Chronicle

Found-footage movies have been a mixed bag since they burst on the scene about a decade ago, with few having the conviction to follow through on their concept. The next title on the list is Chronicle, a stylish low-budget science fiction effort that skillfully mixes genres yet lacks a sufficient payoff for its intriguing premise. [...]

Big Miracle

For a movie that’s based on a true story, Big Miracle requires an enormous suspension of disbelief. It’s a slick crowd-pleaser about the rescue of trapped whales that focuses too much on the rescuers and not enough on the rescuing. The film is based on the saga of a trio of gray whales trapped underneath [...]

Capsule reviews for Feb. 3

The Innkeepers Part slacker workplace comedy and part haunted-house story, the latest horror saga from writer-director Ti West (The House of the Devil) is a fictional tale set during a weekend at the real-life Yankee Pedlar Inn, a rundown New England hotel that employees Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) believe to be inhabited [...]

The Grey

Like the stranded-plane crash survivors in its story, The Grey dies a slow and gloomy death, leaving viewers out in the cold. This testosterone-fueled psychological thriller from director Joe Carnahan (The A-Team) is a raw tale of survival that unfortunately has a promising setup without much of a payoff. The story takes place in rural [...]

Man on a Ledge

Not more than two minutes into Man on a Ledge, we get the particulars. The ledge is on the 25th floor of the venerable Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, and the man perched upon it is a suicidal ex-con dealing with a host of family issues. Thus begins the challenge of this thriller from Danish director [...]

Capsule reviews for Jan. 27

Albert Nobbs Glenn Close gives a bold and convincing performance in the title role of this otherwise stodgy period drama, playing a woman who must pass as a man in order to keep a job as a servant at a 19th century Dublin hotel. His life of quiet isolation is threatened by the arrival of [...]

The Flowers of War

Zhang Yimou might be one of the most versatile and prolific Chinese directors of his generation. Yet for its ambitious scope, The Flowers of War is one of his lesser efforts. It’s a contrived look at wartime heroism taking place during the Japanese attack on Nanjing during 1937, which ranks as one of the darkest [...]

Red Tails

Fighter pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen played a small but critical role in American air operations in Europe during World War II. Because the squadron was comprised entirely of black aviators during times of widespread segregation, the unit’s contributions were even more significant. Yet there’s only a fraction of that story found in Red [...]

Haywire

Brutal, often shocking violence punctuates the opening fight sequence in Haywire, and it’s a sign of things to come. This low-key international thriller from prolific director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) features about a half-dozen instances of raw hand-to-hand combat with a female assassin who isn’t afraid to mix it up with the boys. There’s not much [...]

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