Weekend Box Office (01/22/11): Underworld: Awakenings and Red Tails score. while Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Haywire falter slightly.

 Like clockwork, the fourth entry in the ongoing Underworld franchise debuted in the third weekend of January to take the top spot at the b...

Review: Miss Bala (2012) is a jolting and relentless bit of nasty business.

Miss Bala 2012 113 minutes rated R by Scott Mendelson Gerardo Naranjo's bracing and relatively uncompromising Miss Bala operates on two...

Weekend Box Office (01/08/11): Devil Inside kicks off 2012 with $34m debut.

More often than not, especially when dealing with big numbers, opening weekends are about marketing, not the quality of the film.  So don...

On the inherent darkness and pessimism of Steven Spielberg's body of work, and why he is more than just ET: The Extra Terrestrial.

This essay has been slightly updated since the 2011 Oscar nominations were announced. In the aftermath of the Oscar nominations (analysis HE...

Weekend Box Office (01/01/12): Strong holdovers close out 2011 movie year.

As is often the case, the last weekend of the year is basically a repeat of last weekend, both in general ranking and numbers, as the holid...

Review: Rooney Mara shines as Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's otherwise pointless and neutered The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) remake.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 2011 160 minutes rated R by Scott Mendelson The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo feels like a James Patterson no...

Review: War Horse (2011) is pure, unapologetic old-school melodrama.

War Horse 2011 145 minutes rated PG-13 by Scott Mendelson It would almost be lazy to say that War Horse is 'the kind of movie they just...

Review: Torn between being a stand-alone drama and an all-encompassing history lesson, Angelina Jolie's ambitious In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011) is the very definition of a noble failure.

In The Land of Blood and Honey 2011 127 minutes rated R by Scott Mendelson Angelina Jolie's director debut is caught between two very sp...

Sadly appropriate. Why The Artist 'deserves' to win at this year's Oscars.

Barring a box office blow-out by War Horse or The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo , and/or stunningly good reviews for the still-hidden Extrem...

Review: The Artist (2011) is a textbook-example for our nostalgia-obsessed culture.

The Artist 2011 100 minutes rated PG-13 by Scott Mendelson The Artist is a silent film about the death of silent films.  It is arguably no ...

Review: Carnage (2011) is amusing, but predictable and uninspired.

Carnage 2011 80 minutes rated R by Scott Mendelson There is nothing terribly wrong with Carnage , Roman Polanski's adaption of the play ...

Review: The Adventures of Tintin (2011) delivers terrific animation, moments of brilliant action, but little else.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn 2011 105 minutes rated PG by Scott Mendelson I've written before about the recent qu...

Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) features a career-peak Tilda Swinton turn in a devastatingly sad, and highly interpretive horror drama.

We Need to Talk About Kevin 2011 112 minutes rated R by Scott Mendelson It would be argued that Lynne Ramsay's bracing We Need to Talk A...