Movie Review of "THE HOLIDAY" Yes, it's a chick flick and yes, it's a holiday chick flick. But this sweetly smart film is much more like a celebratory glass of expensive champagne than a chalky mug of your neighbor's homemade eggnog. Bottom's up. The very worst thing about this movie is the title. Truncated to just the word "Holiday," 14 other movies of the same name popped up. Just like Kate Winslet's character Iris, the ... [full story]

Movie Review of "THE FOUNTAIN" The good news: I don't have to worry about giving too much of the plot away. The bad news: There is no plot. In a November 2006 interview in Wired, writer/director Darren Aronofsky describes his early enthusiasm toward his concept of "The Fountain": "How cool would it be to cut from a battle scene in some historical period to a man traveling alone in space for an unknown reason?" The ... [full story]

Movie Review of "DÉJÀ VU" As one of today's reigning kings of entertainment, it's not surprising that Jerry Bruckheimer promises his public an eye-filling, mind-blowing extravaganza. We've come to expect it from him … maybe we even demand it of him. Between his television empire (all three "CSI's," "Cold Case," “Without a Trace") plus almost every testosterone-driven action film since 1980 ("Days of Thunder," "Top Gun," "Con Air," "Crimson Tide," "Armageddon," "Pearl Harbor," "The Pirates ... [full story]

Movie Review of "FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION" Quoting Jack Benny on the subject of awards: "I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either." Though Southern California has four seasons like any other part of the country, they are somewhat different -- there's Summer, Santa Ana/Fire, One Rainy Week and the biggest season of all … Award. Christopher Guest's latest film, "For Your Consideration" explores the nearly impossible attainment of ... [full story]

Movie Review of "STRANGER THAN FICTION" "Stranger Than Fiction," a film that filters the challenge of literary invention through the mathematical process, is wonderfully strange indeed. The equation (math plus fiction) and the ensuing answer (equals a perfect solution) borders on creative genius. Add to this equation some marvelous comedy, a spirit that soars as high as the Eiffel Tower, and a heart that's buried deep below the surface of an OCD IRS taxman … ... [full story]

Movie Review of "BORAT" Those who have seen previews of "Borat" are calling this film a new kind of guerilla comedy. But honestly, it's just one more Jewish comedian from England (Sacha Baron Cohen) playing an anti-Semitic, Gypsy-loathing reporter from Kazakhstan who's determined to drive across the U.S. in an ice cream truck in order to meet and marry the perfect virgin, namely one Pamela Anderson. You know, the usual.  A mix of road comedy ... [full story]

Movie Review of "CATCH A FIRE" Iraq, 2006? Or South Africa, 1980? The aptly-named "Catch a Fire" depicts the inflammatory reaction to a tyrannizing body that takes ownership of a foreign country, forcing its citizens into poverty, exile, prison or death. Since the invader doesn't belong, ignorant of the native people's religion and culture, this film gives us yet another history lesson of how the oppressor is ultimately overthrown by otherwise peaceful citizens who find ... [full story]

Movie Review of "THE PRESTIGE" In an early scene in "The Prestige," a performing magician impresses his audience by making a bird disappear. It is later revealed that instead of skillfully creating an illusion, he had smashed the bird to death, replacing it with another. Since his audience is thrilled by the magic trick, his sacrifice of an innocent creature at the altar of his own ego doesn't seem that much of a price to ... [full story]

Movie Review of "MAN OF THE YEAR" It's funny. It's smart. Cloaked in hip humor, "Man of the Year" is about questionable voting machines, monetary gain above all else, and a country so fed up with politics as usual that a comedian falls through the wisecracks, ultimately becoming the President Elect. But "Man of the Year" has a tone problem. It's as if Jon Stewart, in the middle of a brilliant bit on "The Daily ... [full story]

Movie Review of "THE GUARDIAN" Film overboard! All hands on deck! Arrr, too late—this "Guardian" seems destined to sleep with the fishes. When the only upside to two-and-a-quarter hours of a sloggy, loggy swimfest are the oceanic rescue scenes, then it's time to call in a captain, any captain, be it Kangaroo, Crunch or Hook, to perform the requisite burial at sea.  The picture opens with the camera taking the audience on a dive down ... [full story]

Movie Review of "FLYBOYS" Addressing the latest crop of spanking new American volunteers, who are literally dying to fly, Jean Reno's French Captain Thenault warns them that their life expectancy is "between three to six weeks." How these young men fight the gravity of Captain Thenault's words, as well as the gravity of a planet that's determined to keep them earthbound through fate as much as physics, is just one leg of the journey that ... [full story]

Movie Review of "THE BLACK DAHLIA" It's not that there isn't enough mystery in "The Black Dahlia." There's simply too much. And the biggest mystery of all: How is it that the performance with the most life … belongs to a dead girl?  The dead girl in question is Elizabeth Short, nicknamed the Black Dahlia because of her penchant for the color black and in reference to a 1946 movie called "The Blue Dahlia." On ... [full story]

Movie Review of "HOLLYWOODLAND" Hollywood's promise of eternal youth, glamour and dizzying stardom has held society in its thrall from the early 1900's to today. The creators of the appropriately named "Hollywoodland," more a geography of the psyche than of solid ground, give us yet another searing look at Tinseltown--where the only thing that's real is the gap between who you are, and who you're literally dying to become.   Ben Affleck and Diane Lane star ... [full story]