Author Archives: Roger Moore

That first sight of a grain elevator in a crime film signals to us that no matter how dark and bloody things turn, the violence is going to have a funny edge. It’s “The Fargo Effect,” and even if “Cut … Continue reading →

She just turned 21. So perhaps the cruel truth can be at last be said about Dakota Fanning without fear of being called a child-abuser. Whatever “it” is, that spark that film actresses and actors have that makes them interesting … Continue reading →

There’s an extraneous word in the title of the thriller “The Girl is in Trouble.” The moment we meet the sexy, calculating Swede Signe (Alicja Bachleda), we know the girl IS trouble. But co-writer/director Julius Onah’s clever genre film never … Continue reading →

“Danny Collins” may be the closest Al Pacino ever gets to playing Pacino the legend on the big screen. Perma-tanned under that vast black mane and Mephistophelian goatee, blinged in the Jersey Italian style, effortlessly larger than life and bowl-you-over … Continue reading →

Good acting and sharp editing make “The Barber” a most engrossing serial killer thriller. But too much talk, mostly in a lecturing over-explained finale, almost undoes all of that. Scott Glenn has the title role, a Chicago man once a … Continue reading →

“Home” is a energetic, obvious animated comedy packed with the sort of low humor and silly laughs that drive very small children wild. It’s a lesser Dreamworks work, in other words, no more ambitious than those later “Madagascar” movies. There’s … Continue reading →

The time-honored actor/actress tradition of “if Hollywood won’t hire me, I’ll make work for myself” is the origin story of “Apartment Troubles,” a nearly laughless comedy that doesn’t do its writer/director/stars any favors. But cute character comics Jennifer Prediger (“Life … Continue reading →