I did not expect, in the first minute of “The Book Thief”, that I would be reminded, rather heavy-handedly, of the fact that we all are going to die. This cheerful beginning is just the first of a series of drops from the voiceover narrator, aka: “Death” throughout the film. And all of them are […]

I’d probably seen the second trailer for “Captain Phillips” 50 times before the film’s release. That’s no exaggeration. Every scene, every line was engraved in my mind. It’s too bad the trailer gives away far too much, but that’s true of practically all of them. In the case of “Captain Phillips”, since it is based […]

“Jobs” is not a complete biography of one of the most influential icons of the modern age of technology. Instead, the film focuses on a slice of Apple founder Steve Jobs’ life and career. The movie begins with Jobs introducing the IPod at the 2001 Apple town meeting. Director Joshua Michael Stern (“Swing Vote”) then […]

2010’s “Red” grossed close to $200 million worldwide and was nominated for the Best Comedy Golden Globe. The premise was good: an action comedy, comic-book adaptation about CIA agents who come out of retirement in order to take down some bad guys. Unfortunately, the action wasn’t very exciting and it was way too serious for […]

2013 has been the year of the “President in Danger” storyline: from “Olympus Has Fallen” to “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” to “Iron Man 3”. You have to feel bad for the real President, who can’t enjoy having the Commander in Chief being such a target, even if it is in the movies. Well, you can add […]

Director Baz Luhrmann’s films always seem to generate wildly mixed reactions, from his 1996 version of “Romeo + Juliet” to Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman’s romantic drama “Australia”. And who can forget the Oscar winning “Moulin Rouge!” Luhrmann’s latest, his take on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, was supposed to be released […]

Steve Carell and Jim Carrey are two of Hollywood’s funniest actors. And they’ve worked together in some big films – “Bruce Almighty” and the animated “Horton Hears a Who”. They’ve teamed-up once again as rival magicians in the comedy, “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone”. Carell plays the title character who, as a boy back in the […]