2013 Reviews Archive Stories

Forget blowing the images up to IMAX size and converting the lunging velociraptors and T. Rexes into 3-D. The best reason to revive “Jurassic Park” for its 20th anniversary is Jeff Goldblum. Yes, children, there was a time when Goldblum was sci-fi’s “ultimate explainer,” as producer Dean Devlin labeled him i

The world could use a few more movies like “Camp.” It’s far from perfect. The acting ranges from compellingly strong to painfully amateurish. Director and writer Jacob Roebuck at times shows a competent skill at filmmaking, but he also has a tendency to linger on shots and pile on the emotional baggage, especially with

Relentless, pitiless, bloody and intense - that’s the remake of Sam Raimi’s “The Evil Dead.” But is this “Evil Dead” (they dropped the “The” in the title) any good? Yes and no. It has several genuinely hair-raising moments and presents, for your edification and enjoyment, some of the most g

People have been trying to film Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” the talismanic Beat novel, just about since the day it was published in 1957. “Heart Beat,” the 1980 semi-biopic, with John Heard as Kerouac; Nick Nolte as his madman muse, Neal Cassady; and Sissy Spacek as Cassady’s second wife, Carolyn, captured a

A better-than-average, gravity-defying ninja duel leads to an epic chase - by leaps, swings and ziplines - through the Himalayas in the big set piece sequence of “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.” Masked villains in red ninja suits chase Snake Eyes and Jinx as they attempt to spirit a ninja villain out of a mountaintop lair. They scamp

In the future, hunger, violence and money have disappeared. Lying is unthinkable. And stealing - from the place where one acquires one’s every need, a building labeled “Store” - is pointless. Because we’re all wearing spotless white suits and driving shiny, chrome-plated Lotus Evoras. Well, a lot of us are. Humani

Spring break: It’s every bit as much fun as you think it is. Until it isn’t. “Spring Breakers” is Harmony (“Gummo”) Korine’s fever-dream of something he never experienced — an orgy of sand, sin and snorting. And if his cameras — cellphone video inserts blur through the narrati

For those who thought the last Bruce Willis movie was a little light on the casualty list, “Olympus Has Fallen” arrives toting the biggest body count since “Die Hard II.” Bystanders and tourists, soldiers, cops and Secret Service agents fall by the score in a movie about the unthinkable — a terrorist ground

Skip past the lame title and weary Stone Age premise. “The Croods” is the first pleasant surprise of spring, a gorgeous kids’ cartoon with heart and wit, if not exactly a firm grasp of paleontology. It’s about a family of cave men and women who have survived, unlike their neighbors, by minimizing risk. But risk is

There’s a suggestion of vampirism in the title of “Stoker.” The stylish chiller shares its name with Dracula’s author, but its fixation on blood moves in a different direction - deposits, not withdrawals. The tale concerns bad blood being transfused from one generation to the next. The blood relations in question

Tina Fey makes funny TV shows, funny movies and funny books. Director Paul Weitz often goes for something beyond funny - emotional stories of parents and children trying to puzzle out something beyond flesh and blood that bonds them. She did “30 Rock” and “Date N

An all-star comedy that leans on its stars to conjure laughs out of thin air, “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” is about veteran magicians who find themselves suddenly less relevant when Mr. New and Edgy shows up and upstages them on the Vegas Strip. An art-imitating-artist moment for Steve Carell and Jim Carrey? Maybe. But w

Rare is the thriller that goes as completely and utterly wrong as “The Call” does at almost precisely the one-hour mark. Which is a crying shame, because for an hour, this is a riveting, by-the-book kidnapping, an “Amber Alert” with a Hollywood budget and a director with a sense of urgency and camera lenses that put the a

In the film world’s version of March Madness, Sam Raimi turns out to be a much better Tim Burton than Bryan Singer. Unlike “Giant Slayer” Singer, Raimi’s got a sense of humor. Taking on a prequel to the fairytale that frightened generations, Raimi does scary. And does it well. “Oz the Great and Powerful&rdqu

Hirohito sat on the Chrysanthemum Throne through the Japanese invasion of China, the attack on Pearl Harbor and World War II. But at the end of the war, there were two emperors in Tokyo. Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of the Allied powers in the Pacific, ruled Japan as a potentate, overseeing reforms that turned the country away from milit

One thing this current run of blockbuster fairytales inspired by Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” has taught us is how very hard it is to be Tim Burton. Multiple versions of “Snow White,” a comic splatter film “Hansel & Gretel” - some have attempted Burton’s visual whimsy, all have failed to

If you’ve signed a petition in the past five days expressing outrage at the Oscar night political incorrectness of Seth MacFarlane, stay far, far away from “21 and Over.” It might be best to avoid multiplexes altogether for the next two to four weeks, on the chance that you mix up theaters after a bathroom break, and wa

“Snitch” takes forever to get going and lollygags along even after that.As a businessman scrambling to find a way to get his son free from a federal prison sentence, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has to play fear, tough love, pity and panic — and he’s a bit in over his head.But that’s

“Bless Me, Ultima,” the film based on Rudolfo Anaya’s landmark Chicano novel, is a meticulously observed time capsule, a vivid recreation of a self-contained world of Mexican-Americans in 1944 New Mexico.It’s a coming-of-age picture with a touch of magical realism, about a boy whose family witch comes to stay

Young love, so sorely tested by vampirism and zombification in “Twilight” and “Warm Bodies,” finds the road to romance sunnier in “Beautiful Creatures,” in which two teens pair up despite the fact that one of them is a witch in training. The one-liners drawl from the lips of th

Yeah, Happy Valentine’s Day, Mother Russia. But is it “A Good Day to Die Hard,” a good time to be had by all as Bruce Willis takes his fifth shot at “shootin’ all the scumbags?” Naaah. Loud and tedious, “Di

The movies based on the novels of Nicholas Sparks always emphasize the simple pleasures. A quiet locale, a leisurely stroll down the beach, a romance that doesn’t begin in a bar and end in bed that same night. Those simple pleasures are in the forefront of “Safe Haven,” another sweetly, treacly

The retired musicians at Britain’s Beecham House may not have the cash or relatives to ensure they pass their last years at home. But they still have their wit, their love of rehearsal and the fading vestiges of their talent. “Your singing brought tears … to my ears.&rd

Anne and Georges are elderly Parisians taking life’s victory lap. Their child is grown and married. The pianists and piano teachers, they can attend concerts and listen to CDs of their famous former students. Their routines are as set and comfortable: He knows which books she likes and recommen

“Oooh, honey, less is more,” the flamboyant hair stylist whispers, out of earshot, at Diana (Melissa McCarthy) as she bombs her head with hairspray and trowels on the eye shadow. That’s never the case with McCarthy, the bawdy, rude, larger-than-life comic whose big movie break was “Bridesmaids.” She riffs, t