To go on this ride with Peter Jackson is to be given the gift of another, similar-but-different journey told by the man who does it better than anyone. For sheer craft, for the meticulous, artful attention to every aspect of production (what David Thomson calls, in slightly different context, "the whole equation"), this is a … Continue reading THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

Everyone knows how popular a cappella singing groups are these days. Or at least TV shows about them are.. see GLEE. So, why not make a movie about them. But this is nowhere near GLEE in tone or execution. GLEE is sappy, sugary candy. PITCH PERFECT is edgier comedy. It features Anna Kendrick as a … Continue reading PITCH PERFECT

A friend at work bemoaned the release of this movie. He said Tom Cruise doesn't stretch himself, he just does these action hero movies for a paycheck. HIs argument was that Cruise was a better actor than these movies allowed him to be. I saw his point, but didn't necessarily agree. The idea that it … Continue reading JACK REACHER

New York City today is a thriving metropolis of culture, art, politics and commerce. Flashback to 1989 and you will see a totally different city. Plagued by crime, poverty, drugs and fear, New York of that era was a truly frightening place. Race riots, crime sprees, crack cocaine all contributed to its image. It was … Continue reading THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE

One reviewer (I think it was Alonso Duralde) called this a screwball comedy with actual screwballs! I can't do any better than that. David O. Russell's follow up to THE FIGHTER is a feel bad/feel good movie. Bradley Cooper is Pat, a former substitute teacher who walked in on his wife while she was showering … Continue reading SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

Melodrama that wants to be more. This production at the Mark Taper Forum is about a dysfunctional family with a dark secret -- seriously, another one of those. The drawn-out battle at the heart of Jon Robin Baitz's play pits an aggressively liberal daughter's perceived right to write "honestly" in the pages of her about-to-be-published … Continue reading OTHER DESERT CITIES

So, I'm home watching this dark comedy On Demand (it was made in 2008 and played briefly in a few theaters four years later) -- and the plot seems a bit familiar: An attractive young actress -- with an Indian roommate -- sets her sights on a Broadway career -- despite the skepticism of her … Continue reading THE UNDERSTUDY

On paper, The Watch sounds horrible. Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Jonah Hill form a neighborhood watch to stop an alien invasion. The movie isn't as bad as that...it's actually worse. Aside from some funny lines from Vaughn, the lack of laughs in this dud is a jaw dropper. Did these guys actually read the … Continue reading THE WATCH

The Raven is more like a turkey. John Cusack overacts big time as Edgar Allan Poe in a fairly boring movie about someone killing people using the writer's works as inspiration. Not much tension, the murders come off as poor "Saw" ripoffs, the mystery muddled, and the big reveal of the killer isn't that big … Continue reading THE RAVEN

Awesome. 28 years after the original (SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT), this remake takes the slasher film to new heights of gory delight. Fans of the genre will be coughing up blood with rapturous amusement, whether its a small child (made nasty enough to want dead) frothing out her guts, a topless model fruitlessly pleading to … Continue reading SILENT NIGHT