Category: Monday Morning Movie Reviewer

It now seems like Hollywood makes only one of two movies nearly every weekend, and it’s either the R-rated action movie starring a faded actor (Dead Man Down with Colin Farrell, Bullet to the Head with Stallone, Die Hard 5 with Willis, and whatever that movie was with Schwarzenneger a few weeks back) or an…

This is the best movie I’ve seen (so far) this year, and even though that isn’t saying much (we’re only six weeks in and this is a notorious dumping ground for most Hollywood movies that would bomb in more competitive time periods) it’s the only one I can really recommend. So basically, I would say…

I would love to tell you how hi-larious this movie is. I would love to tell you that the laughs started early and never let up, that Bateman/McCarthy have terrific comedic chemistry, and that the schmaltzy third act feels totally earned. However, none of that would be true. This movie exploded at the box office…

This movie was pretty bad. [And don’t worry, because there will be more timely reviews of Side Effects and Identity Thief later on today.] One of the most interesting parts comes early on when you discover that Will Ferrell is one of the producers…that’s not a good sign. What Works: Occasional flashes of genuine fun…

Otherwise known as “the tsunami” movie with Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. [I have to say this, because The Impossible is a lousy, forgettable title that tells you nothing about the movie, even people that have watched it sometimes forget what it’s called.] For me, this movie boils down to one fantastic, jaw-on-the-floor sequence, and…

Another indie few people have seen and fewer still will like. Arguably less impressive than Hyde Park on the Hudson… This movie is a passion project for director David Chase (who created The Sopranos, but has never made a film before…and it shows), and is clearly autobiographical. It’s about a band in New Jersey during…

Well if that title’s not enough of a mouthful for you, you’re in the right place. Clearly, you’re a dedicated Alabama Liberal fan, which you might have to be to care about this independent film that few people have seen, and fewer still have liked. Sure, the Golden Globes threw it some nominations, but that’s…

My pick for the third best movie of the year is tense, thrilling, and contains yet another great performance from phenomenon-on-the-rise Jessica Chastain. The film contains one big flaw (which I’ll get to below) but it’s hard to imagine anyone really hating this movie. It’s not the near-perfect film that The Hurt Locker was, but…

It’s not possible for Quentin Tarantino to make an uninteresting film, but I would argue that Django Unchained may be his first bad one (depending on exactly how you felt about Death Proof, his half of Grindhouse), and left me underwhelmed. Is it in poor taste to make a slavery/spaghetti-western/blaxploitation mashup? Maybe it is, but…

Sometimes a movie opens and you can just tell it’s destined to slip through the cracks and be underrated. Promised Land is already one of those movies, as it opened and died in theaters this weekend and is unlikely to get any Oscar nominations when those are announced on Thursday. And yet, it’s my pick…

A big studio film with the soul of an independent movie, and a damn good one too. What Works: I liked this movie more than I really could have anticipated. Whereas some of Judd Apatow’s previous films (like The 40 Year-Old Virgin and the overrated Knocked Up) jumped off from a high-concept premise but gradually…

This is a bit of a cheat since it aired on television, but HBO’s The Girl feels enough like a real movie to warrant a review. It has at least two recognizable stars (Sienna Miller, Toby Jones), and a biographical story (about Alfred Hitchcock’s obsession with actress Tippi Hedren, his star in The Birds and Marnie) that…

It’s hard to imagine anyone falling in love with this movie, but it’s hard to imagine anyone outright hating it either. It’s really a big shoulder-shrug, the type of “take-it-or-leave-it” entertainment that few people will run out to see, but it’s a pleasant enough time around the holidays, and a pretty good movie for sons…