Posts Tagged ‘films’
Wreck-It Ralph: Pixel Sticks
A video-game bad guy’s crisis brings this charming Disney comedy to life.KRISTIAN LIN
We’ve seen much of Disney’s new animated film, Wreck-It Ralph, before. Movies like Despicable Me and Megamind have already spun traditional stories by adopting the bad guys’ point of view. The Toy Story series mined the s...
Flight: Get High
Denzel owns Zemeckis’ powerful return to live-action filmmaking.COLE WILLIAMS
Some people make getting back in the swing of things look all too easy. Take Robert Zemeckis, who makes his return to live-action movies with Flight. After more than 10 years of making computer-animated movies like The Polar Ex...
Film Shorts
KRISTIAN LINOPENING: Beauty Is Embarrassing (NR) Neil Berkeley’s documentary profile of artist Wayne White. (Opens Friday in Dallas) Blues for Willadean (NR) Del Shores adapts his own play about an abused Texas housewife (Beth Grant) who...
Fun Size: Late-Night Justice
This Halloween comedy sends you home with less candy than expected.KRISTIAN LIN
This sounds like a canny piece of counterprogramming. Every year, the movie studios pollute October with another grim batch of horror sequels about ghosts, demons, and slashers. So why not go the other way and put out a Hallowe...
Film Shorts
KRISTIAN LINOPENING: Alex Cross (PG-13) Tyler Perry stars in this adaptation of James Patterson’s novel about a homicide cop who confronts a serial killer (Matthew Fox). Also with Giancarlo Esposito, Edward Burns, Rachel Nichols, Jean Re...
Super Looper
This sci-fi thriller will wow you, then go back in time and wow you again.KRISTIAN LIN
You can’t accuse Rian Johnson of lacking ambition. Best known for his polarizing debut film, the 2006 high-school noir picture Brick, Johnson has come up rapidly through low-budget indie cinema. His third film, Looper, is his...
Pitch Perfect: College Notes
It’s the Bring It On of a cappella singing competitions!KRISTIAN LIN
Between Glee, YouTube, and TV’s various singing competition shows, our pop culture is awash in cover songs like never before. That’s why the spectacle of a bunch of mostly white college girls covering Blackstreet’s “No ...
End of Watch: Partners Against Crime
Old-school good acting redeems this new-jack buddy cop thriller.KRISTIAN LIN
End of Watch is the third in a string of look-at-me-I’m-so-gritty dramas about Los Angeles cops directed by David Ayer. This one is different, partly because it’s shot in a found-footage style but mostly because it’s actu...
Master: Almighty Dodd
P.T. Anderson offers us cult comfort in this drama.KRISTIAN LIN
Bear with me here. I write this review a scant hour or so after watching Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, and like most of Anderson’s films, it tends to resist straightforward analysis. As with Anderson’s previous work,...
Film Shorts
KRISTIAN LINOPENING: Stolen (R) Nicolas Cage stars in this thriller as a former thief who frantically searches for his kidnapped daughter. Also with Josh Lucas, Malin Akerman, Sami Gayle, Barry Shabaka Henley, M.C. Gainey, Mark Valley, and...