Daily Archives: December 28, 2012

  Forget “Jack and Jill” and the fact that Adam Sandler plays them both and not particularly well in his new “twins” comedy. Al and Pacino almost reason enough to see it, all by his bigger-than-life self. Can I get … Continue reading →

Grisly, gross, messy — and I’m not just talking about Mickey Rourke’s table manners in “Immortals,” Tarsem Singh’s pseudo-arty melding of spatter film to the sword-and-sorcery genre. Rourke, playing the megalomaniacal King Hyperion, out to release the Titans, crush humanity … Continue reading →

The movies don’t do romantic longing very well any more. It’s trickier than it was in the old “An Affair to Remember” days, when love on the big screen had patience. But Felicity Jones will break your heart at least … Continue reading →

An artist, the old saying goes, is someone who pound the same nails, over and over again. For the great Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, those nails include the boundaries of sexual identity and sexual perversion, and his “mommy issues.” All … Continue reading →

“Happy Feet Two” is to 2006’s “Happy Feet” what “Babe: Pig in the City” was to “Babe,” a clever and adorable original film remade with most of the charm wrung out of it.

  At long last, “The Twilight Saga” sinks utterly into camp with “Breaking Dawn: Part 1.” When you’re not giggling at the jokes — and this is the first film in this absurdly self-serious series to take itself lightly — … Continue reading →

Michelle Williams doesn’t so much impersonate Marilyn Monroe as suggest her in the entertaining new bio-drama “My Week With Marilyn.” She doesn’t have Monroe’s overripe figure, Kewpie doll cheeks or ‘C’mere and kiss me’ lips. There’s va-va without the voom. … Continue reading →

Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” is a children’s film for grownups — grownup film buffs. It’s a charming and quite gorgeous exercise in thew few corners of the medium where the Oscar-winning filmmaker has next to no experience — children’s stories, comedy … Continue reading →

The big screen revival of The Muppets, cleverly titled “The Muppets,” is a generally charming exercise in nostalgia. The musical comedy whimsically and often cleverly  revisits the characters, their shtick and and the TV show and movies that made them … Continue reading →

“Arthur Christmas” is a spirited, comically chaotic and adorably anarchic addition to the world’s over-supply of holiday cartoons. It’s very British, in other words — from its producers (Aardman, the folks who gave us “Wallace & Gromit”) to its voice … Continue reading →