by KYW's Bill Wine
(Use your browser's "search" feature to
quickly find any title listed below)
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Noise
Tim Robbins stars as David Owen, a New York City lawyer being driven crazy by sound pollution -- especially the city's ubiquitous, incessant car alarms.
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What Happens in Vegas
The predictability of the narrative is to be expected -- as is the case with the vast majority of romantic comedies. But there's a staleness and an unevenness that undercuts those few moments of humor and emotion.
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Speed Racer
Speedy Speed Racer may be. But fast it is not.
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Redbelt
Redbelt is a fight flick. And a might flick. But it's as much about right as it is about fight or might.
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Made of Honor
Made of Honor is a big-screen vehicle for Patrick Dempsey, who delivers the relaxed charm that the role calls for with ease and grace.
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Iron Man
Iron Man is an action-adventure science fiction thriller, the latest big-screen concoction derived from a Marvel Comics franchise.
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Then She Found Me
The film is, alas, uneven. But it's likable nonetheless, with credible acting all around.
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The Life Before Her Eyes
The Life Before Her Eyes is a tormented tale that examines the traumatic aftereffects of an act of violence on the lives of others even decades later.
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Baby Mama
If it's not quite a bundle of joy, it's at least a bassinet of laughs.
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Deal
If you're a poker buff, consider calling. If not, fold -- but quick.
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Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Forgetting Sarah Marshall mixes sweetness and raunch in the style of the spate of recent comedies from producer Judd Apatow's comedy empire.
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88 Minutes
By the time the villain is revealed, you'll be too busy deciding whether to give up moviegoing altogether to even notice. Or, as they say in the trade: Who done it? Who cares?
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Young @ Heart
Be prepared to find your smile, test out your tear ducts, tap your feet, and cherish your youth while these vigorous oldsters sing their hearts out, hope their hearts don't give out, and thereby easily win our hearts.
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Street Kings
The streets in this fierce action drama aren't just mean -- they're downright sadistic. And the cops aren't just dirty, they're filthy.
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Smart People
There's no dumbing down for the audience of Smart People, a cerebral seriocomedy set in academia exhibiting behavior so dumb, it smarts.
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Chaos Theory
Ryan Reynolds, at least as good as the script he's handed, continues his evolution into a credible and versatile leading man. But director Marcos Sieg never quite brings his characters to life.
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Under the Same Moon
This film isn't about the national debate on the divisive issue of illegal immigration. It's really about the deep emotional bond between a mother and her son.
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Leatherheads
Leatherheads, fueled by producer-director George Clooney's fondness for the screwball comedy genre of the '30s and '40s, is both warmly nostalgic and richly entertaining.
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Nim's Island
It should be fun to see Jodie Foster play slapstick comedy here, because it's not something she has done much of during her storied career. Now we know why: she's no good at it.
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Run, Fat Boy, Run
There's really only one thing that ultimately counts in a movie comedy, and that's whether or not it makes you laugh. On that level alone, Run, Fat Boy, Run succeeds as a witty, laugh-out-loud comedic sprint.
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''21''
Remember, casino gamblers: the house always wins. Moviegoers, only sometimes. And this happens not to be one of those times.
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Flawless
Okay, so it's not flawless or priceless. But it's not careless or clueless or carat-less either.
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Snow Angels
Sometimes good work writes out a bad check. Sometimes superior production values makes for an inferior emotional experience. Sometimes heartbreak falls short as a spectator sport. Sometimes quality just isn't enough.
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Drillbit Taylor
Bully for this bully comedy? Nope. But at least young victims of school bullies now have a movie to point to that's purportedly telling their sad/funny story.
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Married Life
Ah, 1949. Prosperous postwar suburban America: when cigarettes weren't unhealthy, spouses weren't impolite, respectability wasn't boring, and divorces weren't on sale.
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Never Back Down
The title is as subtle as a punch in the gut. And so is the movie. But the darn thing -- slick and macho and fast and furious -- gets by anyway.
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Horton Hears a Who
The co-directors carefully translate the source material into a feature film by carefully editing and embellishing it, but preserving the gentle Seussical spirit and essence.
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College Road Trip
Hilarity does not -- in any way, shape, or form -- ensue.
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10,000 B.C.
Wow -- they spoke English 12,000 years ago? Who knew? But the language convention actually does a lot less harm than you might think, although history purists will have a field day.
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The Bank Job
Why did a government coverup, a gag order, and a media blackout follow one of the biggest robberies in the history of the United Kingdom? In heist thriller form, The Bank Job is here to explain.
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Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
India-born British director Bharat Nalluri tries to employ a light touch with this handsome period piece, but it doesn't come easily.
