Film

Girl rise above the typical teen flick Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) has done well in high school and hopes to enter a prestigious university. Asked what he’ll remember about school, Matthew realizes that he’s done nothing but hit the books. Everything changes when a freewheeling heartbreaker moves in next door. Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert), in town […]

As usual, there’s not much of great interest in the local cinemas at this time of the year, so it’s a good time to visit the video store. Here are some odds and ends I found recently: • All the Real Girls (2003). David Gordon Green may be the least-known great new American director. Given […]

A familiar story, told with charm Martha Coolidge’s The Prince & Me tells the story of an oh-so-common occurrence among college-aged girls: They go off to school, meet the man of their dreams, and he turns out to be the prince of a European nation. At least, that’s how it happens in the movies. Paige […]

Hanks shines in Coens’ remake of The Ladykillers While it doesn’t reach the heights of inspired lunacy of their classic Raising Arizona, the Coen Brothers’ remake of The Ladykillers delivers plenty of chuckles, albeit of the darkest variety. The film takes some time to hit its stride, but ultimately delivers a wonderfully comic and morally […]

Take this movie. Away. Please. Having to sit through the new thriller Taking Lives made me want to take my own. A convoluted mish-mash, this latest entry in the overcrowded “serial killer on the loose” genre is crippled by countless clichés, a bevy of bad performances, and a script that relies on coincidence far too […]

Hidalgo offers quite a ride even if it travels off course Hidalgo is the sort of old-fashioned adventure they say Hollywood doesn’t make any more. It has cowboys and Indians, a beautiful princess, sword fights, killer leopards, a daring rescue, a villain sporting a black goatee, and much more. You would think that the central […]

Starsky & Hutch parody isn’t quite the joyride it could have been Zebra Three is back, burning rubber and breaking rules just like in the old days in Starsky & Hutch, an amusing parody of the ’70s cop show. Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul literally pass the car keys to Starsky’s souped-up red-and-white Gran […]

Jesus, the Lethal Weapon version Few films have generated as much pre-release fervor as Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, a cinematic lightning rod that’s been labeled anti-Semitic and challenged for its excessively violent depiction of the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ’s life. The criticisms are warranted. In their defense, Gibson and co-screenwriter […]

Mooseport skewers the conventions of politics and media Mooseport is an out-of-the-way burg in Maine that’s besieged by the media when former president Monroe “Eagle” Cole (the unflappable Gene Hackman) decides to retire there. Content to reap millions from a lecture tour, he’s sucked back into public life when given the opportunity to run for […]

Give credit to star and co-producer Ice Cube for making Barbershop 2 the congenial comedy that it is. Not only is his quietly keen performance as shop owner Calvin the straw that stirs the personalities of the disparate types who inhabit his character’s shop, but his Cube Vision company also made a wise decision to […]

The triumph of the U.S. hockey Olympics team over a heavily favored Soviet squad is among the greatest underdog stories in sports history. It’s also one of the best known, making it a challenge for any filmmaker who’s trying to chronicle the team’s improbable march towards glory. Director Gavin O’Connor and screenwriter Eric Guggenheim do […]

The Big Bounce [PG-13] Surfer-drifter-con man Jack Ryan (Owen Wilson) goes to Hawaii and lands a job caring for an Walter Crewes (Morgan Freeman), a judge on the island. “A movie that more than once confuses the line between laid-back and lethargic, it wanders around slack-jawed and weirdly inert.” (Sean Burns, Philadelphia Weekly) ShowPlace West, […]