Category: 3/4
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The Impossible [2012] ★★★
For a film that is alternately emotional, “The Impossible” grabs your attention with a scene worthy of a high-end disaster movie: an incredible depiction of a tsunami. Knowing that it’s coming, as many people will from the previews and advertisements, won’t lessen the impact of this tour de force, which is frighteningly believable in every…
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey [2012] ★★★
Here’s the buzz: “The Hobbit” is not a masterpiece and lacks the epic scale of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. But one thing’s for sure: “An Unexpected Journey”, Episode One in Peter Jackson’s three-part screen version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book is a solid piece of entertainment. We’ll have to wait another year for “The Desolation of Smaug”, and still…
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Silver Linings Playbook [2012] ★★★
You will hear a lot about this movie. But first you’ll hear it from me. It’s damn rare these days to encounter a film that doesn’t rely on cheap tricks and a predictable script. That’s one reason why “Silver Linings Playbook” is so good. The characters in it are like nothing we’ve seen before, and…
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Anna Karenina [2012] ★★★
Granted that screen and tv adaptations of Leo Tolstoy’s most popular novel are nothing new, the last being a 2000 British version. And granted that the peak is still the 1935 movie starring Greta Garbo and Fredric March. But even the most faithful fans must allow that director Joe Wright, has given Tolstoy’s novel a beguilingly…
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Flight [2012] ★★★
Sometimes a great actor is all you need to turn a routine movie about addiction into something memorable. Denzel Washington, who just keeps getting better, is a sparking, snapping live wire in the role of Capt. Whip Whitaker, a commercial pilot who performs heroically in the air, but can’t control his own life on the ground. Director…
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Hope Springs [2012] ★★★
People over 60 talking about sex and — yikes! — having it! Welcome to “Hope Springs”, a comedy drama that qualifies as a waking nightmare for teens and infantile men whose definition of “hot” hovers around women in their 20’s. Screw them. In this delightful movie from director David Frankel (who previously worked with Meryl Streep in…
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Take This Waltz [2012] ★★★
In an interview, Director Sarah Polley said that Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams brought their characters to life in unexpected ways. Trust her, she means it. They play a married couple, Lou and Margot, whose relationship is tested when Margot finds herself attracted to their new neighbor, Daniel (played by newcomer Luke Kirby). There seems to be…
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Wreck-It-Ralph [2012] ★★★
I approach each new Disney movie with a combination of eagerness and fear. Will it be as good as I want it to be? Where “Wreck-It-Ralph” is concerned, I knew within minutes that the answer was yes. I could tell from the look and sound of the film that it had the qualities I always sought…
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Looper [2012] ★★★
The mind-blowing science fiction event of the year arrives just in time to hold back the flow of Hollywood crap that’s been infesting the multiplex. “Looper”, written and directed by Rian Johnson, will be called many things, starting with Minority Report meets Terminator. But “Looper” glows with a blue-flame intensity all its own. This mesmerizing…
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The Hidden Face [2012] ★★★
If you feel like watching something completely different from the Hollywood Formula, I encourage you to check the Spanish movie “The Hidden Face”. If you’re curious about the title, or the movie itself, I’d tell you to skip the trailer and let the film unfold its constantly surprising story as the filmmaker intended. So surprising in…
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Lawless [2012] ★★★
Tom Hardy starring in this fact based story about The Bondurant brothers alongside Shia LaBeouf , Jessica Chastain and Guy Pearce sounds like Oscar Bait. It isn’t. And the sooner you accept it, the more fun you’ll have at this satisfying crime drama. To be completely honest, there’s no reason “Lawless” should play as well as it does; it’s…
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The Perks Of Being A Wallflower [2012] ★★★
If you’ve read the book version of “The perks of Being a Wallflower”, you already know what it’s about. I had the advantage of not knowing anything when I saw it today, which made it all the more enjoyable. What seems to be a typical coming of age movie (at least from its trailer) turns out…
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The Bourne Legacy [2012] ★★★
I don’t know how a film this entertaining can be considered a flop by so many moviegoers. At first glance, it seemed almost impossible to make a fourth Bourne movie without its leading man Matt Damon or its director Paul Greengrass. Surprise. It’s not half bad. In fact, and despite its overlength, “The Bourne Legacy”…
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Ted [2012] ★★★
Sometimes a comedy movie just clicks. Welcome to one of those times. “Ted”, from director Seth MacFarlane (the wacky dude behind TV’s “Family Guy”) fires off big, fat, raucous laughs as if it had an endless supply. It doesn’t. The film limps a bit in the final stretch and doesn’t know when to quit. A small price…
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Brave [2012] ★★★
I approach each new Disney Pixar film with a combination of eagerness and apprehension: will it be as good as I want it to be? As far as “Brave” is concerned, I knew within minutes that the answer was yes. Even though it doesn’t break any new grounds, I was still captivated by it. It’s that…
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Bernie [2012] ★★★
Jack Black’s presence generally makes any movie worth seeing, and this is no exception. Want more proof? “The School Of Rock”, “Be Kind Rewind” and “Tenacious D”. In “Bernie”, a strange movie directed by Richard Linklater , Black plays a beloved mortician. I say beloved because he is so good at what he does, and everyone…
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The Amazing Spider-Man [2012] ★★★
Early reviews have been inordinately pissy for the new Spider-Man movie. And there’s no arguing that the movie is too long at 136 mintues, and feels a lot like a replica (the last Spiderman was only 5 years ago and the series didn’t need a reboot so early). Know what? Audiences won’t give a damn.…
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We Need To Talk About Kevin [2011] ★★★
It isn’t easy being a sleeper nowadays. There’s been so much buildup for “We Need To Talk About Kevin”, which has traveled the film festival circuit since last year, that it’s difficult for ordinary moviegoers to feel as if they’re discovering it for themselves. I hope huge expectations don’t harm the film’s reception: it really is…
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Moonrise Kingdom [2012] ★★★
Simplicity is not a quality most Hollywood moviemakers aspire to achieve, but for me it’s part of the charm of “Moonrise Kingdom”, an amusing, low-key movie that strikes a tone unlike any other film this year. I’m a huge admirer of director Wes Anderson, but I’m not one of his can-do-no wrong fans. I loved…
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The Flowers Of War [2011] ★★★
Some movies open on thousands of screens, others play in just a handful of theaters. And some films, lacking promotion, simply materialize, with the hope that people will discover them on cable, or DVD, like “The Flowers Of Wars”, a movie I was lucky enough to catch on the big screen. I didn’t want to read…
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