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The Other Boleyn Girl
The Other Boleyn Girl is a fictionalized historical drama about Anne and Mary Boleyn, sisters driven by their ambitious father and uncle to advance their family's status by courting King Henry VIII.
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Semi-Pro
There's a good comedy to be made about the American Basketball Association -- which gave us, among other things, the three-point shot. But Semi-Pro isn't it.
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Penelope
To thine own self be true, advises Penelope. Or, to put it another way, oink!
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2008 Oscar Predictions
With the Hollywood writers' strike finally over, it turns out that we will have the usual full-blown, star-studded Academy Awards ceremony -- broadcast live on Sunday evening from the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. Which means it's prediction time.
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Be Kind Rewind
A one-joke premise it may be, but the central joke in Be Kind Rewind has lots of funny variations.
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Vantage Point
Sometimes several points of view are better than one. Sometimes, but not this time.
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Definitely, Maybe
The universal desire of children to learn the details of how their parents met provides quite the bouncy springboard for this smart, winning romcom. Definitely, Maybe -- its bizarre title notwithstanding -- is a charmer.
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The Spiderwick Chronicles
Maybe the bar has just been raised too high. Maybe the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings books and flicks have spoiled us for less dazzling fare. Or maybe The Spiderwick Chronicles botches the recipe just enough to overcook this family fantasy-adventure.
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Jumper
For a movie about a guy who goes anywhere and everywhere, this movie sure does go nowhere in a hurry. Anybody got Jumper cables?
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The Hottie & the Nottie
My job isn't to tell you whether The Hottie & the Nottie is dreadful.& My job is to tell you just how dreadful.
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Fool's Gold
Alternately annoying and wearying, Fool's Gold is a specious, mechanical, monumentally uninteresting romantic misadventure, a sunken clunker about sunken treasure that's no treasure by any measure.
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Youth Without Youth
It's Francis Ford Coppola's first film as a director in a decade.
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Strange Wilderness
As with bread, so with humor: two-thirds of a laugh loaf is better than none. Strange Wilderness is a comedic case in point.
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Over Her Dead Body
There are sporadic grace notes and clever touches, but they're scattered throughout and separated by curious dead spots that need either a script touch-up or an infusion of comic energy.
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Honeydripper
It's not a hard-edged portrait of racial prejudice in the mid-century South, but a glimpse of the daily life as lived by African-Americans, enduring hardships and responding to music as a way of taking the edge off.
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Rambo
Another rescue mission in more ways than one, Sylvester Stallone's new Rambo, the first installment in 20 years, is a lot rockier than his last Rocky.
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Untraceable
The narrative developments of the second half fail to fulfill the expectations raised during the first half.
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They Wuz Robbed!
What about the poor deserving few who were snubbed, ignored, underappreciated, or forgotten in the Oscar nomination process? Who was rooked, crooked, or overlooked?
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27 Dresses
The charismatic leads gracefully transcend the frayed material in 27 Dresses, but this frilly outfit still wears out its welcome.
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Mad Money
The director stays squarely on the surface, offering modest, audience-friendly charm as if any thematic exploration might set off pretentiousness alarms.
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Cloverfield
It's a disaster thriller that wisely shows just enough of its central monster to keep the flames of fear burning throughout. Once things get rolling, just try, I dare you, to take your eyes off the screen.
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First Sunday
Nothing either of the ineffectually improvising leads or static supporting players can do comes near to bringing the moribund script to life.
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The Bucket List
Director Rob Reiner doesn't shy away from tearjerking uplift, but his gifted actors -- Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson -- provide just enough of an edge to render the tale palatable, moving, and cathartic.
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One Missed Call
This film is a lot more unintentionally hilarious than spooky, with perfunctory acting and a lazy script that offers laughably inauthentic behavior, wince-worthy dialogue, and no belief in the very rules that its convoluted storyline has set up in the first place.
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There Will Be Blood
Despite sporting a title that makes it sound like a refreshingly forthright slasher flick, this is actually a thought-provoking morality fable about manifest destiny and man-first destiny.
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Top Ten Movies of 2007
With the year over, it's time to take a look back at the best moviegoing experiences of the last twelve months.
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The Great Debaters
The Great Debaters is Denzel Washington's second directorial effort. And, like his first, 2002's Antwone Fisher, it's an earnest, emotionally powerful, adroitly-acted drama.
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Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Oscar-nominated supporting actor John C. Reilly plays the title character, and a comedy star is reborn.
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National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Like its predecessor, this sequel is a flatfooted, connect-the-dots action-adventure thriller for the family audience with shoddy production values and the depth of a wading pool.
