Movie Reviews

The Story: A carnivorous monster -- spawned by pollution -- comes out of the river to terrorize Seoul. The Lowdown: An enjoyable monster flick with a dollop of political satire. The movie's too long for its own good, but offers worthy compensations, especially in its last half.

Our VOICE, Inc., Buncombe County's rape crisis center, in partnership with the Fine Arts Theatre presents Grbavica as part of an evening of art and film to honor survivors of sexual assault and to benefit Our VOICE on Thursday, April 12. The event opens at 5:30 p.m. with the 7th Annual Survivors' Art Show in…

The Story: A famous Hollywood dog ends up getting lost when a stunt goes wrong, and decides to use his unique talents to help a local fire department. The Lowdown: As kids' movies go, it will entertain your young one; but for everyone else, it's a movie severely lacking in just about every other conceivable…

The Story: A young orphan has to travel to the future to retrieve his stolen invention or the future will be changed -- and not for the better. The Lowdown: Kids will like this animated film, but adults may find it a bit wanting and too frenetic.

The Story: A brain-damaged bank janitor is lured into a plot to rob the bank. The Lowdown: A skillfully constructed crime film that's boosted by attention to characterization and strong performances.

The Story: Two rival figure skaters, who had both been banned from the sport, discover a loophole that allows them to skate competitively once again, but as the sport's first male pairs team. The Lowdown: Have you seen Anchorman? How about Talladega Nights? Then you've seen this movie.

Juan Pablo Villaseñor’s Por Si No Te Vuelvo a Ver (1997) is the kind of small foreign film that slips by unnoticed—something more apt to happen with Spanish-language movies than, say, French ones. (Consider the fact that an utterly mediocre French film like My Wife Is an Actress (2001) got U.S. theatrical bookings, but this […]

The Story: An actress (Laura Dern) gets a role in a film that may be "cursed," and her life spirals out of control -- and context. The Lowdown: Weird, audacious, challenging, David Lynch's latest redefines the phrase "not for everyone," but it's a remarkable work if you're open to it.

The Story: Early '90s pop-culture icons the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles make their return to the big screen, this time as computer-generated cartoons. The Lowdown: A surprisingly entertaining animated film that eventually just gets repetitive and suffers from a distinct feeling of "been there, done that."

The Story: A man (Adam Sandler) suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after having lost his family in 9/11 finds himself being reawakened when his old college roommate (Don Cheadle) re-enters his life. The Lowdown: Passable drama with good intentions that feels both too contrived and too simplistic to really work.

The Story: A down-on-his-luck former swimmer starts a swim team at an inner-city rec center. The Lowdown: Yet another inspiring, well intentioned sports flick that occasionally works due to a strong central performance by Terence Howard.

The Story: The dastardly mutants are back -- killing, eating and/or impregnating a group of hapless National Guard trainees in the desert. The Lowdown: Utter trash -- and rather dull trash at that.

Wim Wenders’ Until the End of the World (1991) is both like a Wim Wenders film (check out the soundtrack) and not. The film—at least till it hits the final stretch—is as quirky as anything the filmmaker ever did, but it’s a bit more playful. It’s certainly one of the more quixotic enterprises imaginable. Wenders […]

Sure, A Face in the Crowd is a little on the overwrought side, but in all honesty, I’ll take Elia Kazan’s 1957 drama about the rise and fall of an increasingly psychotic “good ol’ boy” TV personality over the director’s more famous works. I’m not, in fact, sure that a film on this subject could […]

On Christmas Day in 1929, a Stokes County, North Carolina farmer named Charlie Lawson murdered his family, laid the bodies out neatly, and then killed himself. The murders became an immediate sensation, and the house where they took place became a tourist attraction. The story was recounted in a popular 1930 song “The Ballad of […]

The Story: An embittered ex-Marine gets duped into being the fall guy for a presidential assassination attempt. The Lowdown: OK in terms of action and better acted than most such films (thanks mostly to Mark Wahlberg), but it strains to be more than it is and is just too long.

The Story: A woman whose husband is killed in a car crash wakes up the morning after the incident to find the accident hasn't happened yet. The Lowdown: A fatuous mess of a movie that never makes sense and squanders Bullock's talents.

The Story: In 1984 East Germany a secret policeman's life changes when he's ordered to place a dramatist under surveillance. The Lowdown: A finely conceived character study about repressive regimes and the redemptive power of human connectivity and art, but be warned, parts of it are truly slow.

The Story: Two children find a mysterious box containing toys that take them to a higher plane of knowledge. The Lowdown: An odd mix of 1940s science fiction with new age philosophy that works as barely passable kiddie stuff, but not much else.

The Story: A husband, bored with his marriage, has his loyalty to his wife and family tested when he meets an old friend's ex. The Lowdown: An uneven comedy that gets points simply for being a film that's actually made for adults.

The Story: When a creepy ventriloquist's dummy inexplicably shows up on his doorstep and his wife is killed shortly afterwards, a young man goes to his hometown in search of the truth about a local legend. The Lowdown: An often effective, always enjoyable supernatural shocker that suffers from a thin storyline, but offers many compensations…