3 stars out of 5
This wasn’t supposed to happen. A sequel to a mildly amusing family adventure flick isn’t supposed to be funny, entertaining and easily the most delightful film seen this year, yet, despite nearly the same plot from its predecessor and most of the same jokes, Night at the Museum: Battle of the [...]

2 stars out of 5
As expected, the superhero genre is running out of steam. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the latest spandex adventure from Marvel Studios, the feature has also run out of script, interest, and the ability to manage great characters. Pity, because Wolverine is a tailor-made fit and poster boy for where the [...]

2.5 stars out of 5
In 17 Again, Fred Savage plays a…no, that’s not right. Kirk Cameron is…no, hold on a second. Tom Hanks is all grown up -damn. Okay, I have it. Zac Efron plays young Mike O’Donnell, a former super-stud high school basketball player who grew up to be Matthew Perry. Once the [...]

3.5 stars out of 5
Every so often a film comes along that subtly stirs a person, not by using flim-flam nostalgia gimmicks to warp audiences to better times through the Way-Back Machine (The Wedding Singer), but by pure unadulterated authenticity and emotion. Adventureland isn’t what viewers keen on its funny trailer will be expecting. [...]

3.5 stars out of 5
Raw brutality mixed with a simple message of hope is a popular, yet potent formula with filmmakers. Sometimes the percentages work (The Shawshank Redemption) while other times the violence overshadows the message (The Passion of the Christ). In Cary Joji Fukunaga’s debut film, Sin Nombre (“Nameless”), the California born writer/director of [...]

2.5 stars out of 5
1950s America holds this nostalgic magical power over us. Sweet, sweet memories of a decade a lot of us have never seen with our own eyes. That doesn’t matter though. We’ve seen it on screen and,goshdarnit, that counts for something. Watching June Clever make lemonade, Patty Duke going apenuts over [...]

2 stars out of 5
The sooner Nicolas Cage stops indulging himself in roles that accommodate his fetish for romanticizing his childhood, the better he and audiences will be for it. Remember the good times with his roles in Leaving Las Vegas, Raising Arizona and Adaptation? Somewhere around The Weatherman, Mr. Cage has been making [...]

4 stars out of 5
On the surface (and when we talk “surface”, we mean previews that divulge way too much plot) Duplicity looks like another ho-hum romantic thriller that combines sexual tension with a wacky premise for swooning results. Not true. Rather than another paint-by-numbers offering that is more apt to capture redundancy rather [...]

2.5 stars out of 5
Alien movies hold a special place in pop moviedom. From the rich message of 1951’s The Day the Earth Stood Still to its craptacular modern version, aliens either come to Earth to enslave mankind, give humans a stern talking-to or they crash land and need to escape Federal authorities who [...]

3.5 stars out of 5
Watchmen has cards stacked against it. Audiences for the sliver screen adaptation of the mid-’80s graphic novel will fall into three camps: 1) those who are devoted to the original source from DC comics and are purists who want no deviation from what’s considered a holy book, 2) people who [...]