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Charlie Wilson's War
Given the array of talent on board, it's almost disappointing that Charlie Wilson's War, in its battle to win a war, merely secures the battle.
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Sweeney Todd
This unique combo of musical and violent thriller about a throat-slashing barber is, aptly enough, a cut above.
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Alvin and the Chipmunks
Straight from the everything-old-is-new-again trunk in the attic comes a tiny trio who are about to revive their dormant gimmick and stretch their fifteen minutes of fame, but good.
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I Am Legend
The last-human-on-earth premise gets an airing in this sci-fi horror epic in which all that's left of the Big Apple is its core.
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Juno
Debuting screenwriter Diablo Cody's ear-tickling, smart-mouthed dialogue is stylized but honest, and an ensemble cast this fine has a field day with it, turning its self-conscious cleverness from a liability into an asset.
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Revolver
What does Revolver revolve around? Itself. And what will we fondly remember about it? Nothing.
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The Golden Compass
You don't need a compass to tell you that The Golden Compass is anything but golden and has lost its way.
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Atonement
Director Joe Wright adopts the deliberate rhythms of the 1930s, getting his beautifully designed film off to a dazzling start and sustaining throughout its strong sense of time and place.
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I'm Not There
This radically unconventional biographical portrait of enigmatic and elusive folk and rock singer-songwriter Bob Dylan comes at its subject from a unique, idiosyncratic perspective.
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This Christmas
This Christmas is such a warm, engaging yuletime comedy-drama, so brimming with holiday cheer, we forgive it its excesses and partake of its goodies.
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Margot at the Wedding
Writer-director Noah Baumbach embraces his film's plotlessness far too indulgently and allows his gaggle of characters to become tiresome in their naked neediness. The result is a movie with no narrative momentum to speak of.
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August Rush
No one says modern fables have to be realistic. But fantasy or not, it's tough when you don't believe one single, solitary moment of the whole enterprise.
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The Mist
Is The Mist not to be missed? Afraid not.
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Enchanted
After paying oblique tribute to Disney's animated classics by poking gentle fun at their obligatory conventions, Enchanted comes to life, literally. But not quite enough to enchant us.
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Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
What Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium mostly has going for it, regardless of its considerable aesthetic shortcomings, is that it is aggressively and unapologetically a children's movie.
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Beowulf
This Beowulf is a CGI-animated action-adventure epic based on the Old English poem you hated reading in high school, yanked into the modern era by innovative director Robert Zemeckis.
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Love in the Time of Cholera
The protagonist exhibits extraordinary loyalty and patience. But you may need to borrow some. You'll need extreme stick-to-itiveness to slog through this handsome but seemingly endless romance-a-thon.
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No Country for Old Men
Simultaneously distinctive and disappointing, No Country for Old Men is a movie to be endured rather than enjoyed, admired rather than embraced.
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Lions for Lambs
The film maintains a tone that's preachy, didactic, and unbalanced, which renders the film a polemic instead of a drama, and the characters mouthpieces instead of people.
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Fred Claus
Although it's a reel too long and a bit more dependent on generic slapstick than it has to be, Fred Claus is for the most part liberatingly childlike rather than condescendingly childish.
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Bee Movie
The comic sensibility and stamp of comedian Jerry Seinfeld -- cerebral, observant, clever, whimsical, and engaging -- informs virtually every frame of this amiable animated attraction.
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American Gangster
Given that the film stars two powerhouse, Oscar-winning actors, it's almost astonishingly colorless.
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Sleuth
It doesn't take a master sleuth to deduce why Sleuth the Second is criminally subpar. It's a stylish but inert remake of a memorable cat-and-mouse-game thriller.
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Reservation Road
This downbeat drama, an honorable attempt to grapple with a devastating personal tragedy, isn't easy to dismiss even though it depends on several stubbornly distracting coincidences.
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Dan in Real Life
Dan in Real Life is about as good as reel life gets.
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30 Days of Night
What most sinks the movie into generic disappointment is the level of explicit gore.
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Things We Lost in the Fire
Benicio Del Toro is Oscar-level brilliant here, overcoming the limitations of an underwritten role and contributing an idiosyncratic, serious but good-humored portrait of a stumbling but recovering junkie.
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Gone Baby Gone
Ben Affleck, making his directorial debut, directs his younger brother Casey, who plays the protagonist. Each knocks the ball out of the park.
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Rendition
While the moral dilemma at the heart of things here is an important and intriguing one, it ends up obscured rather than highlighted.
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Elizabeth: The Golden Age
The age may well have been golden. The actress surely is. The film itself, alas, is not.
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