Daily Archives: January 4, 2013

“People Like Us” is a well-acted weeper that walks an unsteady line between the emotional and the darkly comical. It’s about a guy who realizes he has a half sister, and who injects himself into her life without explaining who … Continue reading →

You can be forgiven for puzzling over the first 30 minutes of “People v. The State of Illusion.” An odd blend of documentary, docu-drama and motivational speech, the question “What are they trying to sell me here?” leaps to mind … Continue reading →

“Peace, Love  & Misunderstanding” is a forgiving little trifle, an open air feast of Woodstock Generation cliches. How much you forgive this easygoing romantic comedy depends on your tolerance for tie-dye, Jane Fonda, senior citizens who never outgrew their ’60s … Continue reading →

Norman, the young hero of the animated delight “ParaNorman,” hears dead people. He sees them, too. So there’s no sense trying to comfort him because you think he’s missing his dead grandma too much. “Grandma’s in a better place.” “In … Continue reading →

The stars of “The Paperboy,” the ones who did their due diligence anyway, must be kicking themselves. They didn’t get to work with the Lee Daniels who directed the Oscar winning “Precious,” but were stuck with the Lee Daniels who … Continue reading →

A confined space and mismatched characters forced together by their traveling conditions are the recipe for “Overnight,” a wan comedy about passengers on an overnight cross-country flight. They’re all looking for love, or to hang onto love, or to justify … Continue reading →

On today’s edition of “Smart Women, Stupid Choices,” Katherine Heigl! She left a halfway decent medical soap opera for a string of of increasingly mediocre, decreasingly romantic “comedies” pairing her with increasingly bland leading men.

 It’s ironic that the studio founded by the son of Hollywood founding father Samuel Goldwyn should be the one releasing “October Baby.” Apparently, the acquisitions department never took to heart Goldwyn the elder’s most famous Goldwynism about what movies are … Continue reading →

Well, “Green Lantern” isn’t “Jonah Hex” bad. But it’s silly enough to be part of the same “silliest Warner Brothers comic book summer movies of all time” conversation.

“Moneyball” is a thinking person’s baseball movie, and a baseball fan’s thinking movie. Sure, it’s based on the Michael Lewis book about Billy Beane, the ex-ballplayer turned Oakland A’s general manager who upended the game by rebuilding his team through … Continue reading →