Steven Soderbergh’s ‘The Informant!’ Puts Matt Damon on a Wire
Rating: 3.5/5.0CHICAGO– Behind every great fortune lies a great crime, as the saying goes. In director Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant!,” he and Matt Damon carve out a satire where the “crime”...
View ArticleAnna Faris Falls Flat in Awful ‘What’s Your Number?’
Rating: 1.5/5.0CHICAGO– Why can’t anyone figure out how to use Anna Faris effectively? She’s got some of the best comic timing of any actress working today but she can’t find a good script in which to...
View ArticleOwen Wilson, Steve Martin, Jack Black Flock Up in ‘The Big Year’
Rating: 2.0/5.0CHICAGO– “The Big Year” is advertised as a comedy. The subject is bird watching, or as the new film likes to express the proper term, “birding.” It stars comic legend Steve Martin, and...
View ArticleFearless Comedy of Seth MacFarlane’s Original ‘Ted’
Rating: 3.5/5.0CHICAGO– “Ted” is one of the most inventive and surprising films of the year. It has a sense of humor that will be very familiar to fans of writer/director Seth MacFarlane’s “Family Guy”...
View ArticleAdam Sandler Exploits the Family, More in ‘Blended’
Rating: 1.5/5.0CHICAGO– Trying to understand the psychology and philosophy of manchild Adam Sandler, when it comes to his “middle-age” movies, will perplex film scholars and therapists for generations...
View Article‘Blended’ is Lazy, Laugh-Free Catastrophe
Rating: 1.0/5.0CHICAGO– Two things save “Blended” from getting a zero star review. Number one is the still palpable chemistry between Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. Number two is the occasional...
View Article‘Deliver Us From Evil’ Goes Straight for the Jugular
Rating: 4.0/5.0CHICAGO– “Deliver Us from Evil” is director Scott Derrickson’s second foray into possession horror. His first, the excellent “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” was taut, thoughtful and...
View Article‘The Happytime Murders’ Shoots Its Wad Too Early
Rating: 2.0/5.0CHICAGO– The most noteworthy feature of the puppet-noir comedy “The Happytime Murders” is its use of felt and fluff for nefarious ends, and while that’s not exactly new, there’s no...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....