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Review: Rampart

Oren Moverman's portrait of a rotten cop
The rotten cop flick has become a mini-genre of sorts, a subset of noir, going back at least to Orson Welles's Touch of Evil .

By: PETER KEOUGH | February 15, 2012

Daniel Espinosa's spy thriller
Daniel Espinosa's over-edited but engaging spy thriller delves into edgy territory untouched by any of the numerous movies it imitates: it has Brendan Gleeson do an American accent.

By: PETER KEOUGH | February 15, 2012

Review: The Vow

Notebook knock-off
Michael Sucsy's The Vow's tag line, "based on a true story," is the only sincere moment in a film that will bring you to tears — of boredom.

By: MONICA CASTILLO | February 15, 2012

Review: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Brad Peyton's sequel
I liked the tiny elephants and the Rock bouncing berries off his pecs, but Brad Peyton's sequel is as bad as the 2008 original.

By: PETER KEOUGH | February 07, 2012

Fake It So Real considers the arts of storytelling and bodyslams

Men in tights
Almost any documentary about a niche hobby or creative outlet (think Every Little Step or Spellbound ) devotes some amount of screen time to the therapeutic value of such unlikely obsessions.

By: CHRISTOPHER GRAY | February 01, 2012

Review: Chronicle

Superpowered teens
Poor Andrew (Dane DeHaan) has more problems than any movie teenager deserves.

By: PETER KEOUGH | February 02, 2012

Review: The Woman in Black

James Watkins's old-fashioned ghost story
After 10 years battling supernatural creatures, you'd think Harry Potter would be better equipped to deal with the paranormal pests he faces in James Watkins's old-fashioned ghost story.

By: ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | February 02, 2012

Review: Big Miracle

Ken Kwapis's take on a true story from 1988
Taking a tip from the oil industry, Hollywood has started exploiting Alaska. Following in the tracks of The Grey is Ken Kwapis's take on a true story from 1988 about an effort to save gray whales trapped in the Arctic ice. Surprisingly, the film offers genuine complexity.

By: PETER KEOUGH | January 31, 2012

Review: One for the Money

Julie Anne Robinson's insipid adaptation
TV director Julie Anne Robinson's insipid adaptation of this first volume in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series has more in common with Young Adult than with the average gumshoe yarn.

By: PETER KEOUGH | January 31, 2012

Review: The Innkeepers

Ti West's spook show
Ti West's spook show is atmospheric (thanks to the terrific hotel setting) and frequently funny; but the plot line is choppy, the dialogue often unnecessary, and the scares too sparse.

By: PEG ALOI | January 31, 2012

Review: Haywire

Soderbergh phones it in
Despite some thrilling combat choreography executed with flair by MMA champ Gina Carano, Steven Soderbergh clearly phoned it in here. The barely-there plot involves Mallory (Carano), a double-crossed Black Ops agent who goes rogue in an uninteresting search for revenge.

By: THOMAS PAGE MCBEE | January 24, 2012

Review: Red Tails

The struggles and triumphs of the Tuskegee Airmen
With a title that refers not to squirrels but to plane markings, Red Tails dramatizes the struggles and triumphs of African-American pioneers, the Tuskegee Airmen.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | January 24, 2012

Review: Underworld: Awakening

Brief but bloody
The Underworld series got long in the tooth early, but here, in the fourth installment (directed by Swede Måns Mårlind), it grows new fangs.

By: TOM MEEK | January 24, 2012

Review: Man on a Ledge

Clever if absurd heist film
Pablo F. Fenjves might not be Sidney Lumet, but his clever if absurd heist film does acknowledge its debt to the late, politically inclined director's Dog Day Afternoon .

By: PETER KEOUGH | January 26, 2012

Review: Contraband

A high-quality composite of knock-offs
True to its name, this standard heist thriller is a composite of knock-offs, but when Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America is among the sources ripped off, the quality is pretty high.

By: PETER KEOUGH | January 17, 2012

Review: The Flowers of War

Unimpressive outing from Zhang Yimou
In 1937 the invading Imperial Japanese Army killed and raped thousands of people in the Chinese city of Nanjing. The atrocity has recently inspired two Chinese films, including Lu Chuan's City of Life and Death and this unimpressive outing from Zhang Yimou.

By: PETER KEOUGH | January 17, 2012

Review: Joyful Noise

Rafter-rocking gospel singing
There's not much joy but there's plenty of noise of the rafter-rocking gospel singing variety in Tony Graff's musical dramedy.

By: TOM MEEK | January 10, 2012

Review: The Devil Inside

William Brent Bell's limp mockumentary
William Brent Bell's film opens with a disclaimer that "the Vatican does not endorse this movie." No kidding — the Catholic Church isn't exactly known for its sense of humor.

By: ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | January 10, 2012

Review: The Iron Lady

Streep's not enough to save this one
Meryl Streep's two films with Phyllida Lloyd, Mamma Mia and this silly biopic, demonstrate that even when the world's greatest actress is at the peak of her powers — whether dramatic, comic, or musical — it's not enough.

By: PETER KEOUGH | January 10, 2012

Review: Dragonslayer

The perils and virtues of slackerdom shape the arresting Dragonslayer
Josh "Skreech" Sandoval is a slacker. A onetime professional skateboarder both admired for and limited by the "random chaos" of his technique, Sandoval abandoned sponsorships and relative fame in search of greater freedom.

By: CHRISTOPHER GRAY | January 04, 2012