This shameless action machine is a video game wrapped in a Marine Corps recruitment poster. Space aliens invade L.A., mostly trashing Santa Monica. Only our jarheads can rise to the occasion, mostly with a platoon led by veteran sergeant Aaron Eckhart. They make their escape from hell in a bright …
Kyle (Alex Pettyfer) is a haughty, hunky narcissist at a fancy New York school, until the campus witch (Mary-Kate Olsen) makes him ugly. He looks vandalized by a varicose-veins tagger, but with the help of a cool chick (Vanessa Hudgens) and a blind sage (Neil Patrick Harris) he learns that …
A documentary for fans of A Tribe Called Quest. For the rest of us, subtitles of the lyrics would sure help. The influential, Queens-rooted band rose to hip-hop eminence, then fell apart (it has revived for some nostalgia gigs). The music is muscled by ego stress between haughty, preening Q-Tip …
The movie should be chewing logs of wild comedy, but director Jody Foster prefers to paddle in the pond of earnest family drama. Haggard, driven Mel Gibson is a depressed toy executive whose saving alter-ego is the fuzzy hand-puppet of a beaver. Through it he is able to speak again, …
When writer-director Mike Mills isn’t flashing oodles of perky technique and “stylish” doodads (drawings, meet-cutes, old news clips, vintage music), his talented cast inserts human value and charm into this tale of a nice, lonely guy (Ewan McGregor) who lost his suddenly gay, then dead dad (Christopher Plummer) and finds …
This should have been a bonus feature on a Sesame Street DVD. Knowledge gleaned: Kevin Clash is a blueblooded puppeteer in love with his calling and blessed with an ability to animate fleece with the mere twist of a knuckle. We’re told little about Clash’s private life, other than he’s …
A pair of novice car and end-of-the-world enthusiasts bone up for Armageddon by spending their days and nights in search of army-surplus stores and auto graveyards that stock parts to build do-it-yourself flamethrowing devices. Other than the fact it took producer/director/co-editor/star Evan Glodell eight years to complete his audacious $17K …
Beloved asks the question, Why bring AIDS and 9/11 to an otherwise affectionate musical tribute to the films of Jacques Demy? Is it because the director felt the need to rely on the two greatest tragedies in recent history to add depth to his otherwise flimsy characters and plotline?
Trick photography. First, because it's the story of a man who photographed his tricks: Bert Stern, lenser, lover, lothario. The man is undeniably gifted, and apparently, undeniable in other ways as well — even in his eighties, he casts a spell over a trio of sweetish, youngish things (two of …
The better life desired by Carlos (Demián Bichir) is to own a truck and improve his chances of success as (an illegal) Mexican gardener in L.A. His son (José Julián) has difficult teen moods and is of little help. Director Chris Weitz keeps it straight and simple, yet always credible, …
The Bhuttos are the Kennedys of Pakistan. This smart, angry, informative documentary traces the rise and fall and unjust death of progressive leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. And even more, of his proud, brave daughter Benazir, twice a coup victim and finally murdered. Choose your worst villain: the army, the security …
Documentary proof that not every story needs to be a movie, The Big Uneasy performs the seemingly impossible trick of draining the passion from the story of Hurricane Katrina and the disastrous flooding of New Orleans in 2005. It’s certainly worth understanding the multiple factors that contributed to the levees’ …
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 …
Chipper, charming, ascetic, probably gay, Cunningham at 82 is a terrific movie subject. For decades he has photographed people of chic or idiosyncratic fashion on New York streets and at parties, caring not (he says) about celebrities, only style. His work, much of it published in the Times, has helped …
Alejandro González Iñárritu attends his film with such care and detail that, despite the squalor of the environment, we are left with an undeniable aesthetic. Javier Bardem, as the protagonist, accomplishes much with little, revealing a detached worry and guilt. While Iñárritu may amble too far with his plot, he …