Blogs

The re-release of The Phantom Menace opens with that exhilarating blast of John Williams's famous theme, the Star Wars title zooming off into the distance in 3-D before the familiar text crawl creeps across the starry backdrop

There are instances when reviewing intentions would be so much easier than reviewing actual movies, and Red Tails, which was directed by first-timer Anthony Hemingway but conceived, shaped and willed into being by George Lucas, is one of them.

The awards season is heating up but which films or performances deserve Oscar glory? Here’s my ballsy prediction!

The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) has announced their 2011 winners.The Best Film award went to the black-and-white, silent film "The Artist" from director Michel Hazanavicius.

Martin Scorsese's magnificent flick "Hugo" won the top prize at the National Board of Review awards. Scorsese also took home the Best Director award. But Paramount's "Hugo" did not sweep the categories, other films also received love from the NBR.

Alexander Payne’s The Descendants has just about everything you need for a male midlife-crisis movie, and more: A big plot of unspoiled family land about to be sold off to developers, sullen teenagers, a wife in a coma.

Australian director George Miller’s Happy Feet was one of the surprise pleasures of the 2006 moviegoing year. The story was simple: A young Emperor penguin who has no skill for singing, a necessary skill in wooing a mate, discovers instead that he has a flair for dancing.

In Payne’s vision, all of these elements were probably supposed to add up to a picture of utmost honesty. Instead, The Descendants is an ultra-polished picture in which every emotion we’re supposed to feel has been cued up well in advance.

George Clooney’s The Ides of March is an actors’ movie, a picture that gives performers some provocative things to do without necessarily providing a great story for them to hang onto. It’s also a movie made for grown-ups, and Lord knows there are few enough of those around today.