Author: Alabama Liberal

Real quick: Is it as good as the first one? No. Is it still at least pretty good? Yes. What Works: The first one felt more like a contemporary classic, and altogether more coherent with really clean scenes that work no matter how many times you see them. This one is a bit more scattershot,…

I enjoyed the sly yuks of the first Jump Street movie, and this one is right at that level. If you had a good time with the first one at all, it’s hard to imagine you’ll leave disappointed. What Works: The best thing this subtly clever franchise has going for it is self-awareness. It seems…

This is a tough review, because I haven’t read the book this film is based on, which means I might be missing something crucial in understanding the book’s rapid fan base.Very few books written in the last decade (with heroines not named Bella or Katniss that is) have inspired such devotion from its young adult readers…

A lot better than you might think—-or, at least, better than I might think since this film made my “Least Anticipated Movies of the Summer” list. Something about it just looked like one more generic sci-fi blockbuster about invading aliens, and not all that different from last year’s generic sci-fi blockbuster about invading aliens starring Tom Cruise…

A feel good crowd pleaser that maybe isn’t the most substantial meal you could eat (food puns, get it?) but will probably leave you feeling less bloated than other summer hamburgers (damn, I am killing it with the food puns). What Works: The story is about a talented but creatively-restrained chef (Jon Favreau) who is…

This thing died at the box office and most critics don’t like it…so, naturally, it’s actually better than the wildly-overrated “Ted.” What Works: Is this a good movie? I can’t exactly say that, but I can say that it’s pretty good and probably the work of Seth MacFarlane’s that I’ve enjoyed the most. I’m not a…

I know that I wasn’t excited for this movie before I saw it (it made my “Least Anticipated” list), and sometimes it’s humbling to admit…that I’m right. Gotcha! It’s truly not good at all. What Works: People are going to go into this for Angelina Jolie’s cheekbones, and I’m pleased to report that they are…

For me, a slight disappointment. I was really looking forward to this movie and even called it “the only great looking summer mega blockbuster” but I have to say that it really wasn’t, although it wasn’t exactly bad either. What Works: Maybe I’m a little biased, but I loved that the main character’s name is…

I was so unenthused about this film before I saw it that I almost didn’t watch it at all. I thought I could skip it and be just fine, and it really was a coin toss as to whether I would ever see it. However, I’m glad I did. What Works: Is this movie clunky? Sure. Is…

The Johnny Depp flop from six weeks ago that nobody much liked, but maybe they should have. [Question mark] What Works: It’s not easy to make a thriller about the Singularity (when artificially intelligent machines vastly surpass human intelligence and perhaps even merge with human consciousness to create beings that can never die), so points…

To call it Jude Law’s best performance in years may sound like a back-handed compliment, but I would recommend catching this down the road…maybe for free…maybe on an airplane. What Works: So it takes what I thought was going to be a typical Guy Ritchie-Cockney-Gangsters-Flashing-Around-Their-Ridiculous-Accents crime caper, and transcends that genre. “Dom” starts out rough,…

It turns out that a Jim Jarmusch (the ultra-indie maverick whose films usually hold no accessibility for a mass audience) vampire movie isn’t all that different from a regular vampire movie—-or at least how they used to look before the young adult crowd co-opted them. His vampires are world weary, sophisticated, and dated-chic in a 70’s rock-and-roll…