Matt Damon

Green Zone
Matt Damon & Greg Kinnear in Green Zone

Director Paul Greengrass delivers a skillfully made package, but this feels like a too-soon proposition. Green Zone is partly real and partly outlandish in its wishful thinking. An Army officer hunting for WMDs in 2003, the fictional Miller (Matt Damon) knocks heads with everyone in Baghdad.

 

Jay Baruchel & Alice Eve

She's Out of My League
Jay Baruchel & Alice Eve in She's Out of My League

Jay Baruchel is the 21st-century Don Knotts, and even in a forgettable film like this one, his adenoidal, sidewinding line readings can make the stupidest material sound temporarily funny. An attractive babe (Alice Eve) coming off a bad relationship decides to give Kirk a try, much to the bewilderment of his goofball friends

 

Remember Me

Remember Me
Robert Pattinson & Emilie de Ravin in Remember Me

Teen audiences, particularly female, are likely to fall headlong into this dour romantic drama because Robert Pattinson and his fwoopy hair are both in it. Pattinson plays an NYU student who dares to ask out a girl (Emilie de Ravin) despite the fact that she's the daughter of the cop (Chris Cooper) who recently arrested him.

 

The Yellow Handkerchief

The Yellow Handkerchief
William Hurt & Maria Bello in The Yellow Handkerchief

This is a gentle, low-key road movie centering on the eternal need to love and to trust. A sweet-natured kid with wanderlust (Eddie Redmayne) passes through a tiny town in his vintage convertible and gives a lift to a pretty teen (Kristen Stewart) and to a middle-age man (William Hurt) of much kindness and concern for these two young people, but not eager to talk about himself.

 

Our Family Wedding

Our Family Wedding
America Ferrera & Lance Gross in Our Family Wedding

Instead of invitations, they should be sending out apologies for Our Family Wedding. Race as much as romance is at the heart of the matter, with director Rick Famuyiwa playing that card in nearly every scene. The film stars America Ferrera and Lance Gross as a couple traveling to L.A. to meet the parents and wed on the fly. This is a wasted opportunity to take a smart cut

Columbia University Celebrates Kathryn Bigelow, Its Big Oscar Winner
82nd Academy Awards Oscar Winners

You knew it was unavoidable: Colleges claiming Oscar winners the day after the glamorous event. And who can blame them? Why else would they have a 'Famous Alumni' section on Wikipedia?

 

Mia Wasikowska

Alice in Wonderland
Mia Wasikowska & Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland

Director Tim Burton's new extravaganza won't be for everyone. It's a little rough for preteens, and it doesn't throw many laughs the audience's way, but along with 'Sweeney Todd,' this is Burton's most interesting project in a decade. Wonderfully well-chosen actress Mia Wasikowska plays Alice, and Johnny Depp is the Mad Hatter.

 

Richard Gere & Ethan Hawke

Brooklyn's Finest
Richard Gere & Don Cheadle in Brooklyn's Finest

This film lays out a big spread of law enforcement corruption, intertwining the tales of three cops in crisis. One (Ethan Hawke) has a plan to buy a better future. Another (Richard Gere) is a suicidally inclined alcoholic just days from retirement. The third and most interesting (Don Cheadle, one of the best actors alive) is an undercover detective in trouble every which way.

 

Alexis Bledel

The Good Guy
Alexis Bledel & Scott Porter in The Good Guy

Writer-director Julio DePietro draws from his previous life as an investment firm employee to tell a story of three New Yorkers: an urban conservationist (Alexis Bledel), her slick broker boyfriend (Scott Porter) and a conveniently located dreamboat (Bryan Greenberg) who may not be cut out for high finance and low morals but seems like a good guy to build a future around.

 

A Prophet

A Prophet
Tahar Rahim & Niels Arestrup in A Prophet

The crime sagas that end up ensnaring the public imagination often do so by delivering their thrills with a crafty sort of hypocrisy, casting the hero in a mold unnerving enough to keep the viewer on edge, but heroic (or attractively anti-heroic) enough to develop a rooting interest. Such is the case with 'A Prophet' a violent and gripping French film

 

Willis & Morgan

Cop Out
Bruce Willis & Tracy Morgan in Cop Out

Tracy Morgan plays the motor-mouth NYPD detective partner of Bruce Willis, and there's no reason these two couldn't headline a perfectly proficient action comedy. But this is a lousy, invention-free script, and Kevin Smith cannot do anything to save it

 

Ewan McGregor & Pierce Brosnan

The Ghost Writer
Ewan McGregor & Pierce Brosnan in The Ghost Writer

Director Roman Polanski turns a conventional conspiracy thriller into a triumph of atmospheric menace. A hated politician (Pierce Brosnan, playing a variant on ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair) owes his publisher an autobiography. Enter the ghost writer (Ewan McGregor), who arrives on Martha's Vineyard to research his subject.

 

Timothy Olyphant & Radha Mitchell

The Crazies
Timothy Olyphant & Radha Mitchell in The Crazies

One of the year's nicest bloody surprises, the remake of the 1973 George A. Romero virus thriller The Crazies must be approached with the proper expectations. It should not be judged for what it is not. But nearly everything about it works. The good people of Ogden Marsh, Iowa, turn into murderous lunatics, owing to a nearby downed plane carrying germ-warfare viral nastiness

 

Benno Furmann & Johanna Wokalek

North Face
Benno Furmann & Johanna Wokalek in North Face

In 1936, mountaineers Toni Kurz and Andi Hinterstoisser confront their own white hell and in an attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger, in the Bernese Swiss Alps. North Face, which generates undeniable tension though it's a film of oddly limited visual distinction, chronicles that attempt.

 

Cyril Raffaelli & David Belle

District 13: Ultimatum
Cyril Raffaelli & David Belle in District 13: Ultimatum

On the heels of 'From Paris With Love' is 'District 13: Ultimatum,' more frenzied action from style-conscious Gallic popcorn impresario Luc Besson, and a follow-up to 2004's 'District B13.' That cult hit took the reality of France's immigrant unrest and devised a future Paris in which the government has cynically walled off the most gang-infested and racially charged ghettos.

 

DiCaprio & Ruffalo

Shutter Island
Leonardo DiCaprio & Mark Ruffalo in Shutter Island

A U.S. marshal (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his amiable new partner (Mark Ruffalo) hunt for an escaped patient at an insane asylum run by a shifty doctor (Ben Kingsley), whose island clinic may harbor sinister doings in the name of progressive health care.

 

Paul Bettany & Jennifer Connelly

Creation
Paul Bettany & Jennifer Connelly in Creation

There is angst, lots of it, for Paul Bettany to muck around in as he portrays the great evolutionist Charles Darwin. Not that angst is bad, but here it makes a muddle of Darwin's story. Even the sheer beauty of the setting and the attention to detail in re-creating his family life is not enough.

 

Parker Posey & Demi Moore

Happy Tears
Parker Posey & Demi Moore in Happy Tears

Writer-director Mitchell Lichtenstein's second feature relays a bittersweet story of two grown sisters (Parker Posey and Demi Moore) who return to their girlhood Pittsburgh home to take care of their increasingly difficult father (Rip Torn), who has shacked up with his alleged 'nurse' (Ellen Barkin).

 

Rick Schroder & Nate Parker

Blood Done Sign My Name
Rick Schroder & Nate Parker in Blood Done Sign My Name

The film version of Tim Tyson's memoir 'Blood Done Sign My Name' reminds us just how difficult it is to tell a story. Tyson grew up the son of a Methodist minister. In 1970, the Tysons move to Oxford, N.C. where Tim's eyes are opened by the bloody history catching fire around him.

