Believe it or not, the character of Machete was not invented as a fake commercial in 2007’s Grindhouse, though that was the first time he showed his face to the world. Director Robert Rodriguez conceived of using his cousin, Danny Trejo, as an ex-Federale-turned-crusading assassin while making Desperado in the early ‘90s. The popularity of the bogus trailer convinced Rodriguez the world was ready for a feature-length version. But is it? Unwilling to consistently push its violence, sex or comedy to the extremes demanded by its grindhouse roots, Machete turns out to be a mixed bag of monotonous exposition and tasteless fun. [read more]

It’s about time someone made a romantic comedy about long distance relationships. The set-up is ripe with both comic and dramatic possibilities, dueling polarities that Going the Distance mines equally. This leads to a bit of narrative schizophrenia that will doubtless cause those interested purely in romantic comedy to bemoan some serious relationship introspection, but it certainly leads, in the end, to a richer film and viewing experience. Most romcoms are brainless and played only for laughs. “Going the Distance” has plenty of laughs, but has some moments of satisfying, grown-up honesty, as well. [read more]

Pat Tillman, an all-star defensive back with the Arizona Cardinals, walked away from a multimillion-dollar NFL contract to enlist in the Army special forces with his younger brother just months after 9/11. Two years later, the celebrity soldier was dead, killed in a Taliban ambush. At the memorial service celebrating his life, military members extolled his heroism and recounted stories of how his actions saved the lives of his entire squad.

It was a great story. Too bad none of it was true. [read more]

The American, based on Martin Booth’s 1990 novel “A Very Private Gentleman,” is not an action movie in the conventional sense. It is perhaps more accurately described as an art house film with guns. [read more]

I cannot remember the last time I left a movie as angry as I left The Last Exorcism, a film that, for the first three quarters of its running time positively purred and then, as it rounded the final lap, completely, utterly, absolutely, unquestionably, indubitably ruined any good feelings I had for it with a diabolically stupid ending. As I’ve said before, the worst offense is not the film that reeks from beginning to end, it is the film with blatant potential that is squandered by ineptitude or indifference. In the case of The Last Exorcism, it is both. [read more]

The machinery animating Animal Kingdom feels unfathomably epic even though the story it tells is relatively trivial. While the events it unfolds are, in the grand scheme of criminal lore, comparatively inconsequential, while you’re watching it, they feel as primal and as visceral as any of cinema’s greatest crime epics. [read more]

The Extra Man is not a film—it is a sequence of extended personality ticks. No one in the movie remotely approximates a recognizable human being. These are not characters; they are caricatures. We do not care about any caricature nor are given reason to. Forced whimsy is still forced. And yet, as paltry and unsubstantial a film as The Extra Man is, I cannot find it within myself to completely resist its charms. The reason can be summed up in two incandescent words: Kevin Kline. [read more]

Don’t be fooled by misleading advertising or even your own preconceptions. It turns out The Switch is a heck of a wonderful film. [read more]

My biggest fear with Eat Pray Love was that, as with so many adapted works of a more intimate, interior nature, it would be Hollywood slick, over-produced and about as subtle as a bull in a china closet. Thankfully, my concerns were unfounded. The film, which admittedly stumbles in the home stretch and just misses out on something like greatness, is nonetheless a visual and metaphysical delight. Come hungry, come searching, come lonely. [read more]

Dear Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, I think we should break up. It’s not you, it’s me. I admitted when we first met that I’d never read Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel on which you’re based, but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying similar films I was ill equipped to see. I think you’re great. Seriously. You did everything right. But I’ve been told by those who adore you that at your core, you’re all about heart and love, and if a film about heart and love left me this cold, how can you be anything other than a failure? At least on some level. At least for me. [read more]