Movie Reviews

The Story: Two pot growers go after the Mexican drug cartel who’ve kidnapped their shared girlfriend. The Lowdown: A strong cast and solid direction can’t make up for a script that gives you no reason to care.

In Brief: Last and least of Universal's Karloff-Lugosi vehicles, Black Friday makes the bonehead play of putting the two biggest of all horror stars in a movie where they don't share a single scene. But if you can get past that, the film is a slick little horror thriller in the Universal style that's both…

In Brief: Saying that The Passion of Anna is one of Ingmar Bergman's lesser works is almost meaningless since, with Bergman, ranking his films is mostly a case of splitting hairs in superlatives. This essay in estrangement and isolation is really no different in that regard, though it's not likely to make the top of…

The Story: Character comedy-drama about a young man who accidentally finds himself thrown together with his best friend's sister in a lonely cabin, what happens between them and what happens when his best friend arrives on the scene. The Lowdown: A charming surprise and probably not the indie-type movie you're expecting. The characters are warm…

The Story: A Nazi hunter (Edward G. Robinson) pursues an infamous concentration camp head to a small town in New England where he's taken on a new identity. The Lowdown: Terrific suspense thriller from the great Orson Welles. Its popularity has gotten in the way of the film getting its proper due as one of…

The Story: A male stripper deals with the trials and tribulations of wanting more out of life than being a male stripper. The Lowdown: An occasionally wonderful, (and thankfully human) look at the sex industry; it suffers from a weak third act, but is pitch perfect when it works.

In Brief: Often powerful — and somewhat controversial — film from Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi about impoverished Kurdish refugee children who eke out a bare existence by digging up and selling Iraqi landmines. An often grim, but ultimately uplifting film about our common humanity.

In Brief: The great schlockmeister Larry Cohen scores an exploitation bullseye with this campy, trashy horror comedy about a comic book artist who unwittingly becomes involved in tracking down a demented doctor who -- with the aid of a phony ambulance -- kidnaps diabetics for his experiments. Possibly Cohen's best film.

The Story: For reasons best not examined very closely, Eugene Levy and his family wind up as witness protection guests of Madea and Joe. The Lowdown: A pretty big improvement in the run of Tyler Perry's Madea movies. It's ingratiating and frequently very funny. It hardly reinvents the wheel, but it provides a pleasant ride.

In Brief: Mitchell Leisen's sophomore film is also perhaps his best, and is certainly his most distinctive. Fredric March stars as nothing less than Death, a shadowy figure who takes on the appearance of the recently deceased Prince Sirki in order to attend a house party at an Italian villa to understand life and discover…

In Brief: An undeniably high-minded, fact-based (with significant embellishments) story about a ship of Jews being allowed to leave Germany, but finding no safe harbor awaiting them. The problem is the film is also big, clunky, long and overstuffed with stars like a standard 1970s disaster film.

The Story: Woody Allen drops in on four intercut stories that take place in Rome. The Lowdown: Witty, clever and frequently brilliant, Allen's latest is a fine, entertaining film from a master filmmaker — and a still sharp comedian.

The Story: A man struggles to juggle his girlfriend and his lifelong best friend, who just happens to be an anthropomorphic teddy bear he wished into existence as a child. The Lowdown: A one-joke premise that’s mindless, rambling and downright stupid.

The Story: When his father dies, a young man discovers he has a previously unknown half-sister. The Lowdown: Slickly made, but ultimately more a collection of the improbable and the cliched than anything of genuine merit.

In Brief: Much derided -- and re-cut -- at the time of its release in 1977, John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic has come to be much more highly regarded in recent years upon reassessment of his original cut. It helps if the film is approached as much as a rebuke to William Friedkin's The…

In Brief: Kenji Mizoguchi's highly-regarded 1954 classic Sansho the Bailiff is a striking film to look at and it tells a fascinating, compelling story -- with the feel of a legend -- that is meant to explore the origins of compassion and humanity. How successful it is in its lofty aims is open to debate,…

In Brief: Clare Boothe Luce's famous 1936 hit play The Women gets the super-glossy MGM treatment in George Cukor's 1939 film version. The whole thing is overproduced, but most of the play's brittle wit and clever dialogue are retained. And whatever else can be said about MGM, it had the cast for this.

The Story: Two misfit children run away on an island in the summer of 1965. The Lowdown: Sweet, beautifully detailed, funny and very human tale of first love -- with all the trimmings one expects from Wes Anderson. Easily the best film of 2012 so far and a must-see, especially for fans of the filmmaker.

The Story: With the end of the world coming in a matter of weeks thanks to an asteroid hurtling toward Earth, two neighbors set off into the world to find their loved ones. The Lowdown: A painless rom-com that’s just a bit too dramatically and comically inert, despite short fits of charm.

The Story: Amusingly nonsensical story of Abraham Lincoln as, well, a vampire hunter. The Lowdown: Of course, it's silly. (How could it not be?) But it has its share of effective scenes, good performances, some intriguing ideas and a splendid lead vampire.

In Brief: Ken Russell's 1969 film of D.H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love is the film that put the director on the map as a filmmaker of international importance -- and it also garnered Oscar nominations for Russell and cinematographer Billy Williams, as well as a Best Actress Oscar win for Glenda Jackson. It remains…