Daily Archives: April 22, 2013

Jeff Bridges, WAY over the top. Ryan Reynolds, in AWE of it. Dead cops keeping dead bad guys from re-infecting the EArth. Dazzling effects and laugh-out-loud gags. “R.I.P.D.” opens July 19.

The original came out in 2004, when Vince and Ben & the “Frat Pack” were at their peak. Now, almost ten years later, Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn and a screenwriter are envisioning a sequel, with Ben and Vince on … Continue reading →

“At Any Price” is an engrossing if somewhat over-the-top “trouble on the farm” melodrama. The troubles facing this corner of Iowa fall just short of Biblical as they pack in everything but a drought and plagues of locusts. Indie director … Continue reading →

There’s something utterly unnerving about seeing a child with an AK-47. He can beNigerian, Sudanese or Canadian, but the sense of innocence lost, of that “Lord of the Flies” cruel streak too many of us carry with us makes the … Continue reading →

Music’s School of Hard Knocks produces another alumna in “Filly Brown,” a gritty and well-acted  Latin hip hop variation of a long reliable formula. Gina Rodriguez delivers a breakout performance in the title role, a tough, two-fisted rapper named Majo … Continue reading →

The cinema’s leading purveyor of Southern Gothic, Jeff Nichols, hands Matthew McConaughey his latest tour de force turn in “Mud,” a down and dirty if entirely-too-long mythic melodrama in the “Tobacco Road” tradition. Nichols (“Shotgun Stories,” “Take Shelter”) has cooked … Continue reading →

“Oblivion” came in at just over $38 million, a quite decent take for a big budget sci-fi film and in the ballpark, at least, of the better Tom Cruise openings in recent years. “42” held on to enough audience to … Continue reading →