Monthly Archives: July 2011

Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), left, and Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) take on some critters from outer space in the genre-busting action film “Cowboys & Aliens.” The joys to be appreciated in Jon Favreau’s genre-smashing action film “Cowboys & Aliens” are numerous: Harrison Ford’s hilariously surly cattle baron. Daniel Craig’s stoically Eastwoodesque outlaw. Vintage 1950s flying […]

Lady-killer Jacob (Ryan Gosling), left, gives dating advice to a nerdy separated family man (Steve Carell) in the smart and funny comedy “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” believes in the miraculous power of romance to transform schlubs into studs and reduce cocky Lotharios to puppies. Yet, it also understands how this unpredictable force can […]

Kanga, Roo, Owl, Tigger, Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore and Rabbit must depend on Piglet to rescue them. Walt Disney didn’t mess it up! No computer-animated Piglet. No 3-D Hundred Acre Wood. No rap songs for Christopher Robin to sing. A.A. Milne’s beloved literary creation Winnie the Pooh returns to the silver screen as a 2-D, […]

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), right, leads his pals Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) through a perilous battleground during “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2.” And so it ends. The film series that began through a child’s innocent and optimistic eyes now concludes through a tested man’s view of a sad and […]

“Phase 7” director Nicolas Goldbart strives for a mixture of suspense, thrills and dark comic relief, but he fails to muster sufficient levels of any of them. Maybe I’m becoming disenchanted with hackneyed horror films where frightened people hole up in an isolated high rise building to avoid catching a virus. How many clones of […]

Dental assistant Dale (Charlie Day) can’t stand sexual harassment from his nymphomaniac boss (Jennifer Aniston) in the comedy “Horrible Bosses.” This is the chortle-inducing comedy that “The Hangover Part 2” should have been: a wild, unpredictable romp riddled with sex, violence, vulgarity and characters too intelligence-inhibited to do much beyond hanging on for their diminished […]

In the romantic comedy “Zookeeper,” a kindly zookeeper (Kevin James) gets dating advice from a gorilla, plus other animals under his care. Frank Coraci’s comedy “Zookeeper” contains more clichés than animals. Neither grouping is particularly wild. Nonetheless, “Zookeeper” embraces the absurdity of its crazy premise and isn’t afraid to venture into abject stupidity when the […]

Emma (Katie Cassidy), left, Meg (Leighton Meester) and Grace (Selena Gomez) get involved in a case of mistaken identity in the comic romance “Monte Carlo.” Of all the filmmakers who worked on “Monte Carlo,” only composer Michael Giacchino actually gets what the movie should be: a crazy Blake Edwards farce where nutty things happen (like […]

Downsized store manager Larry (director Tom Hanks) falls for his college public speaking instructor (Julia Roberts) in the comic romance “Larry Crowne.” I have actually taught an introductory class in speech communications at Eastern Illinois University, and that is how I know Tom Hanks’ new romantic comedy “Larry Crowne” nails the essence of that experience. […]

Shia LaBeouf plays Sam Witwicky in “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” It takes about an hour and a half for Michael Bay’s shrill and noisy action thriller “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” to get to the good stuff. And when I write “good stuff,” I really mean the stuff that’s not as bad as the […]