7/31/09:  "It is one of the fundamental questions of the human experience:  is love real?  I'm not talking about infatuation, we all know that's real.  I'm talking about storybook, happily-ever-after LOVE.  Our society is built around the assumption that it is, but the divorce rate strongly suggests otherwise.  If there is no such thing as true, lasting love, Hollywood's played a big role in persuading us otherwise.  But it's been troubling over the last few years to watch the romantic comedy genre kinda throw in the towel on love, and I don't know that I've ever seen a more intentionally cynical romcom than The Ugly Truth.  Crass and unfunny, it gets by on two appealing leads giving their characters more effort and dimension than they deserve.  That, and a fascinating dark subtext too ugly for the filmmakers to truly face.

TV news producer Abby (Katherine Heigl) isn't so much unlucky at love as unfamiliar with the concept.  We meet her on a date, presenting her would-be significant other with a list of talking points and informing him that he satisfies 9 of the 10 items on her checklist.  After the inevitable disaster, she slumps home and ends up stumbling upon The Ugly Truth, a public access show hosted by Mike (Gerard Butler), who angrily rails against love and women in general."  MORE

8/9/07:  "Let's start by testing whether there's any chance you'll enjoy Disney's new canine superhero flick Underdog.  All together now!  “When criminals in this world appear / and break the laws that they should fear / and frighten all who see or hear / the cry goes up both far and near / for Underdog! Underdog! Underdog! Underdog! / Speed of lightning, roar of thunder / fighting all who rob or plunder / Underdog! Underdog!”

If you successfully sung along and didn't need me to tell you the lyrics, there's an excellent chance you'll get the same goofy kick I did out of the loving cinematic reinvention one of the most beloved cartoon characters of my childhood has received.  If not, and you're over ten years old, odds are you'll focus on tiny, unimportant details like the lazy, unexciting plot and the indifferent performances of everyone whose character is not part of the Underdog mythos.  But they had me at “Simon Says...”"  MORE

3/30/09:  "I admit, I'm late to the party.  Before Digital 3D began to invade mainstream movie theaters, I didn't have much interest in IMAX 3D and the plethora of nature films that have been shot in the format.  So I make no claim to authority on whether Under the Sea 3D is in any way novel, but it is awfully nifty.  Getting up close and personal with various critters that call the coastal waters from New Guinea to Australia home, it provides and entertaining look at the day-to-day lives of some very bizarre lifeforms.  Only occasionally too cutesy for its' own good, Howard Hall's documentary delivers enough amazing sights, fish-on-fish violence and <gulp> sex to engage all but the most jaded of IMAX viewers.

Narrator Jim Carrey takes us on a trip Southward starting off the coast of New Guinea, traveling through the Great Barrier reef and beyond.  We meet many peculiar creatures like the camouflaged Stonefish and Jellyfish of totally alien shapes and sizes.  A veritable forest of sea snakes digs in on the Ocean floor and stands upright against the current waiting to catch anything that drifts nearby.  Crabs and Jellies, Shrimps and Fish form peculiar symbiotic relationships."  MORE

6/8/09:  "Let's be honest:  no matter how fond we might be of the Dark Knights, Iron Mans and Star Treks of the world, the decline of creativity and originality in Hollywood's choice of subject matter is a troubling trend bordering on crisis.  Everyone's got to envy the winning lottery ticket a string of animated blockbusters has handed to Pixar, the tiny little division of Disney that can pretty much release anything they want and watch it become a hit.  And they haven't wasted it:  whatever you might think of their relative quality, they've had the guts to release movies about fine dining (Ratatouille) and the end of the world (WALL*E) these last two summers and now bring us Up, a lovely little comic adventure about an old man rediscovering his zest for life on what he thought would be his final journey.  Funny, high-spirited and above all moving, Up is the kind of large-scale original no one would be able to get green-lit these days without a little bouncing lamp before the opening credits.

In the late 30's, adventurer Charles Muntz traveled the world in his blimp and brought back all manner of amazing finds.  But when scientists declared a giant bird skeleton he claimed to have found at remote Paradise Falls to be a fraud, Muntz disappeared into the Falls vowing never to return without the real creature to prove his innocence."  MORE

12/27/09:  "'Tis the season for angst:  between the Christmas season that's never quite as happy as holiday specials promise and the New Year holiday that demands we take stock of all in our lives that's lacking or in need of change, the end of the year always feels like a crossroads.  Throw in a down economy and the daily drumbeat of environmental and political doomsday scenarios to which we're exposed, and there couldn't be a more perfect (or worse, depending upon your point of view) time for Up in the Air, Jason Reitman's angsty new dramedy.  Powered by a sensational George Clooney star turn, Air asks big questions about our eternal search for happiness, and, appropriately, comes up with precious few answers.  Fitting snuggly between Reitman's previous two films, the brilliant, underrated Thank You For Smoking and the clever but overrated Juno, Up in the Air is the perfect movie for a world where, more and more, uncertainty is our co-pilot.

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) fires people for a living.  More to the point, he delivers the bad news to people who've been fired by employers too gutless to do the job themselves.  As such, he's always on the road:  322 days last year, in fact."  MORE

2/2/08:  "After seeing the 3D version of Beowulf last year, it became pretty clear to me that Digital 3D is The Coming Thing of modern moviegoing.  As more and more locations become wired to carry events like this weekend's Miley Cirus concert (much as I shudder at the thought of being at one of THOSE screenings), we march closer to the 2009 releases of the first major 3D-only fictional features:  PDI's Monsters vs. Aliens and James Cameron's Avatar.  In the meantime, we've reached another milestone:  the first live-action digital 3D feature.  U2 3D is a concert movie, and a very good one.  But it also teases with the amazing potential of the digital 3D format (in this case, care of a company called 3ality).  Watching the movie alone is a treat:  that it comes complete with the music and showmanship of one of the world's greatest rock bands is just icing on the cake.

Shot at 9 different Latin American concerts but seeming to occur entirely in Buenos Aires, the concert consists of “Vertigo”, “Beautiful Day”, “New Year's Day”, “Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own”, “Love and Peace or Else”, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “Bullet the Blue Sky”, “Miss Sarajevo”, “Pride (In the Name of Love)”, “Where the Streets Have No Name” and “One”, followed by an encore of “The Fly” and “With or Without You”.  “Yahweh” is performed over the end credits."  MORE