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Holiday Movie Guide
11/14/2008 | They call him Bond, James Bond. They also call him money, box-office money. Still charged from the near-$600 million that 2006's "Casino Royale" has made around the world, the second Daniel Craig Bond film "Quantum of Solace" opens today, kicking off the 2008 holiday-movie season with the force of a V12 Aston Martin engine. The likes of Pixar Animation Studios, Baz Luhrman and Nicole Kidman; Sean Penn, Jason Statham, Keanu Reeves (yes, Keanu Reeves) and Jennifer Connelly; Clint Eastwood, Frank Miller and Eva Mendes; plus Bryan Singer and Tom Cruise should help carry us through the new year.
'Thousand Years' explores relationship in Spokane
11/14/2008 | REVIEW | With the quiet, understated "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," Wayne Wang has come full circle, returning to the small, intimate films like "Chan Is Missing," "Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart" and "Eat a Bowl of Tea" that established the Hong Kong-born Chinese American writer-director, best known for his deft screen adaptation of "The Joy Luck Club."
Her majesty's lip service
11/14/2008 | COLUMN | James Bond is back. And those of us who remember his beginnings are glad of it. Our favorite British assassin returns to the big screen as "Quantum of Solace" opens today across the country.
'Quantum' explores dark side of Bond
11/14/2008 | REVIEW | Battered and embittered, James Bond is back. Having earned his license to kill and lost the love of his life in "Casino Royale," Daniel Craig's 007 picks up the action where that film left off, scarcely pausing to reload.
Demme best when focused
11/7/2008 | REVIEW | Jonathan Demme is a director of tolerance. That's not just a description of him politically (although it's hard to imagine another white director so interested in the problems of Haiti, or so at ease directing "Beloved").
'Soul Men' tribute to Mac's genius
11/7/2008 | REVIEW | We know we've lost Bernie Mac. And it takes only about 10 minutes of his next-to-last screen appearance, in "Soul Men," to show us just what we've lost.
Difficult films can teach us about life
11/7/2008 | COLUMN | Several years ago, I was invited by a local community-service group to speak at one of its weekday breakfast meetings. I was given the freedom to talk about pretty much anything I wanted as long as it entailed my job and how I did it.
Jolie carries 'Changeling'
10/31/2008 | REVIEW | Clint Eastwood knows all about powerful emotions. The cold fire of revenge. The slow smoldering of greed. The unquenchable flames of rage. But they're nothing measured against a mother's love.
'Zack and Miri' unites unlikely comic pair
10/31/2008 | REVIEW | The extreme opposites within Kevin Smith's filmmaking personality coexist in "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," to hit-and-miss effect. Yes, there is a ton of sex as the title would suggest, including one scene that is so incredibly wrong, words don't even begin to describe it.
And 10 more make 100
10/31/2008 | COLUMN | It takes a long time to run down a list of 100 films, especially when those films are supposed to the ones you need to see before you die.
Sensation over sense
10/24/2008 | REVIEW | The Tierneys have given a lot to New York. A father, who slowly rose up the uniformed ranks of the police. Two sons and a daughter's handsome husband all of whom put on the blue and the badge, too, and still go out every morning to keep the peace.
'Senior Year' not quite as memorable
10/24/2008 | REVIEW | Someday, Troy and Gabriella will actually open their mouths when they kiss. Someday, Sharpay won't have backup dancers magically appear out of nowhere during her self-glorifying production numbers.
Go for the alternative
10/24/2008 | COLUMN | 'Saw V" is opening today. Just thought you'd want to know, since so many of you are fans of movies boasting impalings, decapitations, limb-severings, shootings, throat-slittings, bludgeonings, immolations and disembowelings.
Be very afraid
10/24/2008 | From the moment we leave the womb, we are forced to face fear. This is only natural, since we come from people who had to brave real-life lions, tigers and bears on a daily basis. When you never know what's going to jump out at you, it's always a good idea to be prepared.
'W' uses convention, not dirt
10/17/2008 | REVIEW | All he wanted to do was watch baseball and drink beer all day. Sounds like a reasonable request. Instead, George W. Bush ended up being chosen as leader of the free world.
'Bees' worth buzz
10/17/2008 | REVIEW | The thing about honey is that it's not just sweet, but awfully gooey. That goes for the new film "The Secret Life of Bees," too.
Time for 'The New View'
10/17/2008 | COLUMN | The first time a cave dweller decided to post graffiti on a rock wall, you can bet that someone sitting nearby began thinking about how to do it differently.
'The Express' not as memorable as Davis
10/10/2008 | REVIEW | Ernie Davis was the first African-American to win football's Heisman Trophy. The passage of time and the brevity of his career and life have made him a forgotten figure, something the workmanlike football drama "The Express" aims to change.
Cheapening the experience
10/10/2008 | COLUMN | The announcement ran something like this:" 'The Express' 7 p. m. with 'Burn After Reading. ' "So far so good. I knew what I was going to be doing on Saturday night.
The most worthwhile in the genre
10/10/2008 | REVIEW | Several movies have tackled the war on terror, but nobody has wanted to see any of them, either because the topic is too daunting or too much of a downer, or it's simply still too soon after 9/11.
'Blindness' lacks vision
10/3/2008 | REVIEW | A driver suddenly stops at an intersection, unable to see. A prostitute loses her sight and is abandoned, naked, by her client. One by one, a cosmopolitan city is filled with sightless doctors, thieves, secretaries, children all stumbling about, groping aimlessly toward they know not what.
Nick, Norah and near-perfect love
10/3/2008 | REVIEW | "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" is one of those magical, near-perfect youth romances, a film that so vividly reminds you of the glories of young love that you wish you were 18 again, full of hope, not jaded by life and love lost.
The price of overkill
9/26/2008 | REVIEW | Far-fetched, fast-moving, locked and overloaded, "Eagle Eye" is what happens when you give the people who made a success of the modestly budgeted "Disturbia" a blank check.
Lee's ambition backfires
9/26/2008 | REVIEW | In Spike Lee's long and eclectic career, "Miracle at St. Anna" is easily his most technically ambitious film. But he might not have been ready for the enormity of such a project.
Lane, Gere pull off comforting love story
9/26/2008 | REVIEW | "Nights in Rodanthe" is another one of those bare-bones tests: a love story, two characters and a fairly simple, mostly single setting. It's familiar territory, which makes it comforting but runs the risk of clichι.
