Chuck Koplinski

Jackson shines as Coach Carter If good intentions equal great success at the box office, Coach Carter will end up being one of the runaway hits of the winter film season. Ironically, the film’s positive message nearly proves its undoing, thanks to a touch of heavy-handedness and melodrama. And though the film is based on […]

Time for sexual healing Like any good scientist, Alfred Kinsey was simply looking for facts when he began his landmark study of human sexuality. What he found, in addition to a wide range of responses to the comprehensive survey he and his assistants administered, was a degree of controversy he could not have imagined. Bill […]

Bird’s-eye view of high flyer There’s no denying that Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator is a flawed film. It plays fast and loose with the chronology of the historic events it so loving re-creates, proves difficult to become engaged with initially because it drops us into the middle of a whirlwind of activity, and at times […]

Stale, contrived Aquatic charts a familar course Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou deals with many of the same themes he explored in Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. It also features a group of emotionally damaged or stunted people, each searching for genuine emotional connections with others. Anderson has proved himself particularly adept […]

When finding the path to salvation means never growing up Very few films move audiences in an intimate and genuine way. Marc Forster’s Finding Neverland is among the exceptions. In telling the tale of how J.M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, came to form an emotional bond with four boys and their widowed mother, […]

Great doesn’t begin to describe Alexander Close to the end — but not close enough — of Oliver Stone’s ambitious historical drama Alexander, the Macedonian king of the title finds himself facing a mutinous army that’s reached the end of its rope. Having fought in more than 50 battles and traveled more than 10,000 miles […]

Soak up a little joy with SpongeBob To say that SpongeBob SquarePants looks at the world through rose-colored glasses is an understatement: He is, without a doubt, the happiest animated household cleaning product ever. Nowhere is this more evident than in his motion-picture debut, which features all of the familiar characters of Bikini Bottom, including […]

Film Express true to classic’s visual appeal and poignant story Since its publication in 1985, Chris Van Allsburg’s The Polar Express has become an acknowledged classic of children’s literature, a Yuletide tale about faith and hope made unique not only because of the poignancy of the tale but the author’s distinctive illustrations as well. The […]

The Incredibles actually lives up to its title Halfway through The Incredibles, Pixar’s latest animated epic, my 4-year-old assistant Nathan declared: “This is the greatest movie I’ve ever seen in my whole life!” My other assistant, Nathan’s 7-year-old brother Alex, concurred at the end of the film, stating emphatically that he had just seen “the […]

Ray Charles was exceptional; Ray reminds us why Jamie Foxx delivers an astoundingly rich performance as Ray Charles, a musical legend who overcame a childhood of almost debilitating poverty, the loss of his eyesight at age 7, and the racism of the Deep South. Working from a script by James L. White and collaborating with […]

The Grudge delivers a powerful jump-out-of-your-seat fright show In 2002, DreamWorks scored a solid hit with the release of The Ring, a remake of a Japanese cult film that caused other movie studios to turn their attention to the horror-film renaissance in the Far East. Featuring threats that prove to be manifestations of extreme, violent […]

Learning life’s lessons on a dance floor There will be those who will dismiss Shall We Dance? sight unseen as a simplistic chick flick. That’s too bad, because they’ll be missing out on one of the year’s most delightful films, a reaffirmation of life and love. Richard Gere plays John Clark, a world-weary Chicago attorney […]