Author: By ROGER MOORE
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MOVIE REVIEW: ‘The Host’ keeps too much of the movie inside Saoirse Ronan’s head
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. Humanity has been “perfected,” thanks…
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MOVIE REVIEW: Gorgeous to look at, but ‘Oz’ cast lets film down
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” is…
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REVIEW: It’s a good day for John McClane to hang it up
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, “Die Hard” 5 is a shaky-cam sensurround blast of bullets and bombs, digital explosions and death…
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REVIEW: Suicidal bike couriers make ‘Premium Rush’ through Manhattan
BUY TICKETS Michael Shannon plays a villain with “impulse-control issues” in the bike-courier thriller “Premium Rush.” Shannon fans will salivate at the thought of that. Nobody can turn on the “impulse-control” scary like Michael Shannon That means his performance is as amped-up and flat out as the hell-bent-for-rubber young cyclists who hurtle through Manhattan’s crowded…
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REVIEW: Oh lookie there at ‘ParaNorman’s’ dead folks
BUY TICKETS Norman, the young hero of the animated delight “ParaNorman,” hears dead people. He sees them, too. So there’s no sense trying to comfort him because you think he’s missing his dead grandma too much. “Grandma’s in a better place.” “In the LIVING room?” Since Norman has grown up in Blithe Hollow, a town…
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REVIEW: It’s not good enough to be ‘Bourne’ again
BUY TICKETS You don’t need Matt Damon to revive the Bourne film franchise. And you probably don’t need Paul Greengrass, the quick-cutting action auteur who directed the best of the Damon films about Jason Bourne, the trained and chemically altered super-spy who has lost his memory and is being hunted by the very people who…
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REVIEW: ‘Total Recall’ doesn’t match up to the original
The almost non-stop chase of the new “Total Recall” isn’t enough, by itself, to make one forget the earlier take on this Philip K. Dick story back in the last century. And for all the effects, the action and the showcase performance provided for his wife, Kate Beckinsale, “Underworld” Spandex salesman Len Wiseman never lets…
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REVIEW: ‘The Watch’ is a beer-swigging, cussing, gun-toting ‘Burbs’
BUY TICKETSIt’s good to see Vince Vaughn back riding that Red Bull. He’s lost the “fat and self-satisfied” look of recent films. The caffeine is back, and so is the breathless manic patter. In “The Watch,” the neighborhood-watch-discovers-an-alien-invasion comedy, he’s second banana to Ben Stiller, trying like heck to keep from being third-billed to Jonah…
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REVIEW: The ‘Ice Age’ mammoth family keeps growing
BUY TICKETS There’s considerably less drift in “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” the latest in a long line of lucrative cartoons from Blue Sky Studios and their friends at Fox. It’s all sight gags and action beats, which tends to cover the shortcomings these assembly-line farces are infamous for. And at a brisk 94 minutes, it’s…
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REVIEW: It’s time for Woody Allen to hang it up
“To Rome With Love,” Woody Allen’s latest stamp on his European work visa, is a film not without its charms. But they are so few and far between that the film’s raison d’etre stares you in the face for a solid 100 minutes. It’s location location location, a lame collection of recycled bits and characters…