Monthly Archives: January 2013

The odd, opportunistic and eccentric programming of Netflix streaming, the way the service lumps genres together and serves up possibilities, means that you’re always stumbling across something odd and old, or new and surprising — a movie you haven’t seen … Continue reading →

And “Martha Marcy May Marlene” and “Identity” and so many other films. He’s been around for years and years, and every now and then I’m flipping the dial and there he is in another film that I hadn’t realized he … Continue reading →

Steven Spielberg’s Abe Lincoln bio has long seemed like the “safe” choice for Oscar favorite this year, thanks to the tone, the detail, and the fine performance by Daniel Day-Lewis. Now the BAFTAs are further confirming that, honoring Spielberg’s picture … Continue reading →

After “Contraband,” a break-out hit of last January, the first month of the year seems to belong to Mark Wahlberg. He is to January what Will Smith was to July 4, back in the 90s and early 2000s. Wahlberg has … Continue reading →

These are always worth a chuckle, some years more than others. Will the Golden Raspberry go to “Battleship” or to “Madea’s Witless Protection?” Such a list of infamy — so many bad movies. Some (“Breaking Dawn Part 2”) not quite … Continue reading →

All the pre-Oscar awards hubbub is pointing toward these self-evident truths. “Lincoln” is in. So is “Zero Dark Thirty.” And “Les Miserables.” Probably “Life of Pi.” Possibly “Django Unchained.” “The Silver Linings Playbook”? Also possible. “Argo”? Love that Ben. Probable. … Continue reading →

MIAMI BEACH — In the half dozen years that he’s been a movie star, Channing Tatum could be excused for skipping the exercise of reading his reviews. He’s been in some big hits — “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” … Continue reading →

The British comic book “Judge Dredd” made its debut in the mid-1970s, a helmeted lawman who was judge, jury and executioner in a nearly lawless anarchy of the future. Coming out in the recession-wracked ’70s, when civil unrest were common … Continue reading →

Seeing this title turn up, suddenly, post-“Super Storm Sandy” — on Netflix streaming made me laugh. And wince. There’s all this new polling out that suggests, thanks to that storm, the extended drought in the Red State midwest, “the hottest … Continue reading →