Saturday, February 2, 2013
Anything but predictable, the film features Jude Law and Catherine Zeta Jones.
With "Side Effects," director Stephen Soderbergh takes on the doctor/patient relationship; Big Pharma; intimacy; and a host of other issues. If I told you how it works out, you would tar and feather me as The World's Worst Spoiler. Suffice it to say the movie gives us Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara of "Girl With a Dragon Tatoo"), who's reuniting with her husband Martin (Channing Tatum). Martin has spent four years in prison for insider trading, meaning that Emily had to fend for herself as she coped with a less than six-figure income. When the black dog of depression come nipping at her heels, she tries to kill herself, then ends up with psychiatrist Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) and a host of meds, including an experimental one called Ablixa. It …
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Tom Cruise plays an ex-Army investigator who puts the smackdown on just about everyone he meets.
Tom Cruise delves out the punishment as an ex-miltary guy roped into a murder investigation. He's got to take out the bad guys, save the girl and find the real killer in "Jack Reacher." The Jack Reacher book series has been popular for years, now it's moving to the big screen under Cruise control, with the actor as a quiet and deadly man. Cruise is the rare action star who brings both brawn and brains to a role, but in this case he's limited by a weak script. He does, however, excel during the action scenes. Packing quite a punch. A real kick in the pants. See the video here, you will know what I'm talking about. What you see is what you get in this movie. Action, reaction, Cruise being brutal and brash; it's all here. The crime that draws…
Sunday, November 18, 2012
The most popular Dracula-Werewolf soap opera franchise in history comes to an end with a big thanks to all its fans.
The love triangle between Bella (Kristen Stewart), her husband Edward (Robert Pattinson), and Werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) comes to an exciting conclusion in "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn--Part Two." Bella finally gets what she wants. She's a vampire; she's married to a vampire; now she has a half-vampire, half-human kid. That the child is from a mixed marriage doesn't sit well with some of the vampires, causing a bit of a problem. Be ready for a few surprises as the final act of the movie kicks up the stakes with a few twists and turns where anything could happen. Fans of the series will enjoy the film for its romance, humor, and a sweet ending to a series they love so much. Non-fans? Well, there isn't much going on for you here. …
Saturday, October 20, 2012
If you enjoy watching characters sleep while their furniture moves around them, I have just the movie.
A Nevada family plays host to a very odd 6-year-old neighbor boy whose unseen mother has suddenly been hospitalized in "Paranormal Activity 4." A group of young unknown actors jump into the Paranormal Activity formula without a hitch. The long stretches of green night-cam footage manage to creep you out as you try to figure out if you just saw movement in the corner. And when something eventually flies across the screen, no matter how much you try to anticipate it, you jump. A neighborhood witches' coven plays into the proceedings, adding to the drama. In the end, as expected, all you really get is a whole bunch of jolts and scares. If you have seen any of the previous films, it's more of the same. This time around I was more tricked than…
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Six Americans are rescued from Iran in 1980 (true story), and now the real-life drama is a movie, and a good one at that!
On Nov. 4, 1979, a large group of Iranians stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But six Americans did escape. The story about how those six made it out is the set-up for the film "Argo." The six find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. That's when CIA operative Tony Mendez comes in. He's played by Ben Affleck, who also directs the film. He cooks up a plan to fly in alone and fly out with the six, all of them posing as a film crew scouting locations for a faux "Star Wars" knockoff titled "Argo." It's a crazy scheme to get hostages out by fronting a fake movie, but it works…and, at times, it's very funny. There are some great supporting roles for Bryan Cranston, the CIA boss; Alan Arkin, the fake movie …
Sunday, October 7, 2012
It's funny, adventurous, creepy, and even sentimental and with it being in black and white AND 3D, I think it's going to be a hit.
It's part Frankentstein, part Lassie but somehow director Tim Burton makes it work in this stop-motion animation simply called "Frankenweenie." It's the story of a young boy (Frankenstein) who uses all of his talents to bring back his beloved dead dog. There are a lot of references to old horror movies all wrapped up in a heartwarming boy-and-his-dog film the whole family should enjoy. Several celebrities lend their voices to this film that should appeal most to mom and dad. Fans of Boris Karloff will also enjoy this. It's strange in a Tim Burton kind of way but, in my opinion, some of his best work in a long, long time. The characters are all pretty amusing and Victor Frankenstein is a suitable hero for this family-friendly horror film …
Saturday, September 29, 2012
A new animation about vampires is a twisted version of "Twilight," with a whole bunch of fart jokes. The good news is it doesn't stink.
Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy...they all come out in this 3D animation where monsters who have to get away from humans and the horrors of modern life head to Hotel Transylvania. Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) is the head of the house at Hotel Transylvania. And when his daughter Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez) longs for the human world, problems arise, causing quite a scare for the hotel guests. There are more than a dozen celebrity voiceover characters here which does add to the mainly slapstick animation consisting of supernatural chase scenes and jokes involving excrement, ectoplasmic goo, rear ends and breaking wind. The film is a perfectly Halloween-themed movie for kids, but leaves very little for the adults. It's a fun film …
Saturday, September 15, 2012
The "Resident Evil" franchise is back with a fifth movie. There is plenty of action, plenty of zombies, all in 3D. Simply put, it may be the best one yet.
Milla Jovovich jumps back into her role as Alice. This time, she is trapped inside a compound making this a great rescue mission, as she tries to escape the land of zombies in "Resident Evil: Retribution." Fans of the franchise will love the resurrection of some familiar actors from other Resident Evil movies, along with some new ones. This film feels more like a video game than previous films because Alice has to go through different levels to escape. The acting, overall, is not that great. But, really, fans of the franchise aren't there for that. It's all about the action, and there is plenty of it. The Moscow scene involving a Rolls-Royce car chase and Russian zombies was perhaps my favorite. But I digress. Die-hard fans of the series…
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Which one of these movies will you see this weekend?
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Saturday, August 25, 2012
Several new movies open in theaters this weekend. Click on the links below for more information about these new releases and watch the trailers for a preview. "The Apparition" - A young couple discover they are being haunted by an entity that was accidentally conjured during a parapsychology experiment gone awry. The movie is rated PG-13 and stars Sebastian Stan, Tom Felton and Ashley Greene. "Premium Rush" - A routine, "premium rush" delivery turns into a life or death chase through the streets of Manhattan. The movie is rated PG-13 and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Dania Ramirez. "Thunderstruck" - NBA superstar Kevin Durant finds himself suddenly unable to make a shot after his basketball "powers" are magically switched with the less …
Saturday, August 18, 2012
A cast of long in the tooth action stars provides adrenaline junkies with a summer film sendoff that is “loud and dumb but great fun.”
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Saturday, August 18, 2012
Practically all the living action hero movie stars known to man are back in “The Expendables 2.” In this sequel to the 2010 film “The Expendables,” Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) leads his motley, muscle-bound crew on a simple job commissioned by Mr. Church (Bruce Willis). When things go wrong, Ross and the gang -- according to the movie website -- cut “a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time.” Is the action-filled sequel worth seeing? Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as the “sendoff adrenaline junkies are seeking before the more sedate pace of fall releases.” “Taut, humorous and attractively packaged, the sequel is both fleet footed…
