Category Archives: Movie Reviews

There are many sorts of bad movies but the pretentious ones are the worst. Take “Ashes of Time Redux.” If it were merely a bad martial arts drama, we could enjoy the fight sequences as we laughed at the overblown plot points. But “Ashes of Time” is so convinced of its own importance that the fight scenes are minimal, leaving viewers to slog through long-winded narratives packed with mediocre philosophy.

Click here for full review: http://www.rgj.com/article/20081114/ENT01/811140413/1057

With pictures like “Brokeback Mountain,” “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Becoming Jane” under her belt, moviegoers should already be taking Anne Hathaway seriously. In case they aren’t, she’s delivering “Rachel Getting Married,” a bleak, unflinching affair far removed from her fanciful “Princess Diaries” flicks.

Click here for full review: http://www.rgj.com/article/20081107/ENT01/811070480/1057

From left to right, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott and Bobb'e J. Thompson in "Role Models."

It’s not fair, but there will always be part of me that sees Seann William Scott as Steve Stifler from “American Pie,” and as much as actors hate being pigeonholed, that’s a compliment.

Scott was so obnoxious and memorable as the oversexed Stifler that he created one of THE great characters in the sex comedy genre. Stifler is so funny, in fact, that one can’t help but look for a glimpse of the character in every Scott role. And, in “Role Models,” Scott obliges.

Click here for full review: http://www.rgj.com/article/20081107/ENT01/811070482/1056/ENT

Leave it to writer-director Kevin Smith to deliver a romantic comedy that buries the genre’s typical trappings in a homage to the pornographic movie industry. And leave it to Smith to make that film funny.

Click here for full review: http://www.rgj.com/article/20081031/ENT01/810310503/1056/ENThttp://www.rgj.com/article/20081031/ENT01/810310503/1056/ENT

The events depicted in “Changeling” are so bizarre and disturbing that it’s

Angelina Jolie discovers she's being given the wrong boy in "Changeling."

difficult to accept that they’re based in fact. Yet that’s the case.

The movie is a slightly fictionalized look at events surrounding the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, which occurred in Wineville, Calif. (now Mira Loma) during the late 1920s and early 1930s, and it is as extraordinary as it is gloomy.

The focus is on Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), a single mother doing her best to raise her young son, Walter, while working full time in Los Angeles. One day, when called into work, she allows Walter to stay home alone, and the moment changes her life.

Click here for full review: http://www.rgj.com/article/20081031/ENT01/810310504/1056/ENT

We’ve reached the point in cinema history where so many police dramas have graced the screen that it’s rare — nay, shocking — to find one that truly is inventive. Therefore, most moviegoers are willing to look beyond rehashed plots and archetypal characters so long as the presentation is good.

This fact took a lot of pressure off of “Pride and Glory,” a cop drama that needed to be little more than believable and entertaining to be considered a success. Alas, even simple goals can present vast challenges.

Click here for full review: http://www.rgj.com/article/20081024/ENT01/810240474/1056/ENT