Daily Archives: January 16, 2013

Aura is 22, fresh out of college with a degree in film theory and no direction, no sense of how to “get started” on life, career, etc. She’s just been dumped by her college beau, and she’s moved back to … Continue reading →

Ivan Reitman — whose directing career (“Ghostbusters”) is so long in the tooth that he actually has a son, Jason, directing Oscar-worthy comedies — has his best outing in decades with “No Strings Attached,” an amusing flip of the “friends … Continue reading →

It doesn’t take four minutes for “Rio” to set itself apart from all the “Ice Age” movies the animators at Blue Sky  made before it.  A rain forest filled with parrots, macaws, cockatoos and toucans sing and dance the samba … Continue reading →

They’re making a jihadist video, these “Four Lions,” posing in front of a jihadist flag, making their threats and promises of destruction of the “Jews” and “imperialists” and uh, “slags.” They’re Brits, OK? And they’re not doing well with the … Continue reading →

“Voyage of the Dawn Treader” is either a spirited revival of the film franchise based on the C.S. Lewis children’s Narnia novels, or an entertaining and emotionally satisfying coda to “The Chronicles of Narnia.” In the able care of veteran … Continue reading →

The German director of the sublime, subtle and chilling surveillance thriller “The Lives of Others:” might not have been the best choice for tackling the dressy and daft spy romance, “The Tourist.” But even if Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck lacked … Continue reading →

“Voluptuous” doesn’t quite do the Gemma Arterton justice. It leaves out her voluminous hair, her perma-pout and those eyes so dark no cinematographer seems able to coax color from them. And “overripe” seems a tad mean. No sense mincing around … Continue reading →

Acting for the silver screen doesn’t get more raw, moving or accomplished than what you see in “The Fighter,” that rare film in which every performer in it leaves the viewer in awe. The quartet at its heart — Christian … Continue reading →

When the book is written on the great character-actor-masquerading-as-a-leading-man Edward Norton, somebody’s going to discover an early childhood love of trickery, con jobs and practical jokes. How else do you explain his career-long fascination with putting one over on the … Continue reading →

Like “Avatar,” “TRON: Legacy” takes us into a world of digital imagination, a dreamscape Netscape of blacks and blues and neon-lit “programs” and disc-duels for the teeming masses of bits and bytes. It’s a gorgeous sequel to 1982’s “TRON,” a … Continue reading →