Sunday, May 19, 2013
One critic says action "relentless and violent" while another says the film eclipses its 2009 predecessor.
The premise, courtesy of the film's official website: When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew. Here's what critics are saying: "Star Trek Into Darkness" is rated PG-13 for PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and …
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Critics describe the adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel as "frenzied," "audacious" and "relentlessly entertaining."
The premise, courtesy of the film's official website: “The Great Gatsby” follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan), and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super-rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible…
Sunday, April 28, 2013
The ensemble comedy features four Academy Award winners.
With an all-star cast lead by Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams, Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried and Topher Grace, "The Big Wedding" is an uproarious romantic comedy about a charmingly modern family trying to survive a weekend wedding celebration that has the potential to become a full blown family fiasco. To the amusement of their adult children and friends, long divorced couple Don and Ellie Griffin (De Niro and Keaton) are once again forced to play the happy couple for the sake of their adopted son's wedding after his ultra conservative biological mother unexpectedly decides to fly halfway across the world to attend. With all of the wedding guests looking on, the Griffins are hilariously forced to confront …
Saturday, April 27, 2013
A '60's radical goes on the run in his 70's to clear his name.
When Sharon Solarz, a former member of the radical Weather Underground (Susan Sarandon) is arrested, her capture sets in motion a twisted series of events. Nick Sloan (Robert Redford), a clean cut, upright attorney in Albany, refuses to take her case, which leads to an ambitious young newspaper (yes, they do still exist) reporter, Ben Shepard (Shia LaBoeuf), outing Sloan as another member of the Weather Underground wanted for killing a guard during a bank robbery. To clear his name, Sloan must reach his former lover Mimi (Julie Christie) before the FBI nabs him. Here's what the critics are saying: There is enough plot here to stuff a trilogy, but the film never finds itself. It doesn’t powerfully condemn or condone the ’70s radicals, and …
Sunday, April 21, 2013
A dystopian vision, a lot of cool gizmos and action hero Tom Cruise--what more could a sci-fi fan want, except a story?
The year is 2077. Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are work partners and lovers on an earth that was destroyed by invading alien Scavengers. Jack and Vicki are preparing to leave earth for Titan, a safe moon where the remaining humans have fled. Jack is plagued by nightmares and visions of his life before in New York. These nightmares hold the key to Jack's existence and the remainder of the plot.....but my lips are sealed. The cast also includes Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Melissa Leo and Zoë Bell. Here's what the critics are saying: The story probably doesn’t stand up to heavy scrutiny, and at times the effort by star and director shows....But at least the effort is there. The film …
Sunday, April 14, 2013
"It's hard not to root for a movie that's in it for the love of the game," says one critic of the film "42."
There are people around who remember when Jackie Robinson entered major league baseball by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. My father was one of them. As someone for whom ability trumped race, Daddy talked about Robinson's skills as a first baseball, a hitter, and most of all, his incredible speed and wily base stealing. He also mentioned the vile, violent reaction many people had to a black man desegregating white baseball. Academy Award winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland directs 42, a baseball biopic about Jackie Robinson during his first season with the Dodgers. The subtitle is "The Story of an American Legend," and it rings true, because Robinson was. He was recruited by Dodgers owner Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) and told not …
Monday, April 8, 2013
The remake of Sam Raimi's 1981 cult classic is being called "a geyser of gore."
Take a young woman with a heroin addiction. Add two friends. Place them in an isolated cabin in the woods. Add her older brother. Then throw in a book of evil spells, malevolent sprits, a basement and trees that could be happy working for Saruman. Put the camera close to the ground and start killing everyone, slathering everything in guts and gore. Voila! You've created Evil Dead, the 2013 remake of Sam Raimi's 1981 cult classic. Here's what the critics are saying: When it was first announced that a remake of Sam Raimi’s classic 80s horror film was being put into production, I was with the rest of you groaning at the idea of yet another Hollywood rehash, but I am now very happy to say that I was wrong. Backed by great performances by a …
Sunday, March 31, 2013
The sequel to "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Roadblock.
The premise, courtesy of the film's official website: A follow-up to the 2009 blockbuster "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," which grossed over $300 million worldwide. In "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," the team is not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra, but they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence. Here's what critics are saying: "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of combat violence and martial arts action throughout, and for brief sensuality and language. The film runs 1 hour, 39 minutes. Playing at Cinema 8 Theaters in Peachtree Corners, 5:15 p.m., 7:55 p.m. and 10:35 p.m. Keep up with what's happening in the community, sign up for the free Peachtree …
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Movie "thumbs its nose at any audience members with a brain," says another critic.
The luminous Halle Berry shows once again why she is an Oscar worthy actress--even a poor script and a mishmash of a plot can't diminish her. The idea for "The Call" is very cool: a 911 dispatcher Jordan (Berry) gets a call from a teenager Casey (Abigail Breslin) who finds herself in a car trunk, speeding along an L.A. freeway with the psycho who kidnapped her. Jordan talks and talks to Casey, trying to calm her down and find out where she is. Which, eventually, they do. They find Casey in a dripping basement with the kidnapper... and a less-than-satisfying ending. Here's what the critics are saying: "The Call" effectively taps into primal fears only to serve up a deflating bit of intended catharsis. On the way, it stoops to "a-ha" moments…
Sunday, March 3, 2013
One critic writes: The movie "eventually emerges as a just-good-enough diversion. Hell of a beanstalk, though."
Director Bryan Singer offers a new take on an old story: Jack and the Bean Stalk. Only there's much more to this version than trading a cow for a handful of magic beans, then retrieving a harp and a gold egg laying fowl.The focus is on the giants, these huge, ugly, nose-picking, human-hating Guys in the Sky. This go-round Jack (Nicholas Hoult ) goes skyward up an amazing beanstalk (definitely a GMO) with a troop of knights to rescue a princess from a race of giants. And then, the giants come down, utilizing more special effects than you can believe possible, some of them very cool. Here's what the critics are saying: The current wave of action-fantasy-adventure films derive from a great many diverse sources: old fairy tales, Tolkien novels…
