Popcorn Movie Reviews
Movie Review: “Chronicle” – A Powerful Account
A little Prometheus, a smidgen of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and a sociologically keen helping of teen angst mark “Chronicle,” Josh Trank’s auspicious entrée into the ranks of feature film directors. A script co-written with Max Landis, son of John Landis (“Trading Places”-1983), doesn’t hurt, while also proving that the wit doesn’t fall far from... »
Movie Review: “The Grey” – Shades of Horror
Death, the great unknown, haunts at every instance in director Joe Carnahan’s “The Grey,” a tale of survival as exhausting as it is unsettling. This is brutal, in-your-face stuff, a big, icy metaphor set in Alaska that won’t relent in its harsh fatalism. Yet, just because it has some highfalutin philosophy doesn’t earn it... »
Movie Review: “Red Tails” …and Stout of Heart
When first the Tuskegee Airmen take to the sky in “Red Tails,” director Anthony Hemingway’s action-filled chronicle inspired by the African-American 332nd Squadron’s service during WWII, you want to be a pilot, too. At least I did. And the six fifteen-year-old boys to my right, who quieted down once the pageantry began, apparently agreed. »
Movie Review: “The Iron Lady” – Streep Steels the Show
In Phyllida Lloyd’s “The Iron Lady,” the great Streep and great makeup doth a prime minister make. It’s gotten to be an old saw, touting Meryl Streep’s thespic brilliance in spite of whatever flaws detract from the film containing her performance. Here, she is probably more Margaret Thatcher than Mrs. Thatcher herself. Aye, it’s... »
Movie Review: “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” – Amusement: Probable
Director Brad Bird’s “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol,” starring Tom Cruise as agent Ethan Hunt, reminds of that rather interesting guest who overstays his welcome. While amiable and engaging through dinner, after dessert his stories become repetitive. Unfortunately, the only way to edit the fellow would be to kick him out of your house. »
Movie Review: “A Dangerous Method” Worth Risking
Esoteric, a bit obscure and yet nonetheless absorbing, director David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” chronicles what very well may be one of the earliest psychological dramas. Or more correctly, the first one occurring just after the terminology, now so common, came into use. Dr. Jung meets Dr. Freud and our libidos will never be... »
Movie Review: “The Artist” – Shh! Ingenuity at Work
Oh, woe to the very occasional moviegoer who, to please his or her significant other, chooses Michel Hazanavicius’s “The Artist” as the sacrificial offering. While it could turn out great and engender a life-changing renaissance, odds are the experience will be met with, “Huh? What was that? Couldn’t they afford sound?” The thing is,... »
Movie Review: “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” – The Case of the Missing Entertainment
Exhausting as a gifted but spoiled child who must show you how intelligent and resourceful he is at every turn, director Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” ultimately drains all the patience from your movie-loving marrow. Convoluted and flip to a fault, even the signature one-upmanship becomes wearying. »
Movie Review: “My Week with Marilyn” – Seven Days in Analysis
There are countless beautiful actresses in Hollywood, but as we are reminded by director Simon Curtis’s “My Week with Marilyn,” based on the fond remembrance by Colin Clark, none with the mystique Marilyn Monroe possessed. The inscrutability lives, nicely evoked in this latest effort to make sense of the je ne sais quoi and... »
Movie Review: “The Muppets” Occupies the Conscience
When “The Muppets” is going full tilt, espousing its positivism and good cheer, and the endearing compassion makes us laugh with well-being, observe the audience’s happy faces. It makes you wish you could just grab Congress by the shoulders and say, “C’mon man, join in…be a little less selfish. You could really make this... »
Movie Review: “The Descendants” – Trouble in Paradise
By Michael S. Goldberger, film critic As fascinating, emotional and astute as Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants” is, I can’t figure why this tale of a family in crisis didn’t register a 4 on the Goldberger Scale of Lingering Rumination (GSLR). It lingered but a day. If a film earns a full 4 on the... »
Movie Review: “Anonymous”
Academics, fops and dilettantes posing as film critics will exit “Anonymous” scratching their heads, wondering who was who in the Elizabethan political thriller, and speculating if any of its thesis on Shakespearean authorship is true. Folks who couldn’t care less but who randomly see films without reading reviews will question their lifestyle. »
Movie Review: “J. Edgar” – Investigating the G-man
It’s a funny thing about our current place in human evolution. The first thing most folks ask when I tell them I’ve just seen Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar” is, “Was he gay? Did he wear a dress?” Ignoring for a moment the powerful force in American domestic affairs Hoover played, I answer, “looks like... »
Movie Review: “Tower Heist” Could Use a Loftier View
By Michael S. Goldberger, film critic In “Tower Heist’s” opening sequence, Brett Ratner’s peripatetic camera delineates the major enterprise it is to run New York’s most elite apartment house while also noting the sense of community its employees share. Vintage Arthur Hailey (“Hotel”), the cozy sociology holds such promise. Too bad the comedy caper... »
Movie Review: “The Rum Diary” Is More Stupor Than Super
The more you learn about Hunter S. Thompson, whose semi-autobiographical novel, “The Rum Diary,” is the source of this curiously rambling film by Bruce Robinson, the odder he seems. He is one of those oblique icons who exist as much in our subconscious as they do in reality. Their celebrity lies within the enigma... »
Movie Review: “The Last Rites of Joe May” – Requiem for a Lightweight
By Michael S. Goldberger, film critic Writer-director Joe Maggio’s “The Last Rites of Joe May” asserts that even insignificant characters aren’t exempt from very great tragedies. A petty hood most contented when he has a trunk full of phony Rolexes to sell, Chicago’s Joe May nonetheless figures he was destined for greatness. Gosh knows... »
Movie Review: “The Thing” – Hardly the Real Thing
“The Thing,” director Matthijs van Heijninjen, Jr.’s prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 “The Thing,” reminds of a rule of thumb I learned early on in my moviegoing career, when my mom would beg me to take a sandwich to the full day of cartoons and a double feature. The really bad stuff happens not... »
Movie Review: “The Ides of March” – Et tu, George Clooney?
Along the way to reaffirming your worst fears about our current state of affairs in the U.S., George Clooney’s “The Ides of March” smartly reminds that things really haven’t changed since the days of Caesar. Heck...it goes back further than the Sumerians, maybe even before Alley Oop first wrote bad things about Barney Rubble... »
Movie Review: “50/50” Odds Are You’ll Laugh
Director Jonathan Levine’s “50/50,” about a 27-year-old man stricken with a rare spinal cancer, hardly seems a likely source for levity. But while brazenly demonstrating the opposite, it is testament to the fantastic mental balancing act we are capable of when the chips are down. It is both frightening and inspiring. »
Movie Review: “Moneyball” Is A Game Changer
Illustrating how impressed I was with director Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball,” the first person I called after exiting the theater was Hal, my friend and go-to source for all things baseball. The conversation went like this: “I just saw a film that will zoom right up into your first division of all-time best baseball movies.” »
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