Yes, Barbershop 2 lacks the original movie’s surprise factor (this time, we’re actually expecting something). The new film plows some now-familiar territory; worse, its “feel-good” ending is anticlimactic — a real comedown from the delightfully convoluted one in the first film. That said, Barbershop 2 doesn’t in the least disgrace the original. This installment is […]

Pity director Bart Freundlich. His last movie, World Traveler, though advertised for months, got almost no release, and quietly disappeared from the scene. Now he’s facing even worse luck: His latest film, Catch That Kid, is booked into theaters everywhere. Whether or not Mr. Freundlich has subsequently gone into hiding, I do not know — […]

In Michael Winner’s I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘Isname, Orson Welles remarks, while showing off his art collection, “This is one of 32 known Vermeers — 80 of which are in America.” With Peter Webber’s Girl With a Pearl Earring, you might boost that number to 81: Webber has in many ways made a copy of […]

The Big Bounce is an essay in the relativity of things. Had this film been released during any other week than the one that also brought us You Got Served and The Perfect Score, it would seem like a really, really bad movie. Coming this week, though, it only seems like a not-very-good movie with […]

There was a day — oh, 60 or 70 years ago — when Paramount Pictures used to put out the classiest, most-sophisticated movies in the business. I still get a pleasant feeling when I see the star-encircled mountain on an old Lubitsch, Mamoulian, Sternberg, Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields or Mae West movie. Nowadays, the studio […]

It’s the Citizen Kane of break-dancing movies! And yet it still isn’t any damned good. I’m sure that what these kids are doing is not called break dancing anymore. In fact, I think it’s called street dancing — though any time people flip upside down and spin on their heads and otherwise engage in antics […]

This is a difficult movie to like, a difficult one to watch, and a difficult one to write about. It’s also an impossible movie to dismiss or ignore. Everything you’ve heard about the normally alluring Charlize Theron’s transformation into prostitute-turned-serial-killer Aileen Wuornos is true. There is not one glimmer of glamour attached to Theron’s being […]

Fair’s fair, so let’s note outright that everything that’s wrong with The Butterfly Effect (and a good bit is) has nothing to do with everybody’s favorite tabloid target, Ashton Kutcher. The much-maligned boy toy does pretty well with the role that’s been handed him by screenwriters-turned-directors Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber. Indeed, Kutcher’s only […]

If it weren’t for the ferret, this movie would be a total dog. With Along Came Polly, it’s clear that John Hamburg (best known for penning the Ben Stiller comedies Meet the Parents and Zoolander) thinks he’s the heir apparent to Woody Allen. Sadly, he’s not even the heir to the early Farrelly Brothers. Hamburg […]

This is one curious little movie — and one that requires the viewer to accept its quirks at face value in order for it to work. And, all in all, I think it’s probably worth the effort. If you can accept the very existence of a “cooler” — a fellow with such incredibly bad luck […]

Sample dialogue from Torque: Martin Henderson: “I gotta get that bike.” Monet Mazur: “I gotta get that bitch.” Ice Cube: “Damn right.” Obviously we aren’t talking about anything very weighty here. The screenplay is at least three brain cells shy of being moronic; this is one silly, stupid, ridiculous flick. The trick is that everyone […]

The movie poster had little appeal. The premise sounded like a de-musicalized Bye Bye, Birdie. Director Robert Luketic hadn’t exactly dazzled me with Legally Blonde. Two of the three stars were largely unknown to me, while the one I did know, Kate Bosworth, had annoyed me in Blue Crush, and barely registered as one of […]

I know I’m not in the demographic for this movie. After all, it’s a long time since I was in the 12-to-18 age range, and I’ve never been a girl as a part of that (or any other) group. I also know that I’m supposed to intensely dislike this latest Mandy Moore offering. The problem […]

What a way to start the new year! OK, we all knew it wasn’t going to be good when the studio — in a fit of inspired desperation — decided to change the title of this film from My Baby’s Mama to the seemingly more appealing My Baby’s Daddy. And while I won’t argue that […]

In a typical outburst of British tastefulness, Helen Mirren’s appearance 32 years ago in Ken Russell’s Savage Messiah was heralded thus in the tabloid press: “Reveals Miss Helen Mirren full-frontal in a scene longer than the normal glimpse!” Now, these many years later, we find Miss Mirren still taking it all off in her latest […]

As if to prove its own cheapness, this cosmically God-awful package of Christmas jeer isn’t out of its opening credits before the boom microphone makes its first guest appearance. That, however, is one of the least slipshod moments in this unbelievably generic comedy ostensibly based on the novel and 1950 film of the same name. […]

It’s not the greatest thing since sliced bread, and it’s certainly nothing new under the sun — in fact, it’s as old as the hills in its heart of hearts. And yet Jim Sheridan’s In America is so captivating in its characterizations, and in the director’s obvious love of filmmaking, that it’s hard not to […]

First of all, this film is way too long for its own good. Secondly, it’s the kind of science-fiction that works better the less you think about it. That said, Paycheck isn’t nearly as bad or uninteresting as has been said. And I can’t help but think that a good bit of the negativity surrounding […]

There hasn’t been a movie this purely gorgeous to look at since Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! graced theater screens nearly three years ago. Indeed, the specter of Luhrmann’s film hangs heavy over P.J. Hogan’s version of Peter Pan, and in more than just looks. Even Hogan’s depiction of Tinker Bell (Ludivine Sagnier, Swimming Pool) is […]

Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has re-teamed with his Amores Perros screenwriter Guillermo Ariaga for this English-language film headed up by three name actors — Naomi Watts, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro. And while I hate to come up with anything so obvious, I’m bound to say that a little something seems to have […]