Chuck Koplinski

Anyone familiar with the cult sci-fi film Logan’s Run, the paranoid medical thriller Coma, or that brilliant modern take on existentialism, The Truman Show, will quickly piece together the plot that drives The Island. Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson) think that they’re survivors of an apocalyptic cataclysm known as […]

At first blush, Wedding Crashers looks like a surefire winner, featuring two immensely popular actors, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, in a shameless premise that allows them to tackle roles they excel at. However, all of the pieces don’t fall neatly into place in this ribald comedy. As divorce mediators, John and Jeremy (Wilson and Vaughn) […]

Walter Salles’ Dark Water is a gripping exercise in horror that opts for subtlety over bombast as it delivers legitimately creepy entertainment and, more surprisingly, a genuinely moving love story. Jennifer Connelly portrays Dahlia Williams, a beleaguered woman who’s forced to move into a rundown apartment on Roosevelt Island, a stone’s throw from Manhattan. This does […]

Director Steven Spielberg turns H.G. Wells’ classic tale of a Martian invasion into a commentary on today’s collective fear in a post-9/11 world and manages to produce his most frightening film yet. This loose adaptation focuses on an average working-class guy, Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), who has lost his wife to another man and successfully […]

Soaring budgets have film studios hedging their bets and taking as few risks as possible. That’s why sequels to major hits are made; why proven concepts, such as big-screen adaptations of hit TV shows, receive the green light. Some adaptations (The Fugitive) work well; others (The Beverly Hillbillies and Wild, Wild West) fail miserably. The […]

Part Mermaids, part The Parent Trap, and all mess, The Perfect Man is one of the most annoying, lame-brained romantic comedies to be released in many a moon. Not only is the plot so silly that the Three Stooges would have rejected it, Perfect Man expects audiences to accept a circumstance that’s too fantastic to be […]

A great deal of carnage, of both the physical and emotional varieties, takes place in Doug Liman’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a high-concept commentary on the state of modern marriage. The offscreen shenanigans of the film’s two stars, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, have overshadowed the film itself, so much so that the whole affair has […]

Ron Howard’s best films focus on everyday heroes, men who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances yet can summon enough strength to conquer seemingly insurmountable challenges. These exemplars of the ideal American man have included fathers struggling to get through the day (Parenthood), firefighters battling ravaging flames (Backdraft), reporters striving to tell the truth (The Paper), […]

I know there are some film fans out there who don’t like Adam Sandler, but I bet they’d be hard pressed to deny that the actor has a charming affability. He’s kind of like your little brother, the one who always manages to get himself out of a jam because he can make you laugh […]

Too bad multiplexes don’t come equipped with fast-forward buttons for audiences: They’d come in handy for viewers of the final chapter of the Star Wars saga, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Plenty of special-effect sequences clutter the film and would be worth skipping to get to the heart of the story. In a sense, […]

If you’re smart, get online, punch up the trailer to Monster-in-Law, watch it a few times, skip the movie, and save yourself a couple of bucks. The clip shows Viola Fields (Jane Fonda), a journalist in the Barbara Walters mold, gnashing her teeth and throwing fit after fit over the prospect of her precious son, […]

Kingdom of Heaven is the fictional account of one man’s life before the Third Crusade, circa 1184, and his efforts to meet the call of destiny in a world of hypocrites and self-righteous zealots. Director Ridley Scott is fully in his element here, realistically rendering armies of 200,000 in awe-inspiring battles. However, as with many of […]