Avatar: A wonder to behold, a story to forgetI had more than a few reservations going into James Cameron’s Avatar. It wasn’t the hype so much (“the most expensive film ever made!&rdq]]> Based on the graphic novel by Posy Symmonds, Stephen Frears’ Tamara Drewe sucks you in with its intriguing situation and attractive title character, an ugly duckling who returns to her hometown ]]> Untitled Document As of late the big question regarding Jon Favreau’s Iron Man hasn’t been whether it will please the comic geeks who are ea]]> The tepid thriller The Cold Light of Day is the sort of movie that makes you appreciate the genius of Alfred Hitchcock. Its plot of an ordinary man thrown into a case of international espionage is the]]> The last thing I expected when walking in to see Kevin James’ latest, Here Comes the Boom, was to be surprised by it. Wouldn’t you know it – I was – and pleasantly at that. The]]> Untitled Document What has happened to the musical genre? We used to get peppy children singing and dancing on mountains, or women trying to wash men out of their hair. Now it]]> Director Baz Luhrmann is one of the more polemic filmmakers working today. While many praise his modern take on the Bard with his Romeo Juliet (1996) and his radical musical Moulin Rouge (2001), oth]]> Very rarely is a film able to capture current events in the way Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty does. Chronicling the United States’ efforts to capture Osama bin Laden, the project was ]]> Ghost Protocol pulls off the impossible Like Fast Five, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol shows that not all action film franchises have to go quiet into that good night. Inventive, thrilling and sma]]> In the world of film, 2008 will be remembered as the year in which the industry proved it could thrive even when the economy did not. Never before were there so many films that grossed ov]]> Untitled Document Once May rolls around, you can’t pick up an entertainment magazine without seeing a story on the slate of big summer movie releases. Flicks such as Iron M]]> Upon seeing mixed martial arts champion Gina Carano dispatch one of her opponents during a short-lived title match, director Stephen Soderbergh wondered why no one had turned her into an action star. ]]> A trend has emerged where franchise filmmaking is concerned. Often, the second part of a given series of movies winds up being better than the first. So much time is spent in part one on the expositio]]> Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 has the unenviable task of following Joss Whedon’s widely entertaining The Avengers as the next Marvel Studios movie out of the chute. Too bad that Iron Man 3 gets]]> Identity Thief is the sort of film that attempts a great deal and succeeds at nothing. At once a slapstick comedy, a chase film and an exercise in tear jerking, director Seth Gordon fails to achieve a]]> In a recent interview, director Sam Mendes stated that Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight “gave me the confidence to take Skyfall in directions that might not have been possible before it]]> Will Gluck’s Friends with Benefits is two – count ’em – two movies in one. The first is a lighthearted, “hip” urban comedy that tries hard to please but falls flat ]]> It’s not uncommon for life to get in the way of your becoming the person you want to be. But what’s ironic is that you often don’t realize that you’re failing to realize your g]]>