Screen

Best and worst movies of 2013

0
This is the worst because it’s the best. Let me explain. The only thing worse than years virtually free of good movies are years when I could make a top 10 list from the films I cut from my final top 10 list. What I’m sayin’ is: 2013 was real, real good, y’all...

Talking twinkies

0
The Lego Movie being somehow good ruined our ability to completely dismiss a film’s concept upon first hearing it. Who knows, maybe Minions would be infused with the same cleverness, the same all-ages wonder and fun? In the first 10 minutes, a pillshaped living ...

Next-best thing

0
Operatic characters are larger than life. Especially when projected on a 20-foot tall movie screen...

UFO snark

0
Most modern comedies end up being so stupid that it’s painful to watch the actors embarrass themselves on the big screen. That’s why it’s a pleasure to see comic team Simon Pegg and Nick Frost skewer the alien conspiracy genre in the consistently funny Paul...

Lonely Hearts’ Club

0
Let’s be honest, Love Is All You Need (or Den Skaldede Frisør if Danish is more than a donut to you) is basically redundant escapist fantasy. But when the fantasy services the desires of middle-aged women struggling with uncompassionate husbands and cancer and not ...

‘X-Men’ meets ‘90210’

0
Imagine the cast of Beverly Hills, 90210 being dropped into Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters from the X-Men movies and you’ll have a sense of the uneven pastiche that is I Am Number Four...

Jonze takes ‘Wild’ risks; succeeds

0
Truly, I am madly, deeply in love with the film version of Where the Wild Things Are. Not since Robert Altman took on Popeye a generation ago, and lost, has a major director addressed such a well-loved, all-ages title. This time everything works, from tip to tail, ...

Sherlock Holmes minus the mystery

0
While I enjoyed the 2009 Guy Ritchie reinvention of the fabled detective in Sherlock Holmes, applying the same formula in this newer film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows proved more a boring, tedious exercise in special effects and self-conscious filmmaking and ...

Nostalgic puppets to the rescue

0
A frisky new film showcasing some old pals made out of felt, charm and some kind of genius, the Disney release The Muppets overcomes a jaded streak reflecting its makers’ nervousness about selling Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and the gang to an audience ...

Solid-iron fun

0
Iron Man 2 is not a perfect movie, but it’s sure fun and engaging. The new story twists, the health issue that Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) faces and the half-baked but disturbing archenemy Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) add up to a film that’s sure to be the first ...

‘Arthur’ a tipsy remake

0
From one perspective, the well-lubricated yet stiff-jointed 1981 comedy Arthur, the one about the millionaire Manhattan drunkard played by Dudley Moore, was ripe for a remake. It scored a huge popular success early in the Reagan era, when unexamined wealth was king. ...

Got ham?

0
Editor’s note: As of press time, the connection between The Dark Knight Rises and the recent massacre that occurred at the movie theater in Aurora remains unclear...