Movie Reviews

In Brief: It's the movie that helped drive Lew Grade — or Sir Lew Grade or Lord Grade (depending on where you are in his career) — from the film business. It's also the movie that kept writer Clive Cussler from allowing any of his novels to be filmed for the next 25 years. (He…

The Story: "Divergent" Tris must stop the evil dystopian government of future Chicago and avenge the death of her family. The Lowdown: Dull, self-serious and derivative sci-fi of the teen romance variety.

In Brief: Preston Sturges’ The Lady Eve (1941) marked the writer-director’s move into the realm of the full-blown A picture with A-list stars — Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck — and the Paramount high gloss his first two films had lacked. The result was one of Sturges’ most popular films and probably as close as he ever…

The Story: A sniper, years after a life-altering job, must go on the run to save his life. The Lowdown: An occasionally interesting yet overly unimaginative action flick with a miscast lead.

In Brief: Pretty amazing film version of Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical comic Persepolis, about an Iranian girl growing up in the shadow of two oppressive regimes. Though playful in tone, it's a narrative that goes much deeper than one might expect. That said, this marks the fourth time this has been shown since the film's 2008 theatrical…

The Story: Following a botched military action in Belfast, a young Brit soldier is left behind to fend for himself as he tries to make it back to his barracks. The Lowdown: Exciting and very effective war thriller set during "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. More thriller than political, but very well done.

The Story: Live action version of the Cinderella story. The Lowdown: It looks terrific. It's also faithful to a fault — and that's exactly the problem, since it makes it on the dull, unadventurous side.

The Story: A father and his estranged son must outrun his lifelong friend, a gangster whose son they had a hand in killing. The Lowdown: A competent, often entertaining action flick that gets bogged down with its need for heavy plot dynamics.

In Brief: Kolberg (1945) is famous — or more properly, notorious — as Josef Goebbels' massively expensive propaganda flop. The idea behind this yarn about the town of Kolberg organizing a resistance front to Napoleon's army was that it was going to put the fight back into the German people. Well, not only was it…

In Brief: Harvery Fierstein adapts and stars in this film of his hit play. It's often rather simply described as being about "a gay man's search for love." Well, yes, it is that, but it's a lot more. Fierstein plays Arnold Beckoff, an unattached professional drag queen with a history of failed romances that he…

The Story: A lower-middle-class man fights the system to save his land while struggling to hold his already splintered family together. The Lowdown: Grim and deeply pessimistic, the film is nonetheless compelling viewing and deserving of our attention.

In Brief: Though it's pretty indefensible as objectively good in any normal sense, It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) is a towering classic of 1950s sci-fi horror cheese. It's more fun, more memorable and certainly more influential than the handful of big-budget sci-fi movies of the era. After all, none of its pricier brethren can lay…

In Brief: Mary Chase's play Harvey won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for drama, which speaks volumes about the value of a Pulitzer Prize. It is whimsy in its most virulent form — you know, the kind where we are told that crazy people are saner, nicer and better than the rest of us. The formula…

The Story: Further events with the residents and operators of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The Lowdown: It's not up to the original and probably doesn't need to exist at all, but this follow-up is certainly a fine way to spend a couple of hours with our old friends from the first movie.

The Story: A businessman and his two inept partners travel the world trying to seal one huge deal before their company turns to ruin. The Lowdown: Incredibly maudlin, overtly unfunny R-rated comedy with an aimless, unsatisfying plot and zero likable characters.

The Story: A lone female vampire prowls the nearly deserted streets of Bad City, Iran. The Lowdown: Fascinating, moody, deliberately paced, often compelling — and very odd — take on the vampire genre mixed with the art film. It's also flawed in some serious ways, but on balance, it's certainly worth a look. It's also…

The Story: An experimental robot that can think falls into the hands of some low-rent gangsters. The Lowdown: No, it's not the outright abomination some are claiming, but Neill Blomkamp's latest is still a noisy, ugly, barely coherent mess.

In Brief:  By his own admission, The Sun Shines Bright was John Ford's favorite of his films. While I'm always a little skeptical of artists judging their own work — and how long they may or may not have felt that way — I'm inclined to accept his word in this case. The film is so much…

In Brief: People have been asking for this for years — and here it is. I'm in the hit-or-miss column with Argento. I like his early thrillers, and I'm amused by Phenomena and Opera, but I have issues with a lot of his work, including Suspiria. It's the only Argento film I saw on its original release in a…

In Brief: Carol Reed’s The Third Man (1949) is about as close to a perfect film as you’re likely to get. It’s that rarest of movies in that it’s a filmmaker favorite (I’ve yet to meet the director who didn’t treasure it), a film buff’s delight and immediately accessible to the more casual moviegoer all…

The Story: A con man and his one-time protege — and romantic interest — get tangled up in a scheme. The Lowdown: A clever and honestly surprising movie that’s held back due to the weak chemistry and miscasting of its two leads.