Last night, many parents were up late as their children were out past midnight. The youth were not out carousing, however. Unless you count dressing up as Harry Potter and seeing the midnight premier of the new film as a bacchanal … WHICH IT IS. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is truly [...]

Director Paul Haggis takes a break from preaching about race and the Iraq War to bring audiences a prison escape thriller with a strong performance by Russell Crowe. Crowe’s wife, played by Elizabeth Banks, is sentenced to prison for a gruesome murder she apparently did not commit. Relentless devotion transforms Crowe from a subdued, gentle [...]

Director Tony Scott’s still got it! “Unstoppable” is opening to critical acclaim, with much of the praise given to the incredible tension and pacing of film, which is as loud and untiring as the train at the center of the story. It’s certainly far from an intellectual exercise, but who could really expect a cerebral [...]

We were really in the mood for a kick-ass alien invasion film to follow up last year’s incredible “District 9.” Unlike “District 9,” however, this film is incredibly basic and wannabe epic, which is driving critics mad. Although hostile aliens devastate downtown Los Angeles, what will truly scare audiences is the stupidity of the dialogue [...]

As if this film’s cluster of stars – Rachel McAdams, Diane Keaton, Harrison Ford, and Jeff Goldblum – isn’t promising enough, “The Devil Wears Prada” scribe Aline Brosh McKenna wrote the script and Roger Michell (“Notting Hill”) directed. The main problem is, as talented as McKenna is, it’s difficult to transform a paper-thin romantic comedy [...]

It’s a shame when the director who has the power to make a film isn’t always the director who should be making the film to begin with. Tyler Perry takes a break from filming countless mediocre comedies to tackle the film adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s seminal poetry play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide [...]

Films like “Megamind” point to a disappointing reality in Hollywood: we’re starting to run out of movie ideas. What it lacks in originality, though, it definitely makes up for with its crisp visuals and myriad of celebrity voices. Will Ferrell is in prime form as he voices the blue knucklehead super-villain around whom the film [...]

There are few reasons “Due Date” shouldn’t succeed. The comedy has so much going for it: one of Hollywood’s most recognizable leading men, the hottest comedy star of the past few years, and the director behind the comedic masterwork, “The Hangover.” Even with all these pieces in place, however, the film feels like a rest [...]