 

Benicio Del Toro & Anthony Hopkins

The Wolfman
Benicio Del Toro & Anthony Hopkins in The Wolfman

Someone or something is on the loose in late-1800s England, slaughtering Gypsies and good, upright English folk. When a famous Shakespearean actor (Benicio Del Toro) is attacked and begins showing signs of trouble, it's his father (Anthony Hopkins) who takes care of him, though he seems strangely interested in letting 'the beast' run free.

 

Jennifer Garner & Jessica Biel

Valentine's Day
Jessica Alba & Jessica Biel in Valentine's Day

Set in a sprawling, grime-free L.A., director Garry Marshall's 'Valentine's Day' is 'Crash' with hearts and flowers, an ensemble romantic comedy that believes in bulk. Is 'Valentine's Day' good? Not really, though plenty of the actors are. The massive cast includes Anne Hathaway, Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Queen Latifah, Topher Grace and many others.

 

Logan Lerman & Brandon T. Jackson

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

The first installment in Rick Riordan's five-book series suggests that this could be the start of something adequate. Its limitations are less a matter of scale than of imagination. It may be director Chris Columbus' fate to initiate a fantasy franchise destined to be improved by his successors. Now, Columbus has taken on this fantasy construct in which Greek gods threaten war in modern-day America over Zeus' missing lightning bolt.

 

Steve Buscemi

Saint John of Las Vegas
Steve Buscemi & Romany Malco in Saint John of Las Vegas

The widely maligned indie 'Saint John of Las Vegas' has a tough commercial road ahead in the best of circumstances, given its size (tiny) and comic tone (eccentric but mild). What can I say? It's minor, but I enjoyed it, largely because of the people on-screen, but also for the sneaky sincerity of writer-director Hue Rhodes' chronicle of one compulsive gambler's slouch toward redemption.

 

Christopher Plummer

The Last Station
Christopher Plummer & Helen Mirren in The Last Station

Under the accomplished direction of Michael Hoffman, who also wrote the script, "The Last Station" is well-acted across the board, but the film's centerpiece is the spectacular back and forth between Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as Sofya, his wife of 48 years.

 

From Paris With Love

From Paris With Love
John Travolta & Jonathan Rhys Meyers in From Paris With Love

"From Paris With Love" doesn't do much for Paris or love, or your brain cells, but it flies like a crazed eagle on uppers. Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays a low-level spy and Paris embassy functionary who longs for more exciting work.

 

Dear John

Dear John
Channing Tatum & Amanda Seyfried in Dear John

Like The Blind Side, Dear John offers audiences a meat-and-potatoes story of love, loyalty, heartfelt generosity and other matters seldom brought to the screen with any skill at all.

 

Brendan Fraser & Harrison Ford

Extraordinary Measures
Brendan Fraser & Harrison Ford in Extraordinary Measures

This fact-based drama concerns a Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. marketing exec, John Crowley (Brendan Fraser), whose two kids contracted a rare form of muscular dystrophy. Racing against time to finance the development of a cure, Crowley's plight became a story of dedication, inspiration and not taking "no" for an answer. Harrison Ford plays the scowling, antisocial researcher who may hold the key to the kids' survival.

 

Horacio Camandule

Gigante
Horacio Camandule & Leonor Svarcas in Gigante

I don't know if Adrian Biniez ever wrote a song about a stalker when he was with the Argentinean band Reverb, but that's how Biniez's first feature-length film project, Gigante, turned out: like a catchy three-minute pop ballad, expanded artfully into an 84-minute ode to the fine line separating the shy-but-girlfriend-worthy loner from the genuine sociopath.

 

Dwayne Johnson

The Tooth Fairy
Dwayne Johnson & Ashley Judd in The Tooth Fairy

Dwayne Johnson stars as a minor-league hockey player known as The Tooth Fairy for his ability to knock his opponents' teeth all over the rink. The real tooth fairies do not approve of him, so he's lifted off to Fairyland, where Julie Andrews oversees his stint as a real tooth fairy whose wings sprout at inconvenient times.

 

Denzel Washington

The Book of Eli
Denzel Washington & Gary Oldman in The Book of Eli

The latest in a wave of post-apocalyptic films is this sly Mad Max-y sort of Western, pitting Denzel Washington as a high plains drifter with God on his side against Gary Oldman as the entrepreneur ruling a makeshift dirty town somewhere in what's left of the Southwestern United States.

 

Mark Wahlberg

The Lovely Bones
Mark Wahlberg & Rachel Weisz in The Lovely Bones

Peter Jackson, best known for his Lord of the Rings trilogy, draws a fine performance from Saoirse Ronan as the murdered girl at the center of this story. But the adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel leaves out anything that isn't completely on point, and that does not favor the thriller and suspense aspects of the plot.

 

The Spy Next Door

The Spy Next Door
Jackie Chan & Billy Ray Cyrus in The Spy Next Door

Jackie Chan brings kinetic athleticism and an air of determined good cheer to even the most metallic of clunkers. It's hard to imagine anyone being offended by his new all-ages vehicle, except fans of good comedy.

 

The White Ribbon

The White Ribbon
Christian Friedel & Leonie Benesch in The White Ribbon

The White Ribbon set in 1913 relays a mystery, or rather a series of mysterious, increasingly vicious cruelties perpetrated by unknown parties in a northern German village. True to Haneke's temperament and stern moralist's outlook, "The White Ribbon" does not itself go in for much nuance of human behavior. There are a fragile handful of good people being suffocated by an ever-tightening circle of bad.

 

Heath Ledger

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Heath Ledger & Johnny Depp in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

When Heath Ledger died, this was the project he left half-finished. It would have stayed that way if Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell hadn't pitched in to finish it seamlessly. The head-spinning plot resists easy summation but is largely centered on shaman Dr. Parnassus (a letter-perfect Christopher Plummer), who runs a traveling show; his magic mirror; and his wagers with the devil incarnate, Mr. Nick. (Tom Waits).

 

Ethan Hawke & Willem Dafoe

Daybreakers
Ethan Hawke & Willem Dafoe in Daybreakers

In 2019, a bat-borne plague has reduced the human population by 95 percent and left vampires in charge. But the global blood supply is low. When the vampires go hungry, they wreak undead havoc. Ethan Hawke plays a vampire hematologist who's sworn off human blood. An encounter with a group of renegade humans leads him to a breakthrough and a chance to become human again.

 

Michael Cera & Portia Doubleday

Youth in Revolt
Michael Cera & Portia Doubleday in Youth in Revolt

"Youth in Revolt" isn't bad -- the cast is too good for it to be bad -- but archly comic coming-of-age fables are tricky things, and this adaptation of the first three C.D. Payne stories about an Oakland teenager's improbable life, times, fantasies and picaresque sexual adventures does not precisely feel like This Year's Stuff. Still, I laughed a fair bit.

 

Amy Adams & Matthew Goode

Leap Year
Amy Adams & Matthew Goode in Leap Year

This romantic comedy's genial performers -- Amy Adams and Matthew Goode -- do what they can to humanize material that puts the "ick" in "formulaic." Four years into her relationship with a cardiologist, Anna (Adams) is still waiting for a proposal. She chases down her beau at a convention in Dublin so she can follow the leap-year Irish tradition of proposing herself.

 

Marina Fois & Lorant Deutsch

The Joy of Singing (Le Plaisir de Chanter)
Marina Fois & Lorant Deutsch in The Joy of Singing

The blithely confounding narrative of the French sex comedy "The Joy of Singing" has something to do with uranium traffickers, though co-writer and director Ilan Duran Cohen is more interested in the carnal, as opposed to chemical, pursuits of his characters. You could start the year with far worse priorities.

