Film

Beware of bubbling yellow hot tubs

Hot Tub Time Machine is an uneven comedy

When you hear that a film is called Hot Tub Time Machine, your reaction will likely be that the film will either be the stupidest movie ever made or relentlessly awesome. This movie is a bit of both.

Film

Casualties of war

By Carey Norris

“The reasons we go to war always matter,” says the soldier played by Matt Damon in the new thriller Green Zone. If only everyone thought that. But the film shows us, as it deftly blends fiction and hi

Film

Wonderland without wonder

Burton's film looks but doesn't feel like "Alice"

By Carey Norris

Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland has been adapted dozens of times over the years, with its episodic narrative and allusive characters proving to be a marvelously elastic template onto which artists

Film

A man should know his limitations

Is Clint Eastwood really a great director?

By Allen Barra

Twenty-some years ago, while working for the Village Voice and waiting outside the office of the arts editor, I was astonished to overhear a conference call that included the editor, the Voice’s lead

Film

Wolfman has more bark than bite

Plenty of blood and guts, but little heart

By Carey Norris

Werewolf movies are often grand tragedies, with stories of cursed people who are doomed either to live and kill or die in order to end the bloodshed. Most of the best werewolf films, from the original

Film

From Paris With Love and squalor

Travolta’s new action flick is dumb, junky fun

By Carey Norris

In recent years, France has picked up some of the world’s slack in making fun kinetic action films. French filmmaker Luc Besson, who made La Femme Nikita and The Professional, still directs the occasi

Film

Mad Mel 2: This Time It’s Personal

Gibson wants revenge, again, in Edge of Darkness

By Carey Norris

Mel Gibson hasn’t starred in a film since M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs, way back in 2002, and his return to the screen is the reason that most people will see the new revenge film Edge of Darkness.

Film

Yet another end-of-the-world flick

Legion is both ridiculous and thoroughly grim

By Carey Norris

Amid a bumper crop of end-of-the-world movies, the new supernatural thriller Legion may be the dumbest. Instead of asteroids or nuclear war, this film has decided to bludgeon us to death with clunky s

Film

Eli’s Coming

"The Book of Eli" is a stark, well-acted apocalypse film

By Carey Norris

The end of the world has become so commonplace in movies recently that an apocalypse really has to distinguish itself these days. The new film The Book of Eli manages to do that somewhat, while not en

Film

Dr. Gilliam's Imaginarium

Seemingly cursed director creates uneven but dazzling film

By Carey Norris

Terry Gilliam often seems to be cursed. He’s had more trouble getting films off the ground, completed and released than any other dozen directors I know. He famously had to contend with the death of s