These days it seems that originality is something that Hollywood inadvertently misplaced and subsequently forgot about decades ago. With sequels and remakes elbowing each other to get onto theater screens, is it any wonder that Tinseltown looks like a Frankenstein’s monster, stitched together with the decaying body parts of far better films? If this describes your take on the film industry, Hancock may be just the thing you need. To be sure, Hancock mines the superhero mythology and pays homage to the rich folklore on which it feeds and sustains itself, but what it does with the raw materials is thoroughly, refreshingly unique. [Read more →]

We’ve had movies based on real life, novels, comic books, video games and even toys. But Kit Kittredge: An American Girl may be the first movie based on a doll. If that sounds like an empty-headed and unoriginal source for a motion picture, you’d no doubt be right. However, what director Patricia Rozema does with the stories written to accompany the hugely popular American Girl dolls is nothing short of magical. Kit Kittredge is one of the best kid’s movies to come out in years. [Read more →]

When Did You Last See Your Father? is autobiographical, based on a book by an author who shares a name with the film’s central character. The film tells us in the first few seconds that it is based on a true story. It is an odd admission for so interiorized a film. There are no grand events, historical characters or memorable passages. Just the sort of deeply personal recollections important only to those few people who experienced them — and to the audience privy to them in this plaintive, reflective and affectionate ode to bruised memory and emotional catharsis. [Read more →]

You have heard it said that there are but two constants in the universe: death and taxes. It’s time a third constant was added to the list: Pixar can do no wrong. Pixar’s films have always been fueled by an expansive, unrestrained, berserker imagination. With WALL∙E, they’ve taken yet another giant leap, adding scalding wonder and awe. [Read more →]

Chances are you will walk out of Wanted murmuring, “We’ve seen this before, haven’t we?” You won’t be alone. Wanted, while certainly not a remake of The Matrix films, nonetheless borrows heavily from their aesthetic and it is this aesthetic that will stick with you long after the story has faded. Is it possible to find something completely absurd and yet also be swept away by it? All in all, Wanted does not work. To enjoy it, one must forgo the untidy sum and revel in the remarkable parts. [Read more →]

Against my better judgment, against my hardened presumptions going in, against all that is right and holy and decent in the universe, I have to admit that I…ahem…actually liked The Love Guru. [Read more →]

Get Smart, the new movie starring Steve Carell, may share a name and concept with the iconic 1960s television series about a bumbling Cold War spy, but beyond that, this frivolous and unamusing mess so mangles its source material that it doesn’t deserve to be called an homage. [Read more →]

Sometime after the phenomenal success of The Sixth Sense, it became popular to hate M. Night Shyamalan. Some critics, bemoaning what they see as a one-trick-pony, have turned it into something approaching sport. I’ve never jumped on that bandwagon. I love Shyamalan’s eerie, expansive imagination. I’m the one critic who thought The Village was a misunderstood masterpiece. In fact, it wasn’t until Lady in the Water that I felt Shyamalan made his first cinematic misstep. So I went into The Happening predisposed to rub shoulders with greatness. What I walked out of was one of the worst films I have ever seen. [Read more →]

We may never know what drove Ang Lee, identified with artistic achievements such as Eat Drink Man Woman, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Sense and Sensibility and Brokeback Mountain to helm the 2003 blockbuster, Hulk, but whatever his reasons, the film was a sprawling critical and popular disappointment, interested more in cerebral psychobabble than rip-snorting action. Marvel Studios, flush from their colossal success with Iron Man, will not make the same mistake twice. [Read more →]

This is an abridged version of a review I wrote for Christianity Today Movies. To read the rest of this review, click here.

Genghis Khan (meaning “universal ruler”) was the title given to the Mongol warrior, Temudjin, a 13th century tribal chief who echoed the accomplishments of Alexander the Great and founded an empire that swept across the breadth of Central Asia, China, Russia, the Middle East and even Eastern Europe. Employing audacious battle strategies and novel cavalry tactics, he earned a reputation in history as both a brutal warmonger and a munificent administrator, subjugating millions while also expanding Mongol culture. His empire lasted more than 150 years after his death, and although the following centuries saw a decline in his empire, his last ruling descendent wasn’t deposed until early in the 20th century by Soviet forces. [Read more →]