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 »

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 »

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 »

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 […]

Continue reading »

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 […]

Continue reading »

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 […]

Continue reading »

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 […]

Continue reading »

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 […]

Continue reading »

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 […]

Continue reading »

Steven Spielberg has long been a fan of the internationally popular Belgian / French comic strip “The Adventures of Tintin,” and finally has directed a movie adaptation of the same name. It is fast-paced, almost absurdly energetic, with enough action, […]

Continue reading »