Movie Reviews

In Brief: James Whale's masterful film version of H.G. Wells' novel made a star out of Claude Rains — and this despite the fact that his face wasn't seen until the film's final shot. It also has stood the test of time as one of the greatest of all horror films — good enough, in…

In Brief: Massively overrated film that's nothing more than an extension of the British "kitchen-sink realism" from 60 years ago with a tinge of Ken Loach — meaning, among other things, that often shouted dialogue is apt to be unintelligible to a lot of viewers. Having said that, this meandering story about a 15-year-old girl…

In Brief: Robert Altman's final film is one of those rare occurrences in which a great filmmaker goes out on a high note. More, A Prairie Home Companion virtually serves as his own eulogy since the film is often a gently comedic exploration of death and its meaning. That it comes from a filmmaker fully…

In Brief: Robert Altman's big-budgeted, live-action take on Popeye pulls off the not inconsiderable feat of being both true to the character from the old Max Fleischer cartoons, while being slyly revisionist in the bargain. Jules Feiffer's screenplay — and Robin Williams' ad-libbing — really catches the spirit of the title character, while Altman effortlessly…

The Story: A lonely, awkward 14-year-old is forced to spend the summer at the beach with his mother and her new mean-spirited boyfriend. The Lowdown: It takes a while to find its footing, but this warmly nostalgic coming-of-age comedy wins out with its array of unusually well-crafted characters.

The Story: A murdered cop finds himself in the afterlife and conscripted into the Rest in Peace Department, a law enforcement agency for the dead. The Lowdown: A charmless mix of Men in Black and Ghostbusters that’s only barely watchable, thanks to Jeff Bridges.

The Story: An everyday garden snail who dreams of speed get superpowers in a freak accident and sets his sights on winning the Indy 500. The Lowdown: Mostly harmless, yet slightly below-average in almost every sense.

The Story: A family moves into an old house where evil spirits dwell. The Lowdown: Is it as good as you've heard? No. It has script problems galore. But director James Wan still manages to pull off one creepy movie with some solid scares, even if it lacks some of the flair of his earlier…

The Story: Those aging secret agents and cuddly hit men/women are at it again. The Lowdown: Strictly by the numbers, overlong rehash of the first film with most of the original cast plus Anthony Hopkins. Lots of shooting and explosions. Very little inspiration.

In Brief: Largely dismissed — even vilified — upon its Italian release in 1962, this Pier Paolo Pasolini film about the semi-incestuous relationship between a middle-aged prostitute (Anna Magnani) and her son (Ettore Garofolo) didn't even get a proper U.S. release until Martin Scorsese brought it here in 1995. While it's hardly top-tier Pasolini, Mamma…

In Brief: Look, it's a 1959 movie called The Giant Gila Monster. That means the notoriously sluggish lizard sort of ambles around dicey miniature sets while largely unheard of actors react in horror to something that really isn't there. It's absolutely indefensible, low-rent nonsense, but that's what gives the movie its wayward appeal.

The Story: The story of a young Orthodox Hassidic girl and the question of whether she should marry her late sister's husband. The Lowdown: What could have been a fairly ordinary romantic drama is transformed into something freshly appealing by the unusual society in which it's placed.

The Story: When a failed playwright stages a suicide bid to get her boyfriend back, she ends up in the care of her dubiously balanced mother. The Lowdown: Not a great comedy, but a very pleasant one with engaging performances and a few nice surprises.

The Story: It's giant robots vs. giant monsters as (of course) the fate of the world hangs in the balance. The Lowdown: It's big. It's deliberately dumb. And it's a lot of good-natured fun with all the stock giant-monster movie clichés intact. However, it must be noted that the robot vs. monster bouts tend to…

In Brief: Deathtrap (1982) is kind of the poor cousin to Sleuth — another gimmick-driven stage thriller brought to the big screen, also starring Michael Caine (only here in the equivalent of Laurence Olivier's role in the 1972 Sleuth). While Deathtrap is very much the lesser film, it scores as a kind of muggers' delight…

In Brief: Bright and breezy film version of the Irving Berlin stage hit starring Ethel Merman. While it's not what you'd call inspired filmmaking, it's filled with terrific songs, funny lines and clever situations. It's also the only film to give us any real sense of what made Merman such a sensation on the stage.…

The Story: Violent revenge thriller set in a nightmarish version of Bangkok. The Lowdown: Extremely violent, almost fetishistic thriller that moves at a hypnotically slow pace. It will offend some, bore others, fascinate the rest — and probably generate hate mail for me for even cautiously recommending it.

The Story: A day in the life of the families of the original Grown Ups. The Lowdown: A chintzy, lazy, plotless comedy, whose jokes rely solely on raising the bar on bodily function humor.

The Story: A globe-trotting American journalist illustrates the ways in which the war on terror has spiraled out of control. The Lowdown: A solemn, heady, but uneven and often-flawed documentary that’s at its strongest when mixing humanity with politics.

In Brief: To say that Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film is almost beyond criticism is misleading, but not entirely untrue. No matter how you feel about 2001: A Space Odyssey, it's just too big to ignore. It presents the viewer with a mystery that can be interpreted and explored, but never actually solved — and in…

In Brief: Busby Berkeley's Gold Diggers of 1935 is the first of the big Warner Bros. musicals to really feel the heat of the new Production Code, meaning its comedy is less risqué, its costumes less revealing and its entertainment value slightly diminished. That said, we do get a very funny Adolphe Menjou as an…