Green Zone

Fiery explosions rock Baghdad. A soldier tosses a water bottle to an onlooker as his convoy passes by. Looters rifle through a site reportedly harboring weapons of mass destruction. Director Paul Greengrass very quickly establishes the mood in Iraq, just days before President Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” banner flouted an “end” to [...]

She’s Out of My League

Just from the title I knew this film would be similar to American Pie, a film that I didn’t particularly care for, but which was popular with teenagers. However, I gave it a chance, but was not surprised by the outcome.
Basically, this film is a salute to every nerdy guy out there who thinks [...]

Alice in Wonderland

My thought exiting this movie was: Did Tim Burton actually read Lewis Carroll’s works? It doesn’t seem so. Mr. Burton’s critical failure may be that he only went as far as Disney’s animated adaptation in his research. Not surprising; they’re the ones bankrolling this version.
Alice in Wonderland, very loosely based on Mr. [...]

District 13: Ultimatum

Heavily computer-generated tracking shots race us through the slums of Paris—dregs of society. Leïto (David Belle), a recovering thug, reunites with Capt. Damien Tomasso (Cyril Raffaelli), the protagonist from this film’s 2004 predecessor, written and produced by Luc Besson. Instead of defusing a neutron bomb, an entirely plausible scenario for an officer and [...]

Brooklyn’s Finest

“People protect their lives no matter what,” says a cop as he drives up with new trainee Sal, played by Ethan Hawke. We are then startled with a huge bang as we see Sal trying to quickly save the other guy, and suddenly see Eddie (Richard Gere) waking up from what has been a [...]

The Ghost Writer

There’s an air of familiarity to the story, in more ways than one. Former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) is accused of war crimes and finds himself exiled in a bunker-like estate—a cross between Bauhaus and Usonian architecture. Just prior to these allegations by MP Robert Rycart (Robert Pugh), the original [...]

The Crazies

The Crazies opens with a scene of Main Street in Ogden Marsh, Iowa and it is ablaze. Bodies are strewn in the street, cars destroyed, and there’s not a soul in site. Clearly something horrible has already happened, but what?
The story then picks up two days earlier with David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant), the [...]

Saint John of Las Vegas

Seeing this movie reminded me of how plastic surgeries have anonuymized otherwise notable actors and actresses, obscuring their once unique features beyond recognition. It pleases me to know that even after being stabbed in the throat in a bar fight, Steve Buscemi has maintained his rat-like appearance and snaggle-teeth. I say that with [...]

Cop Out

Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) begin with the mandatory, Glover-Gibson opening about age. They’ve been working together for nine years and, just like the infamous duo in Richard Donner’s template for the buddy-cop action/comedy, they beat that point to death. As is customary, they report to the Constantly Disappointed [...]

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