 

Bryce Dallas Howard & Chris Evans

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
Bryce Dallas Howard & Chris Evans in The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond

In 1957, Tennessee Williams wrote a screenplay titled "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond." The project didn't come to pass -- until now, more than a half-century later. First-time director Jodie Markell has turned it into a showcase for actress Bryce Dallas Howard.

 

It's Complicated

It's Complicated
Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin in It's Complicated

It's Complicated isn't: It's pretty simple. It's simply a good time, a relatively adult and easygoing conveyance for three ace performers of a certain age...

 

Robert Downey Jr. & Jude Law

Sherlock Holmes
Robert Downey Jr. & Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie gives us "Sherlock Holmes," and I'm sorry, but I like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's characters. It's a drag to see how Ritchie has turned Holmes and Dr. Watson into thugs even though casting seems so right ...

 

Nine's Star-Studded Cast

Nine
Daniel Day-Lewis & Marion Cotillard in Nine

Based on Fellini's 8 1/2, this film is a mixed bag, but the cast ... wow! Director Rob Marshall has conceived Nine in almost precisely the same way he approached Chicago. Each number is imagined by its protagonist, in this case the illustrious film director in crisis, Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis). The movie illustrates scenes from Contini's tangled relationships with ...

 

Colin Firth & Julianne Moore

A Single Man
Colin Firth & Julianne Moore in A Single Man

Some films aren't revelations, exactly, but they burrow so deeply into old truths about love and loss and the mess and thrill of life, they seem new anyway. This is one such film, one of the best of 2009 ...

 

Jeff Bridges & Maggie Gyllenhaal

Crazy Heart
Jeff Bridges & Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart

There's a powerful symmetry at work in Crazy Heart. It's a parallel between protagonist Bad Blake, a country singer at a nadir of disintegration, and star Jeff Bridges, whose exceptional film choices have put him at the height of his powers ...

 

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Jason Lee & Zachary Levi in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

This is a kids comedy that screams Direct to DVD. It doesn't help that it screams that in high, squeaky, three-part harmony ...

 

Police, Adjective

Police, Adjective
Dragos Bucur & Vlad Ivanov in Police, Adjective

This exquisitely dry film comes from Romanian writer-director Corneliu Porumboiu. It's not for all tastes; it requires some patience. However, the more your own job involves absurd, time-consuming bits of minutiae, ...

 

La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet

La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet
Directed by Frederick Wiseman

Frederick Wiseman is a grand dean of documentary filmmakers, a skilled observer whose patient, incessant, journalistic omniscience explores, exposes and dissects the folly of institutional life. La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet boasts Wiseman's detached, matter-of-fact cinematic observation

 

Sam Worthington & Zoe Saldana

Avatar
Sam Worthington & Zoe Saldana in Avatar

The first 90 minutes of Avatar are pretty terrific -- a full-immersion technological wonder with wonders to spare. The other 72 minutes, less and less terrific. Director James Cameron's futuristic story becomes intentionally grueling in its heavily telegraphed narrative turn toward genocidal anguish, grim echoes of Vietnam-style firefights and the inevitable payback time and sequel setup

 

The Movie 'Nine'

All-Star Cast Brings Big Guns to director Rob Marshall's 'Nine'
By Jon Burlingame

For the big screen 'Nine,' Marshall and his co-producer (and co-choreographer), John DeLuca, have further retooled the concept, casting double Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis as the Felliniesque Italian director Guido Contini and another five Oscar winners as the women who variously love and torment him

 

Hugh Grant & Sarah Jessica Parker

Did You Hear About the Morgans?
Hugh Grant & Sarah Jessica Parker in Did You Hear About the Morgans?

Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker play the Morgans, a Manhattan power couple on the outs and the brink of divorce. He cheated on her, citing reasons of infertility-related stress; she is not in the forgiving vein and has already begun thinking about adoption on her own. He wants her back and proposes a trial reconciliation

 

Emily Blunt & Rupert Friend

The Young Victoria
Emily Blunt & Rupert Friend in The Young Victoria

Starring Emily Blunt as the 18-year-old queen of England circa 1837, this delicious historical romance is a rich pastiche of first love, teen empowerment, fabulous fashion and fate. Filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallee has captured that hot blush of pure emotion that comes before kisses, sex and heartbreak. Credit also goes to Blunt and to Rupert Friend

 

Penelope Cruz & Lluis Homar

Broken Embraces
Penelope Cruz & Lluis Homar in Broken Embraces

Sleek and swank, director Pedro Almodovar's latest movie is destined to be overlooked come awards time. Broken Embraces reworks a slew of noir plot lines for a stimulating story of an affair between a call girl turned actress and her director

 

Ursula Werner & Horst Westphal

Cloud 9 (Wolke Neun)
Ursula Werner & Horst Westphal in Cloud 9

The German film Cloud 9, which is being distributed by Chicago's own Music Box Films, makes a case for a third, broader and more expansive image of mature sexuality. It's a small picture but a good one, truthfully acted and calmly compelling.

 

Invictus

Invictus
Morgan Freeman & Matt Damon in Invictus

This stately, impressive film from director Clint Eastwood is anchored by its actors. Morgan Freeman plays South African president and revolutionary game-changer Nelson Mandela, and Matt Damon plays rugby captain Francois Pienaar. In the South African rugby team's long-shot chances for a victory in the 1995 World Cup Final, Mandela sees a grand opportunity.

 

Princess & the Frog

The Princess and the Frog
Anika Noni Rose & Bruno Campos in The Princess and the Frog

How can a good-looking animated feature with a Randy Newman song as kicky as 'When We're Human' end up being just sort of ... all right? Featuring Disney's first African-American princess, this movie lacks for nothing in setting and atmosphere but comes up short where it counts: the characters.

 

Zac Efron & Claire Danes

Me and Orson Welles
Zac Efron & Claire Danes in Me and Orson Welles

A real charmer, 'Me and Orson Welles' is the work of a director who takes nostalgia, romantic possibility and the theater seriously, without being a pill about it. Richard Linklater's film version of a Robert Kaplow novel tells a fairy tale based in fact. Strolling the Manhattan theater district one day in 1937, the story's fictional protagonist stumbles into Orson Welles and is hired to appear in Welles' modern-dress revival of 'Julius Caesar.'

 

George Clooney

Up in the Air
George Clooney & Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air

For a movie set in a sour economy, 'Up in the Air' is very crafty about lobbing to the sweet spots of all concerned. It is smooth as glass, destined for a big audience and many awards. George Clooney stars as a well-tailored hatchet man for an Omaha firm.

 

De Niro & Barrymore

Everybody's Fine
Robert De Niro & Drew Barrymore in Everybody's Fine

It's a relief to see Robert De Niro giving an honest, effective starring performance in a project that does not stink. How long has it been? This Americanized remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's 1990 'Stanno Tutti Bene' is gracefully acted by a good cast.

 

Maguire & Gyllenhaal

Brothers
Tobey Maguire & Jake Gyllenhaal in Brothers

This gripping film is an honorable addition to the tradition of homefront war stories. The stars playing the brothers of the film's title, Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal, have been effective in much of their respective screen work, but their best stuff here is the their best stuff to date.

 

Jennifer Lyons

Transylmania
Jennifer Lyons & Oren Skoog in Transylmania

Ten college 'types' set off for a semester of study at Romania's Razvan University, which is actually a castle where students occasionally disappear. Might the vampires who once ruled the roost be to blame?

 

Catalina Saavedra

The Maid
Catalina Saavedra & Mariana Loyola in The Maid

A spiky social comedy from Chile, Sebastian Silva's 'The Maid' features a marvelous, moon-eyed actress, Catalina Saavedra, as a sphinx-like servant who has lived, worked and, slowly, calcified for a bourgeois Santiago family for 23 of her 41 years.

