Daily Archives: January 31, 2013

Joaquin Phoenix gets the last laugh after all. For months, he earned entertainment headlines on a par with Britney or Lindsay or any other misbehaving celebrity. And it was all a hoax.

“Due Date” aims the slow burn of Robert Downey Jr. at the addled idiocy of Zach Galifianakis in a  “Hangover” director’s version of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.” And shockingly, it’s funny. Often in shocking or at least wildly inappropriate ways.

Uneven and sloppily sentimental,  “Life as We Know It” is still the best Katherine Heigl  comedy since “Knocked Up.” Credit her co-star, Josh Duhamel for that. As he has done in many a less worthy romantic comedy, he amplifies her … Continue reading →

  Yes, he’s married to Fergie. And for all the hits he’s turned up in, he hasn’t quite broken out. Yet. Josh Duhamel has classed up many a flailing romantic comedy (“When in Rome”), propped up many a failing leading … Continue reading →

The onslaught of good reviews (mine here) for the zombie romantic comedy “Warm Bodies” may not turn it into the Zombie “Twilight.” But they won’t hurt. “Bullet to the Head” (review here) will let us see if Stallone can drag … Continue reading →

“You’re going nowhere,” his school headmaster tells him. “Is nowhere full of geniuses, sir?” the young John Lennon snaps back. “Because if it is, I do belong there.” The quick wit, sarcasm and self-confidence are evident in the young Lennon, … Continue reading →

Whatever its shortcomings, director Jim Sheridan and stars Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts deserved better than the give-away-the-store trailer that Universal delivered for “Dream House.”

Secretariat, the 1970s super horse, was no Seabiscuit. And that creates problems that “Secretariat,” the movie, never overcomes. A well-acted tale of an underdog’s triumph that sorely lacks an underdog, it teeters between pleasantly generic film biography and rank manipulation.

Oh, that “RED” was the giddy romp it might have been, it promises to be or it thinks it is. It has the best cast of any action comedy movie, maybe ever:  four-Oscar-winners plus  Bruce Willis. But despite that and … Continue reading →