.
The odd couple & a baby
4/25/2008 | REVIEW | Kate Holbrook is 37, poised, professional and rich. She has a terrific Philadelphia apartment, a mildly interesting job with a hippie/corporate supermarket chain, and a charming, self-deprecating sense of humor.
Escape while you can
4/25/2008 | REVIEW | The poster for "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" is the best thing about the movie, depicting the brainy potheads in orange prison jumpsuits staring from behind a wire-mesh fence.
Too much show business, not enough martial arts
4/18/2008 | REVIEW | Martial-arts movie fans have been waiting 20 years for the moment that comes 30 minutes into the new epic, "The Forbidden Kingdom," when martial-arts clown Jackie Chan and martial-arts purist Jet Li square off.
Early fumble, no recovery
4/4/2008 | REVIEW | Like the Jazz Age football players it idolizes, George Clooney's "Leatherheads" sets a good pace, holds on to a can-do spirit and has a lot of heart. lso like them unfortunately it's not quite as good as it needs to be, or thinks it is.
Rolling Stones not shining a new light
4/4/2008 | REVIEW | It's impossible to walk into "Shine a Light," Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones concert film, without decades' worth of expectations. We simply know too much about the filmmaker and the rock stars and their previous music-doc outings.
Fulfilling its duty
3/28/2008 | REVIEW | Just because a movie should be seen doesn't mean it will be. "Stop-Loss" is a long-awaited film from a gifted young director. It features great photography, a handsome young cast including Ryan Phillippe and indie-it boy Joseph Gordon-Levitt and a topical and important subject.
'Fat Boy' has promise
3/28/2008 | REVIEW | Casting Simon Pegg to star in a light romantic comedy makes about as much sense as casting him to play a zombie fighter or a supercop.
Snoop Dogg shows us his shmoove side
3/21/2008 | REVIEW | Snoop Dogg, "Ego Trippin' " (Doggystyle/Geffen, 1/2)Sixteen years after this gangsta avatar dropped his G-funk classic "Gin n' Juice," rap icon/TV father Snoop Dogg proves he's as much a gangster of love as he is Cali's smoothest ex-criminal.
Worth your lunch money
3/21/2008 | REVIEW | Every generation needs its "My Bodyguard," its "Three O'Clock High," a come-of-age/face-your-bullies comedy about boys being boys being beaten up by other boys. Thus, "Drillbit Taylor" a laugh-out-loud riff on just that subject, just those boys and one fearsomely psychotic bully.