 

Tony Leung & Takeshi Kaneshiro

Red Cliff
Tony Leung & Takeshi Kaneshiro in Red Cliff

Red Cliff tells the story of the pivotal Battle of Red Cliff, which finds vile Prime Minister Cao Cao leading an armada into the Southland of China to take on a rabble of rebellious warlords.

 

Rain & Naomie Harris

Ninja Assassin
Rain & Naomie Harris in Ninja Assassin

A deadly sect of super-secret ninjas stakes a claim to the ownership of our hero, who's trained to become the most lethal of all clan members. But he doesn't like the way they killed his sweetheart, so he bolts and goes undercover.

 

Viggo Mortensen & Kodi Smit-McPhee

The Road
Viggo Mortensen & Kodi Smit-McPhee in The Road

It's a miracle that this movie works at all, given the severity of its source, a 2006 Cormac McCarthy novel. The best thing about the film is Viggo Mortensen's performance. He plays the man with no name, a survivor of the global apocalypse, making his way to the coast with his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) while scrounging for food and dodging cannibals and marauders.

 

George Clooney & Meryl Streep

Fantastic Mr. Fox
George Clooney & Meryl Streep in Fantastic Mr. Fox

So many clever visual felicities dot the landscape of Wes Anderson's animated feature, I'm flummoxed as to why the movie left me feeling up in the air.

 

John Travolta & Robin Williams

Old Dogs
John Travolta & Robin Williams in Old Dogs

Seven years after his whirlwind 24-hour marriage, an uptight Felix Unger-esque fellow learns he's the father of twins. He and his footloose-bachelor friend, end up baby-sitting these two for a couple of weeks, and unfunny chaos ensues

 

Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson

The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson in The Twilight Saga: New Moon

This much-anticipated sequel is actually pretty good -- a tick better than the first 'Twilight,' which wasn't bad, either. The second film in the series is bigger, better in the effects and more vibrant visually.

 

Nicolas Cage & Eva Mendes

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Nicolas Cage & Eva Mendes in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Director Werner Herzog's delirious new movie is a true feat of daring and one of the craziest films of the year. The drug-abusing cop has been relocated from New York to New Orleans, and in place of Keitel's fits of anguish, Herzog has found his ideal interpreter, a performer whose truth lies deep in the artifice of performance: Nicolas Cage, at his finest

 

Ben Foster & Woody Harrelson

The Messenger
Ben Foster & Woody Harrelson in The Messenger

A decorated Army soldier (Ben Foster) with post-traumatic stress disorder is assigned to the Casualty Notification program, meaning that he and a fellow officer (Woody Harrelson) must deliver news of a fallen soldier's death to family members. This pungent little chamber piece offers a full yet delicate range of emotions, and it humanizes its characters so that polemics are left in the background.

 

Sandra Bullock & Tim McGraw

The Blind Side
Sandra Bullock & Tim McGraw in The Blind Side

Based on a book by Michael Lewis, this film fumbles a true story of an African-American product of the Memphis projects who ended up at a Christian school and in the care of a wealthy white family, then went on to NFL glory. The star is Sandra Bullock, whose character is conceived as a steel magnolia with a will of iron.

 

Dwayne Johnson & Justin Long

Planet 51
Dwayne Johnson & Justin Long in Planet 51

The big joke here is that an alien has 'invaded' a suburban town. The alien is us, a NASA astronaut (voiced by Dwayne Johnson) who touches down and bounces out with his American flag, only to realize he's interrupting an alien barbecue. This is a good-looking movie; it's just low on laughs.

 

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Pirate Radio
Philip Seymour Hoffman & Bill Nighy in Pirate Radio

With nearly 60 classic cuts, this may be the coolest music video masquerading as a movie ever. It's hard not to feel the love as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans and others in the groovy ensemble spin this mostly tall tale of the English Parliament's fight to crush rock radio and the rogue broadcasters who went to sea to keep it afloat

 

John Cusack

2012
John Cusack & Chiwetel Ejiofor in 2012

'2012' samples everything from 'Earthquake' to 'The Perfect Storm' to 'The Towering Inferno' to the Bible. John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover and Woody Harrelson are among the actors pushing along whatever 'story' you can find here.

 

Jocelin Donahue

The House of the Devil
Jocelin Donahue & Greta Gerwig in The House of the Devil

This is a fine little old-school thriller set in the 1980s. A cash-strapped college student (Jocelin Donahue) accepts a babysitting job at a scary old Victorian home, but once she arrives, she discovers there's no baby to sit; her charge is the unseen mother of a lanky pair of creeps (Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov).

 

Tony Jaa

Ong Bak 2
Tony Jaa & Primrata Dej-Udom in Ong Bak 2

Tony Jaa, Thailand's biggest action hero, returns to inflict more damage in 'Ong Bak 2: The Beginning. ' Given its title, you might expect that this film has some connection to the original 'Ong Bak' of a few years back, but you would be wrong.

 

Sean Patrick Flanery & Norman Reedus

Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
Sean Patrick Flanery & Norman Reedus

This movie gives so much a bad name: Irish pride, clumsy sequel titles containing colons, ethnic slurs, and Judd Nelson's inability to say 'when' as an over-actor. In the original, the MacManus brothers (Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus) were sort of human. This time, they're just glib killing machines, out to eliminate the gangsters (led by Nelson) responsible for killing a Boston priest.

 

Michael Angarano & Jemaine Clement

Gentlemen Broncos
Michael Angarano & Jemaine Clement in Gentlemen Broncos

The latest collaboration from Jared and Jerusha Hess is about a home-schooled square of a kid who writes cheesy sci-fi fantasy books that belie his introverted demeanor. After his best manuscript is plagiarized by a pompous author whose career is on the skids (Jemaine Clement), our young hero finds himself facing a weird series of personal and creative challenges.

 

Gabourey Sidibe

Precious
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious

Precious is an exceptional film about nearly unendurable circumstances, endured. The story is about a teen living in 1980s Harlem, raped by her barely glimpsed father, abused by her unfathomably cruel mother. Precious is illiterate but bright, and she switches to an alternative school where she comes under the life-saving tutelage of Ms. Rain. There'll be an Oscar nomination or two in this film's near future

 

Jim Carrey & Gary Oldman

Disney's A Christmas Carol
Jim Carrey & Gary Oldman in Disney's A Christmas Carol

Disney's A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens -- demoted!), is an extravaganza of colliding intentions. But just when you're ready to give up on it, Zemeckis reminds you that he's capable of true visual dynamism, enhanced but not wholly dictated by the digital landscape he so clearly adores. Plus, Jim Carrey is good as Scrooge

 

Michael Jackson's This Is It
Michael Jackson in Michael Jackson's This Is It

Produced with the cooperation of the Jackson estate, "This Is It" has no interest in telling the full story of anything, or the crumbling state of anyone. Director Kenny Ortega -- Jackson's partner in staging the London concert that never came to fruition -- is simply trying to suggest in some detail what sort of overstuffed career retrospective Jackson was attempting

Is It Legal to Copy a DVD?
David LaGesse

Consumers are accustomed to copying music disks to their computers, making it easy to transfer them to portable MP3 players like the iPod. Many wonder why they can't do the same with movies on DVD. Two recent court rulings nixed novel approaches that sought to make it easy and legal for consumers to copy DVDs to computers and elsewhere. Here's a quick guide to what the courts have said, what it means to consumers

 

Carey Mulligan & Peter Sarsgaard

An Education
Carey Mulligan & Peter Sarsgaard in An Education

Novelist Nick Hornby's screenplay for British journalist Lynn Barber's memoir sands a few edges off the corners of its heroine's story, yet the film is awfully charming. It bops along with so much esprit and lively acting.

