I’m not sure I would ever want to see it again, or at least any time soon, but I think Joe Carnahan’s outdoor survival saga, The Grey, is pretty good. It is appropriately rugged, and bloody, and downbeat. It is […]

When I wrote my book about Korean War movies, I grew to accept the dictum that Hollywood, generally, is about five years behind the times, that it takes about five years to gain the proper perspective to make movies about […]

I enjoyed the book more, yet the film version of the initial Stephanie Plum adventure is not bad. Katherine Heigl quickly becomes comfortable in the role and isn’t hesitant to allow Plum to act foolishly or talk too much. Plum […]

I have liked many of John le Carré’s espionage novels, which chronicle in exhaustive detail the intricacies of how international spycraft is truly manifested. Le Carré’s books are long, and somewhat difficult to initially penetrate, because they are so filled […]

Other than the performance of Meryl Streep as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” of the title, and a superb makeup job in getting Streep to look gentrified, this apologetic look at Thatcher’s rise to power in […]

Some movies are essentially plays staged on film, and Roman Polanski’s version of Carnage certainly qualifies. Its story concerns two pairs of parents who meet to discuss one child’s bullying of another. The drama (and some comedy) plays out in a […]

Mark Wahlberg has impressively progressed from a teenaged troublemaker to a polished actor. He’ll never be an Olivier, but Wahlberg possesses the intensity and sincerity to put across tough, physical roles that also require streetwise smarts. He is a perfect […]