As some of you may know I have been very conflicted about this movie, because it involves kids forced to kill other kids, a premise which, frankly, sickens me. I was seriously considering boycotting the film because of this, but […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
Act of Valor (2012) ✰ ✰
Act of Valor is a tribute to U.S. Navy SEALs, people who place themselves in harm’s way to protect us from foreign adversaries. It shows its men (no women) as hard-training, family-oriented warriors who kiss their loved ones goodbye prior to […]
Continue reading »John Carter (of Mars) (2012) ✰ ✰
This movie, because of its huge budget and lowly returns, will forever be known as one of the costliest flops in cinema history. Yet that doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie. Like most movies it’s fair to middling, with not […]
Continue reading »This Means War (2012) ✰ ✰ ✰
Back in the 1980s when director John Badham was working steadily, his projects were usually credited as “A John Badham Movie,” with the more casual “movie” replacing the more formal (and common) “film.” This Means War is exactly that same type […]
Continue reading »Big Miracle (2012) ✰ ✰ ✰
If you’ve seen the preview for Big Miracle, you know what to expect: an earnest, tear-jerking, heart-warming story of people coming together to save a trio of gray whales stranded in the Arctic. The movie delivers that much, and a […]
Continue reading »Red Tails (2012) ✰ ✰ ½
This fictionalization of the history and legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen is a very controversial movie, it seems. Red Tails joins the Airmen as a unit stationed in Italy, bypassed for important missions and on the verge of being canceled. Need […]
Continue reading »Chronicle (2012) ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
I suspect that, whether they would admit or not, most people over the age of, say, twelve, are sick of superhero movies. There have been too many over the last fifteen years, and way too many of them have been […]
Continue reading »Man on a Ledge (2012) ✰ ✰ ½
A lightweight heist movie, Man on a Ledge almost works well enough to unashamedly recommend, but not quite. Its final act brings to an abrupt end all the loose threads of its intriguing characters and stories, resulting in a tapestry that, […]
Continue reading »The Grey (2012) ✰ ✰ ✰
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 […]
Continue reading »Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) ✰ ✰ ½
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 […]
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