 

Hilary Swank & Richard Gere

Amelia
Hilary Swank & Richard Gere in Amelia

This Amelia Earhart biopic isn't a bad movie, but it's distressingly ordinary for such an extraordinary subject. Played by an aptly cast and game Hilary Swank, Earhart becomes a checklist of Historical Legend accomplishments

 

Astro Boy Anime Movie Feature

Astro Boy
Freddie Highmore & Kristen Bell in Astro Boy

Astro Boy first appeared in a Japanese comic in 1951. His adventures led to a '60s Japanese TV series, then to the first of the American spin-offs, and now "Astro Boy" hits the big screen. I wish the film version of "Astro Boy" provided a stronger antidote to mediocrity. With the voices of Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell and Nicolas Cage

 

John C. Reilly & Patrick Fugit

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
John C. Reilly & Patrick Fugit in Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

In this campy vampire flick, the truce between vampires who sip, leaving humans a little weaker but none the wiser, and those who gorge, leaving death and destruction behind, comes to an end. This is an adaptation of the frothy kids book series by Darren Shan.

 

Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are
Max Records & Catherine Keener in Where the Wild Things Are

Based on Maurice Sendak's 338-word storybook, Spike Jonze's film strikes minor chords and plaintive emotions where other directors would've gone for the throat. A boy (Max Records) coping with a household unsteadied by divorce sets sail for an island where the Wild Things wrestle with the same clique issues and hurt feelings the boy deals with back home.

 

Michael Sheen & Timothy Spall

The Damned United
Michael Sheen & Timothy Spall in The Damned United

This engaging film, a winner for soccer fans and soccer idiots alike, focuses on Brian Clough, one-time English footballer turned failed manager of the Leeds United club. Michael Sheen, who played David Frost in 'Frost/Nixon,' portrays Clough

 

Jamie Foxx & Gerard Butler

Law Abiding Citizen
Jamie Foxx & Gerard Butler in Law Abiding Citizen

Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx star in this brutal, preposterous revenge fantasy that taps into a lot of fears about the American legal system. Butler plays a gadget-maker who survives the slaughter of his family and sets out to get even, and then some. Foxx is the politically ambitious Philadelphia prosecutor who lets one of the killers get off easy so the other will be executed.

 

Natalie Portman & Maggie Q

New York, I Love You
Natalie Portman & Maggie Q in 'New York, I Love You'

The ongoing 'Cities We Love' project that began three years ago with 'Paris, je t'aime' continues its global exploration with 'New York, I Love You.' Eleven directors and 16 screenwriters contributed to the omnibus affair. I like the idea of the film more than the film itself; the batting average with the Paris project was a good deal higher. Nonetheless, this one provides some compensatory satisfactions

 

Vince Vaughn & Jason Bateman

Couples Retreat
Vince Vaughn & Jason Bateman in Couples Retreat

Four couples on a tropical retreat think they're in for umbrella drinks and beach time. They're met instead with a stern regimen of 'couples-whispering' tactics. Though it boasts a good cast that also includes Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell and Jon Favreau, 'Couples Retreat' is pretty meager and more than a little depressing.

 

Michael Stuhlbarg & Richard Kind

A Serious Man
Michael Stuhlbarg & Richard Kind in A Serious Man

Set in 1967 in the Minneapolis suburbs, 'A Serious Man' is a tart, brilliantly acted fable of life's little cosmic difficulties, a Coen brothers comedy with a darker philosophical outlook than 'No Country for Old Men' but with a script rich in verbal wit.

 

Chris Rock & Paul Mooney

Good Hair
Chris Rock & Paul Mooney in Good Hair

Comedian Chris Rock's 'Good Hair' consists of two documentaries braided together, one enjoyable, the other enjoyable and provocative. Rock and a film crew covered the 2007 edition of the Bronner Bros. Hair Show in Atlanta and its climactic Hair Battle Royale

 

Corbin Bleu & Penelope Ann Miller

Free Style
Corbin Bleu & Penelope Ann Miller in Free Style

Corbin Bleu may have graduated from "High School Musical," but he stays close to his Disney Channel roots in "Free Style," a squeaky-clean sports flick about a poor kid with big dreams (and bigger hair) trying to make it in the motocross world.

 

Michael Moore

Capitalism: A Love Story
Michael Moore in Capitalism: A Love Story

At its best, this uneven work represents Michael Moore at the peak of his argumentative skills. Roughly a third of its anecdotal and illustrative footage hinges on precise details strong enough to support Moore's wider indictments of the Western world's preferred way to make a buck and treat its citizenry. It is the right time to be dealing with these questions

 

Ricky Gervais & Jennifer Garner

The Invention of Lying (3 Stars)
Ricky Gervais & Jennifer Garner in The Invention of Lying

In the world according to 'The Invention of Lying,' truth rules because no one has thought of the alternative. First encounters are brutal. And then comes the epochal First Lie Ever. The movie may be softer than you'd expect from Gervais, but the premise is so rich, you forgive the problems.

 

Woody Harrelson & Jesse Eisenberg

Zombieland
Woody Harrelson & Jesse Eisenberg in Zombieland

Honing the dry comic skills he brought to "Adventureland," Jesse Eisenberg plays a kid from Columbus, Ohio, who joins head-splattering forces with Woody Harrelson, having a high old time as humankind's last best hope. It's a strangely high-spirited lark, giving its leading players plenty to eviscerate in between sweet nothings and wisecracks

 

Ellen Page & Marcia Gay Harden

Whip It
Ellen Page & Marcia Gay Harden in Whip It

Drew Barrymore's feature directorial debut runs on an easygoing mixture of cliches and grrrl-power, and its cast is good company. (Nice to see Kristen Wiig of 'Saturday Night Live' in more than a novelty role.) A young heroine named Bliss (Ellen Page of 'Juno') goes from the world of teen beauty pageants to roller derby competition after meeting a fiercely alluring gang of roller derby queens.

 

Clive Owen & Nicholas McAnulty

The Boys Are Back
Clive Owen & Nicholas McAnulty in The Boys Are Back

Clive Owen plays a sports columnist in Australia whose life is upended when his wife (Laura Fraser) dies and he must juggle a return to work with a 6-year-old (Nicholas McAnulty) who doesn't grasp Mom's death. His laissez-faire approach to parenting shocks relatives, but the consequences of it don't fully manifest themselves until a son from an earlier marriage (George MacKay) shows up

 

Patton Oswalt & Kevin Corrigan

Big Fan
Patton Oswalt & Kevin Corrigan in Big Fan

Starring comedian Patton Oswalt, 'Big Fan' is a poignant, dead-on examination of a crisis in the life of the most die-hard of die-hard New York Giants football fans. Its situations can be outrageous, but its sense of the core reality it describes is impeccable.

 

Katie Featherston & Micah Sloat

Paranormal Activity (2 1/2 Stars)
Katie Featherston & Micah Sloat in Paranormal Activity

A middle-class couple (Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat) living in a San Diego subdivision set up a camcorder with night vision to see what's making weird noises in their home every night, and they gather video evidence that something is messing with their relationship

 

Debbie Allen & Charles S. Dutton

Fame (2 1/2 Stars)
Debbie Allen & Charles S. Dutton in Fame

One's response to this happy, PG-rated remake, which stands in stark contrast to the R-rated pre-"High School Musical" original, probably depends on your personal relationship to the old version. The newer version, with a cast that includes Debbie Allen and Kelsey Grammer, has a sweet spirit and offers only one true moment of inadvertent camp

 

Abbie Cornish & Ben Whishaw

Bright Star (2 1/2 Stars)
Abbie Cornish & Ben Whishaw in Bright Star

Jane Campion's first feature since 'In the Cut' six years ago is a scrupulously well-crafted film about the relationship between poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and quick-witted Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). In a way Campion's film is a thing of beauty, reveling in both romantic love and the allure of the Romantic poets, yet ...

