All of the creativity and humor of Monsters University is going to go blazing over their heads. In crowded auditorium of families and kids, us adults laughed way more than the kids. That shouldn't happen.
Read More
World War Z isn't perfect, far from it, but the movie is very enjoyable escapism. It does enough to put butts in seats and, for two hours, probably makes you as mindlessly entertained as the movie's zombies are mindlessly wired for human consumption.
Read More
The Kings of Summer, while solid summer counter-programming against the big ticket blockbusters, just isn't on the level of last year's outstanding pair of summer coming-of-age movies.
Read More
Man of Steel delivers on its massive hype, promise, and, most importantly, potential in every possible way. For as challenging and different of directions the creators has taken this iconic character, their choices worked while still retaining every bit of this hero's essence. The unified goal to change the way we are presented Superman and give us something we've never seen before was a phenomenal success. They've done that and then some. This version of Superman is going to be talked about, dissected, and remembered for a long time.
Read More
Here with Before Midnight, Linklater's greater vision to show this couple's realistic flaws matches the greater responsibility the characters now have as parents in their forties. The world they all occupy has gotten heavier with the years, just as our own would. One must wonder if these three artists have something up their sleeve for their fifties and beyond.
Read More
Fast and Furious 6 wholeheartedly succeeds and, despite many spoiler cats being already out of the bag for the coming seventh film next summer, it still surprises with more than enough seat-belt tightening action and twists. Go ahead and let the old farts call it dumb and redundant. They clearly don't know what fun is nowadays. Fast and Furious 6 is perfect summer entertainment.
Read More
Well, it took a second try, but The Hangover Part III actually attempted the rule of a good sequel by expanding the story and raising the stakes. Because this is the finale, there are still plenty of nods and connections to the first two films, but Todd Phillips did attempt some new shenanigans. The trouble is I'm not sure if it was a direction that worked.
Read More
In the end, this isn't just a good sequel. It's a great sequel. Right when you think one story angle can't get more exciting, a new ingredient or wrinkle is thrown in to make the tension and enjoyment that much greater. With a breathless sense of action that builds cliffhanger on top of cliffhanger, Star Trek Into Darkness fires on all cylinders to deliver arguably one of the best summer blockbusters we've ever seen.
Read More
The film's cool and soothing central romance really won me over and I think it will win all of you over too. My initial skepticism level was very high, and not all from the usual book-to-movie debate. It's not often that a movie proves me wrong. The Great Gatsby sure did.
Read More
While some of the wackiness never lets up and carries into the course of our villainous conflict, the humor is always bubbling up to the surface. Iron Man 3 is, without a doubt, the most comedic of the Marvel superhero films. That affable effect helps mask many of the really preposterous events and flaws and keeps the whole Iron Man 3 effort extremely likeable and entertaining.
Read More
Building off that solid start, reuniting with Gosling, and bringing his storytelling to an ever larger scale than before, Cianfrance's latest film,The Place Beyond the Pines, is nothing short of a modern masterpiece. Brimming with more of that palpable emotion and wrought with ever-increasing tension, tragedy, triumph, and importance, The Place Beyond the Pinesis the first great film of 2013 and better than just about every movie this critic reviewed in 2012.
Read More
Come to the film for the visuals and hang around for enough surprises and developments to make you feel better about the IMAX ticket price. Once again, it's not a sure-fire classic, but it's just the start to a promising 2013 for science fiction.
Read More