Yet another 2011 alien invasion film (there have been at least eight that feature aliens or depict their invasion of Earth), The Darkest Hour is a tidy little thriller set in Russia that intelligently predicts what a actual invasion might entail. […]
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War Horse (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
It would be relatively easy to wring sentiment from a story about a horse and the young man who raises him, and War Horse certainly exploits that relationship about as fully as one would expect. Yet the film is so much […]
Continue reading »We Bought a Zoo (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
While most of us would never have the gumption, the wherewithal or the ability to try to bring a failed zoo back to life, it’s a neat dream, and it’s very cool that somebody actually did it, and now there’s […]
Continue reading »New Year’s Eve (2011) ✰ ✰ ½
This holiday star-fest is a cute little cupcake of a movie, light and frilly-looking, with just enough icing to leave a sweet taste (or be sickening, if one doesn’t care for so much Hollywood icing). This is the second of […]
Continue reading »Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol ✰ ✰ ✰
Long-time Filmbobbery readers may recall that I have not been a big fan of the Mission: Impossible film franchise with Tom Cruise. I even wrote a diatribe about the first two films in my fourth issue, titled “Missions Ridiculous.” Well, that tide […]
Continue reading »Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) ✰ ✰ ½
The second of Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” adventures is, on the whole, about the same as the first. Its story is darker than the first, pushing the brilliant but eccentric private detective (before there was such a thing) across Europe […]
Continue reading »Hugo (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
I have to admit that Martin Scorsese — considered by many to be one of the greatest directors of the past quarter-century — has never been one of my personal favorites. I generally like his movies, but I rarely love […]
Continue reading »The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011) ✰ ✰
Although I have enjoyed and given good reviews to a couple of the Twilight films in recent years, I was bored by Breaking Dawn, Part 1. It is so slowly paced, with so little significant action or plot development, that I […]
Continue reading »My Week with Marilyn (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
Though I have no way to support this thesis, I believe that most people, especially younger audiences, are aware of Marilyn Monroe primarily through her fame — and have never seen her movies. Other than Some Like it Hot, and […]
Continue reading »The Descendants (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
This low-key feature, set in Hawaii, is a fairly rich character study. George Clooney stars as a businessman whose wife has had a boating accident and lies in a coma. His young daughters are too much for him to handle […]
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