 

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Bill Hader & Anna Faris in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Fairly inventive and exceedingly manic, "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" comes from the 1978 picture book by Judi and Ron Barrett. Inventor Flint (voiced by Bill Hader) perfects a machine that turns water into food. ...

 

Matt Damon & Scott Bakula

The Informant
Matt Damon & Scott Bakula in The Informant

In this deliciously deadpan comedy from director Steven Soderbergh, Matt Damon gets a chance to work his sly comic chops in the role of a biochemist who becomes a corporate whistle-blower. Based on Kurt Eichenwald's exhaustive nonfiction chronicle, the film is both outlandish and subtle.

 

Megan Fox & Amanda Seyfried

Jennifer's Body
Megan Fox & Amanda Seyfried in Jennifer's Body

Striving for horror, comedy and anti-mean-girl empowerment, Jennifer's Body wants it all. Yet the tone wavers, the direction's slackly indecisive and visually drab, and in the middle of it is a thinly conceived antagonist played by Megan Fox.

 

Aaron Eckhart & Jennifer Aniston

Love Happens
Aaron Eckhart & Jennifer Aniston in Love Happens

Aaron Eckhart plays a best-selling therapist and grief guru whose bereavement counseling gig in Seattle is improved when he meets a flower arranger played by Jennifer Aniston.

 

Charlize Theron & Kim Basinger

The Burning Plain (2 1/2 Stars)
Charlize Theron & Kim Basinger in The Burning Plain

Charlize Theron once again plays a damaged woman running from her past. But storytelling tricks make this an intriguing outing for her, with a cast that includes fellow Oscar winner Kim Basinger and John Corbett.

 

Elijah Wood & Christopher Plummer

9 Animated Feature Movie Review
Elijah Wood & Christopher Plummer in 9 Animated Feature

This animated feature throws viewers headlong into a post-apocalyptic universe where life has come down to the vicious combat between machines resembling metallic dinosaurs and a tiny band of survivors. Director Shane Acker's fantasy comes from his superb 2004 short subject.

 

Kate Beckinsale & Gabriel Macht

Whiteout (1 1/2 Stars)
Kate Beckinsale & Gabriel Macht in Whiteout

"Whiteout" comes from a graphic novel about a U.S. Marshal stationed in Antarctica. A corpse is found on the ice, but it's not just another case of severe frostbite. It's murder, and the murderer has a motive that relates in some way to the Cold War-era prologue ...

 

The September Issue

This easygoing, entertaining documentary is about a triumph of advertising and frippery over rational thinking: the September 2007 issue of Vogue, hundreds of pages long, fraught with backstage machinations and editorial mishaps.

 

Demetri Martin - Taking Woodstock

Taking Woodstock
Demetri Martin & Henry Goodman in Taking Woodstock

Director Ang Lee has never made a bad film, and the genial comedy 'Taking Woodstock' certainly doesn't break his streak. Based on a memoir by Elliot Tiber, the movie is a mosaic ...

 

Haden Church, Sandra Bullock and
Bradley Cooper

All About Steve
Sandra Bullock & Thomas Haden Church in All About Steve

There's nothing wrong with this movie that a rewrite couldn't fix, as long as the rewrite involved a different writer, a different character and a different story. Bullock plays Mary, a daffy optimist who can't take a hint ...

 

Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis in Extract

Extract
Jason Bateman & Mila Kunis

Written and directed by Mike Judge, this bookend to 'Office Space' features the excellent Jason Bateman as a small businessman trying to dodge a lawsuit following a mishap at his factory while also trying to ...

 

Alexie Gilmore and Robin Williams

World's Greatest Dad
Robin Williams & Alexie Gilmore in World's Greatest Dad

Writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait's film about the human need for reinvention and revisionism stars Robin Williams as a high school English teacher with a repellant teenage son. Goldthwait is interested in mining the human condition, but ...

 

Renée Zellweger, Logan Lerman,
Mark Rendall

My One and Only
Renee Zellweger & Kevin Bacon in My One and Only

Set in the early 1950s, 'My One and Only' stars Renee Zellweger as a young actor-to-be's mother, a reckless, madcap figure of glamour.

 

Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds
Brad Pitt & Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

A queasy historical do-over, Quentin Tarantino's new film has been described as a grindhouse version of "Valkyrie"; a rhapsody dedicated to the cinema's powers of persuasion; and a showcase for Austrian-born character actor Christoph Waltz, who waltzes off with the performance honors as a suavely vicious Nazi colonel.

 

Cast of Post Grad

Post Grad
Alexis Bledel & Zach Gilford in Post Grad

In this minor but agreeable romantic comedy, a college graduate (Alexis Bledel) moves back in with her folks (Michael Keaton and Jane Lynch) and tries to decide between the hunk next door (Rodrigo Santoro) and her lovesick pal (Zach Gilford).

 

Rodriguez, Gagnon, Howard

Shorts
Jon Cryer & William H. Macy in Shorts

This children's movie focuses on an 11-year-old (Jimmy Bennett) with multiple tormentors and a rainbow-colored rock that grants wishes. There are holes in the story that a 3-year-old could point out ...

 

Jim Sturgess

Fifty Dead Men Walking
Jim Sturgess & Ben Kingsley in Fifty Dead Men Walking

"Fifty Dead Men Walking" tells a highly charged version of one informant's life story, which is also the story of multiple near-deaths. This sharp, well-acted film is based on the autobiography of Martin McGartland (Jim Sturgess), a West Belfast Catholic who in the late 1980s insinuated himself into the good graces of the Irish Republican Army in order to funnel intelligence to the occupying British forces. Writer-director Kari Skogland keeps the players vivid and relatively honest, and never shies away from the brutalities.

 

X Games 3D: The Movie

X Games 3D: The Movie (2 Stars)
Shaun White & Travis Pastrana in X Games 3D: The Movie

As a repackaging of last year's Summer X Games using the latest in 3-D camera technology, Disney's limited-run extreme sports doc "X Games 3D: The Movie" is an uneven thrill-circus display that too often feels like TV writ large and loud rather than cinematic reimagining ...

 

Bandslam
Aly Michalka, Vanessa Hudgens & Gaelan Connell in Bandslam

"Bandslam" is a pretty good movie, and the odds of its being a pretty bad movie were pretty steep. A lonely new kid in town (Gaelan Connell) becomes manager of teen band fronted by cutest girl on planet (Aly Michalka). If band wins big Bandslam contest, it's a record deal and fame.

 

District 9
Sharlto Copley & Jason Cope in District 9

The premise: An enormous UFO descended from the sky 20 years ago, hovered over Johannesburg and stayed there. Then humans got curious and opened it up, and out spilled a million-plus alien creatures, leading to an immigration crisis.

 

Ponyo
Noah Cyrus & Tina Fey in Ponyo

The title character in this animated feature is a goldfish (voiced by Noah Cyrus, Miley's sister) who longs to become human. Five minutes into this magical film you'll be making lists of the people you can expose to the special mixture of fantasy and folklore.

 

The Time Traveler's Wife
Rachel McAdams & Eric Bana in The Time Traveler's Wife

This film's best feature is Rachel McAdams in the title role of the serenely long-suffering mate of a man born with a dilly of a chromosomal irregularity. Involuntarily, usually at inconvenient times, Henry (Eric Bana) zwoops to an entirely different locale and chronological point in his lifetime

 

The Goods: Live-Hard. Sell Hard
Jeremy Piven & Ving Rhames in The Goods: Live-Hard. Sell Hard.

