Starter for 10
2.5 stars
Directed by: Tom Vaughan
Starring: James McAvoy, Alice Eve
PG-13, 96 min.
A screenwriting professor at Penn used to say, "If you aim for The Godfather and come up short, you still have Goodfellas.
It's rare to be so entertained by one of the worst movies you'll ever see. In her latest time-travel disaster Premonition, Sandra Bullock awakes one day to find that her husband has been killed in a random car accident, but when she wakes up the next day, he is alive and well.
Kal Penn proves that he's capable of more than Van Wilder in The Namesake, an intimate portrait of a displaced Bengali immigrant couple forced to cope with isolation and culture shock while raising a son and daughter in Boston.
Darfur. We learn about the terrible situation every day. But how often do we hear the stories of individuals who have escaped the carnage of the Sudan?
Narrated by Nicole Kidman, God Grew Tired Of Us reveals the plight of young Sudanese men growing up in a Kenyan refugee camp and then traveling more than a thousand miles to the U.S.
Gray Matters
2.5 Stars
Directed by: Sue Kramer
Starring: Heather Graham, Tom Cavanagh
R, 96 min.
It is not often that a first-time writer/director snags big name talent like Alan Cumming, Sissy Spacek and Heather Graham for an offbeat romantic comedy about coming out.
Chris Rock is growing up. In his new film, I Think I Love My Wife, he attempts to incorporate his inimitable shtick into a more traditionally respectable format than, say, Pootie Tang.
In the wake of such epics as Troy and Kingdom of Heaven, one imagines director Zack Snyder's 300, about the Roman Battle of Thermopylae, would have had little trouble getting picked up in Hollywood.
'Tis the season for British movie successes. Following in the wake of The Queen's award season storming, Amazing Grace, the historical biopic about English abolitionist William Wilberforce, might be an early Oscar contender for 2008.
Billy Bob Thornton walks briskly into the Jefferson Conference Room at the Philadelphia Four Seasons Hotel and approaches one of two round tables draped in white tablecloths.
In The Number 23, Jim Carrey plays Walter Sparrow, an animal control official who becomes obsessed with a murder mystery novel (called The Number 23) which he believes to be based on his own life.
It's that time of year again. The steady November to December flow of great movies has ended, and we're stuck with Norbit as last weekend's #1 movie at the box office.
3 out of 5 stars
What do you get when you throw together four middle-aged has-been actors, a lot of physical comedy, and the requisite "road trip" theme?
With so many war movies made in Hollywood every year, often with interchangeably formulaic storylines, it would be easy to overlook or simply ignore the French film Days of Glory.
Inspiring movies come in all shapes and sizes. Case in point: The Astronaut Farmer. The absurd plot of a retired air-force-pilot-turned-family-ranch-hand (named Charles Farmer) who decides to build a space rocket in his barn seems too far-fetched for even Hollywood's tastes.
The venerable Reno, Nev. Sheriff's Department has been touring the country to spread the Washoe County brand of cheer and promote their new movie Reno 911!: Miami.