Monthly Archives: January 2013

What’s the old saying, “3D fool me once, shame on you, 3D fool me twice, shame on me?” “Clash of the Titans” was a nearly humorless, overly digitized remake of a piece of sword and sorcery cheese from the 1980s, … Continue reading →

The almost non-stop chase of the new “Total Recall” isn’t enough, by itself, to make one forget the earlier take on this Philip K. Dick story back in the last century. And for all the effects, the action and the … Continue reading →

“Trouble With the Curve” is a baseball dramedy that telegraphs its pitches, an amiable, meandering character study whose big plot points hang there like the curve balls of its title. We see them coming a long time before they get … Continue reading →

“Jeff, Who Lives at Home” could be just another quirky, abrasive and unconventional relations comedy from the Duplass Brothers, the fellows who gave us The Puffy Chair” and last year’s “Cyrus.” It starts with the assertion — by Jeff (Jason … Continue reading →

In nature, lightning occasionally strikes the same place twice. In the movies, it almost never happens. So as good as Liam Neeson was in “Taken,” as good as he often is in “Taken 2,” the sequel — about the family … Continue reading →

“Jack and Diane” is a dour and downbeat young-lesbians-in-love romance that spares us those usual motion picture viewing experiences — the occasional high and low. It’s flat, with the inexpressive Jack (Riley Keogh of “Magic Mike”) putting the unromantic and … Continue reading →

The WuTang Clan rapper RZA, aka Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, takes on acting, writing, directing, composing and rapping duties on his film, “The Man with the Iron Fists.” That makes him, what, a quintuple threat? And a threat to what? He’s … Continue reading →

 From the moment her name and the subject of her next film was announced, you knew Meryl Streep’s performance as/impersonation of Margaret Thatcher had Oscar written all over it. And true to form, the Academy might as well emboss her … Continue reading →

 When everything in a movie is an effect, they cease to be “special.” So limiting effects to the basics, especially in a horror movie, especially one as lean and primal as “intruders,” is how you make them truly “special” again … Continue reading →

Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, co-writers and directors of “The Intouchables,” had to be feeling pretty good about themselves and their movie. A blockbuster in France, a hit throughout Europe, winners of Cesar (the French Oscars) and David di Donatello … Continue reading →