Sloppy, grimy but quick on its feet, "The Goods" stars Jeremy Piven as Don "The Goods" Ready, the swiftest shark in the used-car business. He and some other rogue salesfolk are hired by a used-car legend (James Brolin) to move the inventory, pronto, over a Fourth of July weekend.

 

Julie & Julia
Meryl Streep & Amy Adams in Julie & Julia

Writer-director Nora Ephron adapts and intertwines two books: Julia Child's "My Life in France" and Julie Powell's "Julie & Julia." The latter grew out of Powell's online experiment, a year spent cooking and blogging her way through the seminal Child volume "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." It may not make for great cinema, but you go to a movie like this for the sauces and stews, and for the considerable pleasure of seeing (and listening to) Meryl Streep's drolly exuberant performance as Child. Amy Adams is also very good as Powell

A Perfect Getaway
Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant, Milla Jovovich, Kiele Sanchez in A Perfect Getaway

Nothing is what it seems in this cockamamie but enjoyable honeymoon-fiasco picture. A newly married screenwriter (Steve Zahn) and his bride (Milla Jovovich) travel to Kauai, where they encounter a good-looking pair of secretive, possibly psychopathic hitchhikers (Marley Shelton and Chris Hemsworth) and, later, a good-looking pair of secretive, possibly psychopathic travelers (Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez).

Paper Heart
Charlyne Yi & Michael Cera in Paper Heart

A clever hybrid of a film that swings between comedy, documentary and puppet re-enactments with the slightest push from its stars -- Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera -- as variations on themselves. This romantic fable begins with the notion that Yi doesn't believe in fairy tales when it comes to love. She confronts her state of disillusionment with a search for what love means to all types of people. But "real" life, in the form of Cera, who suddenly emerges as possible boyfriend material, complicates everything.

Adam
Hugh Dancy & Rose Byrne in Adam

A toy engineer (Hugh Dancy) with the high-functioning autism classified as Asperger's syndrome becomes romantically involved with a neighbor in his Manhattan apartment building (Rose Byrne). Sweet, simple and more than a little dodgy, writer-director Max Mayer's film gets a lift from its ensemble cast, thereby proving that a film's acting typically is the least of its problems.

The Answer Man (2 Stars)
Jeff Daniels & Lauren Graham in The Answer Man

Director John Hindman has basically remade "As Good As It Gets," subbing sentiment for sharpness and displaying an alarming aversion to reality. Leads Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham swim mightily against sitcom tidiness, but the tide carries them out to sea. Daniels plays a misanthropic writer who shut himself off from the world after his self-help book made a splash.

Funny People
Adam Sandler & Seth Rogen in Funny People

Director Judd Apatow digs into the question of what makes charismatically desperate comedians do what they do, and this film is also Apatow's attempt to reconcile the huge success he has become with the up-and-comer he once was. When a comic turned movie star (Adam Sandler) is diagnosed with leukemia, he must change his ways and reconnect with those he's sealed off from his life. His new assistant (Seth Rogen) acts as his apprentice, sounding board and punching bag

Shrink
Kevin Spacey & Mark Webber in Shrink

Two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey portrays a self-help book author and therapist to the Hollywood stars, left numb by his wife's suicide. By day he fakes interest in his twitchy clients (played by, among others, Robin Williams and Saffron Burrows). The movie ties everything and everyone together with extreme neatness.

Humpday
Mark Duplass & Joshua Leonard in Humpday

Ben (Mark Duplass) has settled down and plans to start a family when old friend Andrew (Joshua Leonard) shows up in the middle of the night and is plainly still living a free life full of artistic (and sexual) possibilities, causing Ben to question his own path. On a dare, Ben lets Andrew talk him into embarking on an art project

Orphan
Vera Farmiga & Peter Sarsgaard in Orphan

In "Orphan," Vera Farmiga plays Kate, the unraveling mother of a malevolent 9-year-old adoptee hellbent on familial destruction. A year after a stillbirth, fragile Kate and architect husband John (Peter Sarsgaard) visit the local orphanage, and are drawn to a raven-haired loner named Esther, played by Isabelle Fuhrman with the sort of unearthly composure that screams, "You should've picked the other one!"

G-Force (2 Stars)
Nicolas Cage & Sam Rockwell in G-Force

The new Disney macho rodent action picture, "G-Force," has the vibe of a typical R-rated Jerry Bruckheimer headbanger. Its sensibility isn't so much childish as smarmily adolescent. Luckily, Nicolas Cage is amusing voicing the commando mole, Speckles, single-handedly giving this energetically soulless enterprise some personality.

The Ugly Truth
Katherine Heigl & Gerard Butler in The Ugly Truth

Yet another romantic comedy portraying a career woman as a harpy with nice clothes and no dates, "The Ugly Truth" feels about 150 years out of date -- or it would, if the script weren't so clinically dependent on the topics of masturbation and genitalia and raunch.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Emma, Watson, Daniel Radcliffe & Rupert Grint

This meticulously atmospheric, wonderfully acted Potter adventure lands happily -- broodingly, but happily -- near the top of the series heap. As the concerns of novelist J.K. Rowling's characters gravitate toward matters of the heart and the hormones, the Potter films are leaving childhood behind.

500 Days of Summer
Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Zooey Deschanel in 500 Days of Summer

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays L.A. greeting-card writer Tom, whose heart gets kicked around by free-spirited co-worker Summer (Zooey Deschanel). As Tom sifts through memories of his time with Summer, the movie clicks onto different days, out of order, letting us eavesdrop on one vignette or conversation or argument after another. "Days" plays some fun structural mind games, Deschanel is captivating, and the film has an easygoing, inquisitive spirit.

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker
Jeremy Renner & Anthony Mackie in The Hurt Locker

Vivid, assured and extremely suspenseful, director Kathryn Bigelow's latest (and strongest) film takes moviegoers by the collar and throws them headlong into one horrifying life-and-death situation after another. Jeremy Renner plays a soldier in Iraq running toward the explosives while everyone else is ducking and covering.

 

Bruno
Sacha Baron Cohen & Gustaf Hammarsten in Bruno

Extraordinarily raunchy, occasionally funny, Bruno takes everything Borat did so well three years ago and pushes it further, swapping one primary target for another. But comic nerve has little to do with sheer excess. The fashionista at the center of Bruno" is a pretty tedious fellow ...

I Love You Beth Cooper
Hayden Panettiere & Paul Rust in I Love You Beth Cooper

Provides so few laughs, I nearly wandered out of the theater midway to go look for some somewhere. Columbus strains to set up sight gags. You may wince, but it's not a ha-ha wince. Both as written and acted, Denis quickly becomes a tedious motormouth, not helped by Columbus' uncertain pacing, with big, blobby pauses clogging up the plot machinery.

Blood: The Last Vampire
Gianna & Allison Miller in Blood: The Last Vampire

A beautiful half-human, half-vampire government agent (played by one-named South Korean star Gianna) hunts demons in Japan with her American schoolgirl sidekick during the Vietnam War. If you're going "huh?" already, just wait. ...

Public Enemies
Johnny Depp in Public Enemies

Johnny Depp stars as charismatic Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger, and Christian Bale plays G-man Melvin Purvis. The film is a fascinating bundle of contradictions -- authentic in a million details, deeply romanticized in others. Cool, calm and collected, this is more love story than gangster picture (Marion Cotillard plays Dillinger's lover), and it's more vivid around the edges than at its center. Yet a genuine filmmaking intelligence guides every scene

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Cheri
Michelle Pfeiffer & Rupert Friend in Cheri

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Shia LaBeouf & Megan Fox in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

My Sister's Keeper
Cameron Diaz & Abigail Breslin in My Sister's Keeper

Whatever Works
Larry David & Evan Rachel Wood in Whatever Works

Year One
Jack Black & Michael Cera in Year One

Food Inc. (3 Stars)
Eric Schlosser & Michael Pollan in Food Inc.

