On first blush, Annie would not seem to interest me very much.  But I liked the preview, which promised energy and vitality; the performers, who are talented and likable; and an updated view of an old-fashioned source.  I am not much […]

Great movies surface during awards season, but my cynical side also notes that actors often take roles that they believe or hope will surface during awards season to capture those very awards.  Reese Witherspoon’s decision to make Wild seems to me […]

I’ve liked the first two entrants in the “Hobbit” trilogy, more so than the three “Lord of the Rings” movies, but this third Hobbit movie — serving as the bridge between the two series — is disappointing to me because […]

The recent death of Louis Zamperini, the subject of Unbroken, adds a poignancy to its release that both enhances and undermines Angelina Jolie’s chronicle of his survival. On one hand, Unbroken, based on Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling account of Zamperini’s tremendous […]

I like to judge movies according to how well I believe they have fulfilled their ambition.  Sure, it’s subjective, but what approach isn’t?  You can tell that some films are satisfied to entertain, to amuse, to frighten, to tell a […]

St. Vincent is one strange movie.  It centers on a deeply troubled man, Vincent MacKenna (Bill Murray) whose isolated life of drudgery is interrupted by the arrival of new neighbors — and a second chance.  The neighbor kid, Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher), […]

Modern animated films offer unlimited opportunity for imagination to run wild, and when they are really, really well done they often become blockbusters.  Big Hero 6  deserves to be a blockbuster; it is a marvelous movie that revels in the […]

Anyone who regularly reads my reviews knows that I often bemoan the state of modern film comedy, which so often now wallows in vulgarity and raunchiness instead of actually trying to be legitimately, intelligently funny.  Read my review of We’re […]

I was, and continue to be, disturbed by the premise of the first Hunger Games movie (I’ve not read the books) in which teenagers and children are forced to hunt and kill other teenagers and children as a form of futuristic […]