J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy phenomenon is finally given the beautiful, epic, reverent treatment that it deserves by director/co-adapter/Hobbit-phile Peter Jackson. Jackson’s love for the material both helps the film and also weighs it down. Purists may balk, but Jackson’s labor of love is quite an achievement.
Steven Soderbergh’s elegantly crafted journey of a career criminal searching for his lost daughter is marked by an intense, pitch-perfect performance by Terrance Stamp.
Roberto Benigni has been blessed with a joyous expression that is reminiscent of Harpo Marx.
Formerly promising director Wes Anderson continues his spiral into precious quirkiness with this story of a has-been Jacques Cousteau-clone on a mission to kill the shark that may or may not have eaten his partner. Even Bill Murray, leading a now-typical set of odd Andersonian characters, can’t keep this one afloat.
You’re not going to find a much better performance anywhere than that of Geoffrey Rush in this engaging but messy biopic of the legendary ‘Pink Panther’ star, which is long on re-creations and short on explanations.
A disturbingly even-handed portrait of pedophilia in suburbia, Director Michael Cuesta’s difficult film only cops out when it tries to find an easy ending.
How can a movie with so much going for it (Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, eleven novels of material) be so boring? Only the over-the-top performance by Mr. Carrey as Count Olaf (among others) breathes life into what is otherwise a dreary, bleak, dull exercise in production design.
Filmed in 1994, this Jackie Chan vehicle features the martial arts master at 40 and still at his best. If you have never seen a Jackie Chan movie, this one will show you what all the fuss is about.
Another golf-as-metaphor-for-life movie, this time with Will Smith as a magic caddy. Directed very seriously by Robert Redford.
Even Reese Witherspoon’s smile and an equally bright waredrobe can’t save this schmaltz-fest which actually buys into its own rehashed ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ plot.