The Proposal (2 Stars)
Sandra Bullock & Ryan Reynolds in The Proposal

Moon (2 Stars)
Sam Rockwell, a solitary astronaut, and
only a computer voiced by Kevin Spacey in Moon

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Denzel Washington & John Travolta in The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

Director Tony Scott's modern version is slick, predictable and, thanks mainly to Washington's canny underplaying, fairly diverting. John Travolta plays the lead baddie.

Imagine That
Eddie Murphy & Yara Shahidi in Imagine That

Away We Go
Maya Rudolph & John Krasinski in Away We Go

Land of the Lost
Will Ferrell & Danny McBride in Land of the Lost

The Hangover
Bradley Cooper & Ed Helms in The Hangover

My Life in Ruins
Nia Vardalos & Richard Dreyfuss in My Life in Ruins

Up
Ed Asner & Christopher Plummer in the Pixar Animated Feature Up

Drag Me to Hell
Alison Lohman & Justin Long in Drag Me to Hell

Easy Virtue
Jessica Biel & Colin Firth in Easy Virtue

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian
Ben Stiller & Amy Adams in Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian

Terminator Salvation
Christian Bale & Sam Worthington in Terminator Salvation

Dance Flick
Damon Wayans Jr. & Craig Wayans in Dance Flick

The Brothers Bloom
Mark Ruffalo & Adrien Brody in The Brothers Bloom

Angels & Demons
Tom Hanks & Ewan McGregor in Angels & Demons

Management
Jennifer Aniston & Steve Zahn in Management

Every Little Step (3 1/2 Stars)
Bob Avian & Baayork Lee in Every Little Step

Star Trek
Chris Pine & Zachary Quinto in Star Trek

Next Day Air
Donald Faison & Mike Epps in Next Day Air

Little Ashes
Javier Beltran & Robert Pattinson in Little Ashes

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Hugh Jackman & Liev Schreiber in X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Matthew McConaughey & Jennifer Garner in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past the Movie

Battle for Terra
Evan Rachel Wood & Luke Wilson in Battle for Terra

Is Anybody There?
Michael Caine & Bill Milner in "Is Anybody There?" the Movie

Tyson
Mike Tyson Movie Review by Kenneth Turan

Earth
Alastair Fothergill & Mark Linfield

Anvil! The Story of Anvil

The Soloist
Jamie Foxx & Robert Downey Jr in The Soloist the Movie

Fighting
Channing Tatum & Terrence Howard in Fighting the Movie

The Informers

State of Play
Russell Crowe & Ben Affleck in State of Play

Sugar
Algenis Perez Soto & Rayniel Rufino in Sugar

Hunger
Michael Fassbender & Liam Cunningham in Hunger the Movie

17 Again
Zac Efron & Leslie Mann in 17 Again the Movie

American Violet
Nicole Beharie & Alfre Woodard in American Violet the Movie

Hannah Montana the Movie

Observe and Report

Mysteries of Pittsburgh

The Fast and the Furious

Movie Reviews & Movie Trailers

 

Receive Movie Reviews
Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

80th Academy Awards Nominations and Oscar Winners 2008

80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Winners and Stories
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Winners

"No Country" wins Best Picture, Best Director. Daniel Day-Lewis wins best actor for his role in "There Will Be Blood". Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton Win Supporting Role Academy Awards, "Ratatouille" awarded Oscar for Best Animation Feature

Best Picture Academy Award Nominees

Atonement
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Nomination

Filmed on location in the United Kingdowm, the films story spans several decades.

In 1935, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion. On the warmest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling hothouse atmosphere, stoking Brionys vivid imagination. Robbie Turner (Mr. McAvoy), the educated son of the familys housekeeper, carries a torch for Brionys headstrong older sister Cecilia (Ms. Knightley). Cecilia, he hopes, has comparable feelings; all it will take is one spark for this relationship to combust.

Juno
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Nomination

Meet Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) – a confidently frank teenage girl who calls the shots with a nonchalant cool and an effortless attitude as she journeys through an emotional nine-month adventure into adulthood. Quick witted and distinctively unique, Juno walks Dancing Elk High's halls to her own tune - preferably anything by The Stooges - but underneath her tough no nonsense exterior is just a teenage girl trying to figure it all out.

Michael Clayton
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Nomination

George Clooney stars in the title role of Michael Clayton, a "fixer" at Kenner, Bach & Ledeen, a top Manhattan law firm. A former criminal prosecutor from a working-class neighborhood, Clayton is an anomaly at the white-shoe firm; in spite of his 15-year tenure, he has not been promoted to partner and probably never will be. His boss, Marty Bach, sees Clayton as an invaluable asset to the firm, but only in his "niche," one that is relegated to cleaning up the firm’s sticky situations quickly and quietly.

No Country For Old Men
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Picture

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is a mesmerizing new thriller from Academy Award winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, based on the acclaimed novel by Pulitzer Prizewinning American master, Cormac McCarthy. The time is our own, when rustlers have given way to drug-runners and small towns have become free-fire zones. Featuring a cast that includes Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones ("The Fugitive," "Men in Black"), Josh Brolin ("Grindhouse"), Academy Award®-nominee Javier Bardem ("The Sea Inside"), Academy Award nominee Woody Harrelson ("The People Vs. Larry Flynt") and Kelly Macdonald ("Trainspotting")

There Will Be Blood
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Picture

A sprawling epic about family, faith, power and oil, THERE WILL BE BLOOD is set on the radical frontier of California’s turn-of-the-century petroleum boom. The story chronicles the rise of one Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who transforms himself from a down-and-out silver miner raising a son on his own into a self-made oil tycoon.

Best Actress Academy Award Noinations

Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth: The Golden Age
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actress Nomination

Cate Blanchett's fifth nomination and the second in this category. Cate was also nominated for her leading role in Elizabeth (1998). Her supporting role nominations were for The Aviator (2004), for which she won the Oscar, and Notes on a Scandal (2006). She is also nominated this year in the supporting category for I’m Not There.

Julie Christie as "Fiona Anderson" in Away from Her
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actress Nomination

Julie Christie's fourth nomination in this category. Her other nominations were for Darling (1965), for which she won an Oscar, McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and Afterglow (1997).

Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actress Winner

Marion Cotillard's first Oscar nomination.

Laura Linney as Wendy Savage in The Savages
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actress Nomination

Laura Linney's third nomination and the second in this category. Laura was nominated for her leading role in You Can Count on Me (2000) and her supporting role in Kinsey (2004).

Ellen Page as Juno MacGuff in Juno
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actress Nomination

Ellen Page's first Academy Award nomination.

Best Actor Academy Awards

George Clooney as Michael Clayton in Michael Clayton
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actor Nomination

George Clooney's fourth nomination and the first in this category. In 2005, he won an Oscar for his supporting role in Syriana, and was also nominated for writing and directing Good Night, and Good Luck.

Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actor Winner

This is his fourth nomination in this category. He won an Oscar for his performance in My Left Foot (1989) and was nominated for In the Name of the Father (1993) and Gangs of New York (2002).

Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actor Nomination

This is Johnny Depp's third nomination in this category. His other nominations were for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and Finding Neverland (2004).

Tommy Lee Jones as Hank Deerfield in In the Valley of Elah
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actor Nomination

Tommy Lee Jones' third nomination and the first in this category. He was nominated for his supporting roles in JFK (1991) and The Fugitive (1993), for which he won the Oscar.

Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai in Eastern Promises
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actor Nomination

This is Viggo Mortensen's first Academy Award Oscar nomination.

Best Animated Feature

Persepolis, Ratatouille, Surf's Up

 

 

  SHARE