Contemporary war story about a U.S. Navy flier downed in the demilitarized zone of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the posse of Serbs hot on his heels, and the rescue effort thwarted by a NATO busybody of divided loyalties. (Opportunity, there, to reprise the wistful Vietnam refrain about taking the gloves off and untying …
Anemic remake of an underrated adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel. What was, in 1969, a sort of neo-James Cain hard-boiled thriller is now, under the direction of George Armitage (Miami Blues, Grosse Pointe Blank), a post-Tarantino, post-Get Shorty smarty-pants romp. And there is nothing to replace the sexual sparks …
Nature tourism lamely disguised as comedy. Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and Jack Black play fanatical birders competing to see as many feathery critters as possible in one year. They run around the country, making cute faces between bird views, and classy old actors (Anjelica Huston, Brian Dennehy, Dianne Wiest) are …
The Pixar people, director John Lasseter in particular, envision a world of cars without people (Mommy, where do cars come from?), but of course anthropomorphized cars, such that the windshields are eyes and the hoods, grilles, and front bumpers form noses and mouths. The vision focusses chiefly on a hot-shot …
Black comedy, a bit too openly pleased with itself, a bit too hell-bent on quirkiness, revolving around a confessed sex addict and his demented mother, played (respectively) by Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston. The broadest smiles, the nearest things to audible laughs, are apt to be elicited by the tourist-trap …
One thing to be said for a Wes Anderson film, and it's no small thing, is that it bears an individual stamp. A stamp as flat as a postage stamp, as emphatic as a rubber stamp. (Whap, whap.) A well-known commodity after Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, The Life …
A woman and her son enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters. Directed by Justin Simien, starring LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Chase W. Dillon, Dan Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jared Leto as The Hatbox …
Homeless army deserter answers a want ad to bodyguard a fat kid, skinny kid, and shrimpy kid from the high-school bully. The jokes arrive predictably, the laughs lag badly. With Owen Wilson, Nate Hartley, Troy Gentile, David Dorfman, Alex Frost, and Leslie Mann; directed by Steven Brill.
Owen WIlson and Ed Helms star as a pair of fraternal twins in search of their birth father. Stepping behind the camera for the first time is cinematographer Lawrence Sher (The Dukes of Hazzard, The Hangover(s)).
Two turkeys (Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson) go back in time to try to keep turkeys from becoming a traditional Thanksgiving dish. Go ahead, take your kids. Then, on Thanksgiving, explain to them that Free Birds was a bit of doomed wishing, kind of like the fake-out ending in Brazil. Then …
Ostensible remake of Robert Wise's ghostly classic of 1963. Certainly there looks to be a lot of similarity in the basic configuration of four people — two men, two women, one of the former a research scientist, one of the latter a lonely shut-away who has only recently been liberated …
How do we know it’s weak? Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, and roguish Jack Nicholson pinball through the silly story, a sophomoric relationship comedy with little zaps of adulthood. Meet-cutes pile up, some smart lines zing, and a baby is inserted to domesticate the plot. Veteran director/writer James L. …
Is the structure — Bad News Bears try to win the Internalympics at Google and so get jobs — hackneyed? Yes. Is the comedy spotty? Yes. Is the pacing a mess, with several sort-of funny bits dragging on waaaaay too long? Yes, yes, yes. But viewers of a certain age …