Tim Meadows, who was always underutilized on Saturday Night Live, finally gets his due with an SNL Studio movie of his own. The film stretches his sketch as smooth-talking womanizer Leon Phelps, better known as The Ladies Man, into 87 minutes that will give Meadows’ fans plenty of laughs. As the host of a radio […]

Castles were built to keep people out. Prisons are meant to keep them in. So says General Irwin (Robert Redford, The Horse Whisperer ) to his fellow inmates in the U.S. military prison known as “The Castle” (shot in Nashville, Tennessee’s magnificent old former State Prison). But rebellions that occur in both structures are similar, […]

See the preview for The Master of Disguise, and you’ll catch all the funny scenes — no need to watch the movie itself. Running at just a little over an hour, The Master of Disguise is about 60 minutes too long, and if you pay full price expecting to see a full movie, the only […]

The Other Side of Heaven is a charming, sweet movie about a young missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1950s. John Groberg (Christopher Gorman, TV’s Felicity), eldest of seven boys from Idaho Falls, Idaho, is sent to do his required three-year missionary service to one of the islands in […]

Ahoy, Asheville eco-warriors! The Perfect Storm is your feel-good hit of the summer! Thrill as a rowdy gang of lumpenproletariat carnivores, hell-bent on destroying the aquatic ecosystem, get smacked around royally by Mother Nature! Seriously, that is the movie’s plot. Based on a true story (and recounted in a best-selling novel by Sebastian Junger), The […]

Of life’s tragedies, the murder of a child has to be the most horrible. The grinding grief imposed on the survivors never ends, and no one involved can remain untouched. The search for justice is insatiable and all too often impossible. On the surface, The Pledge — director Sean Penn’s (The Crossing Guard) electrifying psychological […]

I’m a huge Dennis Quaid fan. He can say more in a look than most people say with words in a lifetime. I loved Finding Forrester, so I was primed to see the second movie scripted by writer Mike Rich, a former Portland, Ore. disc jockey. The Rookie is the true-life story of Jimmy Morris […]

With little fanfare, an absolutely terrific animated movie is sparkling up the local movie screens. Compared to the fantastical themes of Treasure Planet and Lilo and Stitch, The Wild Thornberrys’ wildlife-conservation story may seem naively down-to-earth. It doesn’t try to compete with the wackiness of Monsters, Inc., nor does it achieve the mythic grandeur of […]

There’s grime, grit and dust to spare in The Yards, writer-director James Gray’s new film about corruption and murder inside New York City’s subway system. After two hours in the theater, you’ll be marveling at the nearly palpable texture of this exceptionally photographed film noir — even though you might feel the need for a […]

Tomcats is one of the most stupid, puerile, anti-female, gross movies I have ever seen. It will probably make a fortune. From personal observation on a Saturday night, teenage boys love Tomcats. Enough said. Seven years ago, seven male friends vowed to avoid marriage, to prowl through the world of women like eternal “tomcats.” The […]

If you’ve lost sleep with helpless rage over the news stories of kidnapped children, you might hope from its previews that Trapped would be a satisfying tale of righteous revenge. Don’t be fooled. The moviemakers decided that their kidnappers had to be sympathetic. It’s politically incorrect, it seems, to portray bad guys as bad guys […]

Shiver me timbers, lads and lassies, Disney’s gone and time-whacked the classic pirate adventure into the galactic future. Treasure Planet retells the compelling story of a boy’s coming of age on the wild seas, updating the tale with humor and visual thrills that 19th-century writer Robert Louis Stevenson couldn’t ever have dreamed of. Directors John […]

Tuck Everlasting is an absolutely gorgeous movie, exquisitely detailed in costumes and set decoration, breathtakingly photographed, romantically scored, and filled with unforgettable performances by all the actors. Based on the popular children’s book by Natalie Babbitt, Tuck investigates a subject that is often taboo among Americans-the inevitability of death. Director Jay Russell (My Dog Skip) […]

In a summer that’s seen too many limpid romantic heroes, Two Can Play That Game, with its long line-up of lusty lovers, is refreshing proof that sex is still a passionate pursuit for most players. It’s also a feminist nightmare: All these confident, high-struttin’, top-rung grabbin’ women, with everything going in life for them, still […]

Undisputed is not for everyone — let’s settle that up front. What is undisputed about the movie is that it is violent, nasty, gut-wrenching, and pretty darn unpleasant. It’s also fascinating, disturbing, and virtually unforgettable. If you like stories about leave-no-survivors boxing, gritty low-light, eye-scrunching cinematography, ear-grinding visceral musical soundtracks, bone-crushing action, 90 minutes of […]

What Lies Beneath is a ghost story for adults. It stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford. It is Robert Zemeckis’ latest big-budget blockbuster. It is summer, and you have two hours worth of free time burning a hole in your pocket. This is as good a way as any to spend those hours. Now, I’m […]

It’s a shame that the big-bucks marketing guys for What’s the Worst That Could Happen? didn’t decide on a different title. Though based on the wonderful Donald E. Westlake novel of the same name, a movie with such an unwieldy title is the kiss of death at the box office. A real pity because, except […]

Oleander is a pretty flowering shrub seen everywhere around Los Angeles. It’ s also deadly poisonous. Imagine white oleander, magnificent in its seeming purity, placed in a sunshine-lit glass brimming with white milk. The metaphor is abundantly clear-it is mother’s milk itself that is a deadly poison. A child weaned on this milk is born […]