Examiner Movie Reviews

60 days ago - As its ex-con protagonist with a notorious past experiences the everyday blips and occasional bangs of a constructive new life in a society that deems him evil, “Boy A” tells a story too compellingly human to be anything but engrossing. But plot contrivances and an excessive attempt to reap sympathy for the title character significantly weaken this Brit-gritty drama.

74 days ago - Even in the estimation of its ardent followers, “The X-Files” has rarely been a model of consistency, if only because creator Chris Carter’s vision is so audaciously complex that it sometimes collapses beneath the weight of its own ambition.

74 days ago - “Brideshead Revisited,” the 1945 Evelyn Waugh opus that inspired the memorable 1981 miniseries, is now a feature film — a fine idea if only it had done something broader, bolder or deeper with Waugh’s story about class, freedom, duty, faith and the alluring nature of messed-up rich folk.

81 days ago - In the dippy warp of anti-renaissance that was the 1970s, ABBA thrived, and, via fare such as “Mamma Mia!” — a new movie based on the play — the defunct pop supergroup continues to unleash its too-catchy songs on the world. Shift your mind-set into fluff mode, and this film should mildly satisfy. But an unoriginal, uneven presentation of the songbook and the sunshine hampers things considerably.

82 days ago - Even if “The Dark Knight” didn’t represent Heath Ledger’s swan song, it would mark a high point in the late actor’s career. Ledger’s accent has sometimes sounded geographically challenged when he’s been asked to abandon his native Australian one, but here he reinvents himself entirely, trading in his authoritative baritone for a nasal snarl worthy of a sadistic jester.

88 days ago - Life is never easy for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense’s human minions.

88 days ago - Whether due to a fluke or a flair on the part of its creator, “The Wackness” is a surprisingly enjoyable comedy from the generally rusty spout devoted to the coming-of-age story. There is little that is extraordinary in this boy-meets-world indie, but the film combines and seasons its stock ingredients winningly.

95 days ago - A conventional filmmaker, Alex Gibney, salutes one of literature’s legendary rebels, Hunter S. Thompson, in the documentary “Gonzo,” and this matching indeed yields no revelations about its indomitable, outrageous, iconoclastic, substance-consuming, gun-loving subject.

97 days ago - I’d like to see a sequel to “Hancock.” Here’s a movie filled with bright ideas, crammed uncomfortably into a story burdened by confusing and often contradictory exposition. It begins as a comedy and ends rather unexpectedly with a flourish of melodrama, but it’s never dull.

102 days ago - What a wonderful world

109 days ago - With gothic tones prevailing and schlock genes raging, Dario Argento is back, and the horror showman delivers considerable vim and viscera in his latest gorefest, “The Mother of Tears.” But the film’s distinguishing qualities end there.

116 days ago - If French director Louis Leterrier’s goal in rebooting the “Hulk” saga for the big screen was to distance Marvel’s franchise from Ang Lee’s brooding 2003 deconstruction of the not-so-jolly green giant, you’d have to consider “The Incredible Hulk” a rousing success: While Lee incurred the wrath of comic-book disciples with his thoughtful character study, Leterrier and screenwriter Zak Penn dispense with the angst and focus on the smash.