New Year’s Eve
The Story: A romantic ensemble piece centering around the denizens of New York City on New Year’s Eve. The Lowdown: A laborious exercise in middle-of-the-road romantic comedy.
Author: Justin Souther
Showing 442-462 of 791 results
Into the Abyss
The Story: Eccentric director Werner Herzog documents a prisoner on death row, and the terrible crime he and a friend once committed. The Lowdown: An emotionally draining look at not only the death penalty, but at the people -- criminals, victims, police officers -- who get entangled in death and violence.
The Muppets
The Story: Kermit the Frog and gang must reunite to save their old theater. The Lowdown: A sufficiently warm-hearted nostalgia trip that will play best to diehard Muppets fans.
Happy Feet Two
The Story: A runaway iceberg traps a city of emperor penguins. The Lowdown: Gorgeous-looking computer animation can’t make up for a plot severely lacking in cohesion.
Immortals
The Story: A peasant living in a fantastic version of ancient Greece must stop an evil king from destroying the world and the gods who rule over it. The Lowdown: A hyper-stylized take on Greek mythology that’s simply too overbearing, and -- too often -- simply unfun.
Jack and Jill
The Story: A man must deal with his obnoxious twin sister over the holidays. The Lowdown: If you find Adam Sandler in drag accompanied by a bevy of fart jokes and celebrity cameos to be comedy gold, then here’s a movie for you.
The Stuff
The Thursday Horror Picture Show will screen The Stuff on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 8 p.m. in the Cinema Lounge of The Carolina Asheville and be hosted by Xpress movie critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther.
Tower Heist
The Story: After being swindled out of their pensions by a shifty broker, a group of regular Joes decide to rob him of his nest-egg. The Lowdown: Perfectly entertaining while having little regard for believable, or consistent, plotting — what we end up with is the definition of middling.
In Time
The Story: In a future, when aging has been conquered and life expectancy is replaced with allotments of time that separate the rich from the poor, a young man from the ghetto tries to correct the system. The Lowdown: An attempt at heady science-fiction that almost works, but clunky storytelling and a too-obvious message hurts…
Johnny English Reborn
The Story: Secret agent Johnny English bumbles his way through a new case as he attempts to stop an evil cabal from killing the Chinese head of state. The Lowdown: A movie no American was asking for lives and dies on how much you can stomach Rowan Atkinson’s usual shtick.
The Mighty Macs
The Story: A housewife decides to coach basketball at a down-on-its-luck Catholic college. The Lowdown: Perfectly good central performances by Carla Gugino and Marley Shelton are wasted in this by-the-book uplifting sports flick.
Footloose
The Story: A teen moves from Boston to rural Georgia and finds that the town has outlawed dancing. The Lowdown: A faithful remake of Footloose that’s a natural extension of director Craig Brewer’s previous films, but lacks anything that makes it truly special.
The Big Year
The Story: Three birdwatchers head out to attempt a “big year,” where each attempts to see more different species of birds than the others. The Lowdown: Harmless in the dullest sense of the word, and a comedy only in the loosest sense.
Real Steel
The Story: A down-on-his-luck dad and his estranged son try to turn a junked sparring robot into a robot-boxing champion. The Lowdown: Sure, the premise is nothing new, but the film still works because of a likable cast, perfect pacing and a willingness to be a cheesy, uplifting sports flick.
Courageous
The Story: Four cops and a day laborer make a pact to become better fathers. The Lowdown The best looking of Sherwood Baptist Church’s feature films is nevertheless a bloated, boring mess of a movie.
What’s Your Number?
The Story: After reading a magazine article, a woman decides she’s slept with too many men, and decides to track down her exes to see if one of them might be “the one.” The Lowdown: A nice cast can’t stop this tired attempt at romcom from simply falling apart.
Abduction
The Story: A hunky teen finds out he’s the son of two CIA agents, and must escape some evil secret agents out to kill him and his would-be girlfriend. The Lowdown: A showcase for the supposed talents of Taylor Lautner that’s too dumb and bloodless for any action fan and too violent for his fanbase.
Moneyball
The Story: An underdog tale of a Major League Baseball team trying to subvert the system through statistics, and the repercussions of their attempt. The Lowdown: An interesting idea for a biopic by way of character study, although never as engaging or dramatically alive as it should be.
Drive
The Story: A stuntman who moonlights as a criminal wheelman gets involved in a heist -- which ultimately goes wrong -- in order to keep his neighbor and her son safe. The Lowdown: An endlessly stylish action flick that’s more arthouse fare than Hollywood entertainment, yet remains an infinitely fascinating -- and singular -- piece…
Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
The Story: Documents the rise and eventual tribulations of hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest. The Lowdown: Works better as a hip-hop primer than when it attempts to show the complexities of the group's relationships, where the film falls apart due to lack of depth.
Warrior
The Story: Two estranged brothers -- one of who is trained by their once-abusive father -- enter a mixed-martial-arts tournament. The Lowdown: A hokey and far-fetched uplifting sports melodrama that somehow works, mostly due to its central performances.