THE WATCH:  Not At Any Price – Do the Stars a Favor:  Don’t Watch Some terrible movies surprise and disappoint, but you could see THE WATCH coming for weeks.  The increasingly desperate marketing campaign told the story–it’s a buddy comedy!  it’s a sci-fi comedy!  it’s a buddy comedy and a sci-fi comedy!–as did the panicky […]

  In 1988, the Chilean military dictatorship headed by General Augusto Pinochet was forced by diplomatic pressure to finally permit a democratic election, in order to prove its claim that the country’s people supported his presidency.  The plebiscite was simple:  voters would vote either “Yes” or “No” to authorize an additional 8-year term for the […]

  GANGSTER SQUAD – Watch It At Home – Snappy, Violent and Completely Vacuous Watching the new GANGSTER SQUAD is a bit like checking into one of those giant Vegas theme park hotels and expecting to find yourself in the real Rome, Venice or Paris:  the place is luxurious, but utterly fake.  The director Ruben […]

  JACK THE GIANT SLAYER:  Watch It At Home – No Giants Here It’s been a dozen years since moviegoers took up residence in Middle Earth with the opening of the first Lord of the Rings film, and since the multi-billion dollar success of that franchise, Hollywood has refused to let us leave.  Apart from […]

  GROWN UPS 2:  Not Even With A Gun To Your Head – Is It Time For the Razzies Yet? One can’t lightly dismiss Adam Sandler.  After the first Grown Ups, it seemed implausible that he could make a movie even worse, but in quick succession he churned out the truly unspeakable Jack & Jill […]

  THE BOOK THIEF:  Watch It At Home – A Nazi Germany Fairy Tale THE BOOK THIEF is about as heartwarming and easygoing as any story could be that’s narrated by Death and touched by the Holocaust.  That’s its strength and also its weakness; it’s history’s abyss as a singalong. Based on the acclaimed bestselling […]

  EDEN (IFC):  release date unscheduled – Watch It At Home Notwithstanding its subtitles, the genre of Mia Hanson-Love’s EDEN, which had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, isn’t unfamiliar to American eyes:  the rise and fall of a musical genre, as reflected through a group of friends who are involved with it.  […]

  Despite its compact scale, Emma Donoghue’s bestselling novel ROOM was a daunting candidate for film adaptation, because so much of its impact depends on its very specific narrator’s voice, a 5-year old named Jack who has lived his entire life in the shed where his Ma (whose other name is Joy) was taken captive […]