A labor of love on the part of über-geek director Joss Whedon, if not necessarily a labor of art. The genius here shows not in the story (magic geegaw!), nor in the performances (Mark Ruffalo’s embittered Bruce Banner/Hulk excepted), but in Whedon’s ability to juggle six disparate comic-book heroes while …
Disenfranchised earthlings invade a distant planet in clayey 3-D animation. Stirring music and excellent space-travel effects at the start, and a well-imagined other world, and an anti-war, anti-imperialist (i.e., anti-Earth) campaign that offers no easy solution, only a naive one. With the voices of Evan Rachel Wood, Luke Wilson, Justin …
Chris Evans and Alice Eve meet up in Grand Central and spend a magical night in New York City. Directed by Captain America, er, Chris Evans.
Marvel continues its lightweight but well-muscled march toward the superhero ensemble piece The Avengers, this time calling on director Joe Johnston and his gift for rendering unclouded heroism and golly-gee romance. You know, olde-timey stuff, appropriate for a decent guy (Chris Evans) who gets turned into a WWII super soldier …
Hostage thriller, with a breathless pace and an oxygen-deprived plot, from a story idea by Larry Cohen: a companion piece to Phone Booth, but freed, through the technology of mobile phones, for a lot of car chases and running around. Kim Basinger throws herself, body and soul, into the role …
Namely, Mr. Fantastic (a sort of Plastic Man), the Human Torch (more like a Human Comet), the Invisible Woman (plain enough), and the Thing (a cross between the Incredible Hulk and the Golem). The slender storyline explains how they got to be so fantastic, and it then gives them little …
The other characters can’t stop talking about how prodigious Mary (Mckenna Grace) is, but with the exception of the occasional polysyllabic word peppering Tom Flynn’s dialogue (and a 9-year-old actress who shatters all levels on the precocity scale), there’s nothing particularly exceptional about the kid as presented. Of course, that …
Give Hollywood enough time (and enough sequel money) and they’ll ruin anything. The Buzz Lightyear character came to be a household name thanks to four installments of Toy Story. The delusional doll that thought he was the character upon which he is based now has an origin story to call …
Preening action film about a five-man commando team with a delicate moral sense and robust appetite for fun. Idris Elba acts as though he were playing a real character instead of a video-game simulacrum. With Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoë Saldaña, Chris Evans, and Jason Patric; directed by Sylvain White.
Modest, clever, diverting comedy about a directionless college grad (Scarlett Johansson), with a major in Business and minor in Anthropology, who falls into a temp position as an Upper East Side nanny, continuing her anthropological studies independently in the exotic society of the filthy rich. The self-absorbed parents (Laura Linney, …
Another teen movie. A crass, tacky spoof after the fashion of Scary Movie, but really just a pot calling a kettle.... With Chyler Leigh, Chris Evans, Jaime Pressly, Mia Kirshner, Randy Quaid; directed by Joel Gallen.
Pandering teen caper film in which a motley crew of high-school seniors (pothead, jock, poor little rich girl, etc.) conspire for motley reasons to steal the answers to the SAT. ("Suck-Ass Test -- that's what that stands for," elucidates the annoyingly loud narrator.) A dab of nostalgia: Mike Jarvis, the …
Differently gifted paranormals, on the model of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, battle over a wonder drug in a secreted syringe in Hong Kong. The possibilities are endless, and so, in consequence, is the tedium. Paul McGuigan’s hopped-up direction only increases it. Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle, Djimon …