The Simpsons Movie
...succeeds in getting the audience to pause for a second or two to appreciate what a marvelous, detailed universe Matt Groening and his cohorts have created.
I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry
repeatedly, this is where the movie hangs its hat, on the awkwardness of one guy having to act affectionate towards another – of showing two men in so many redundant, stereotypical marriage sequences.
Sunshine
One bizarre discovery out in the dead of space leads to another, and then another, and this once-serene story suddenly lurches into the realm of a ghost story, and then even that of a monster thriller.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The elements are here for a great film, and while “Order of the Phoenix” is indeed intriguing, watching as the kids resort to training themselves, as the new administrators rush to uncover what’s going on in Hogwarts’ secret rooms, and as the dark storm gathers on the horizon, it’s all for naught in the end. We never seem to get anywhere.
Joshua
For all its familiar pageantry, there is not one cheap scare or thrill to be found in “Joshua,”
Angel-A
What’s at once refreshing and disorienting about the way French director Luc Besson (“The Fifth Element”) – one of the most interesting international visionaries at work today – handles the story is his attempt to de-romanticize one of the most idealistic and sublime formulas around.
Peaceful Warrior
Ten or fifteen years ago, the film might not have worked the way it does in 2006. But today, there is something powerful about the notion that we are becoming further and further removed from our world, working in highly-competitive, isolated bubbles that are separating us from our very soul.
Into Great Silence
It is a surreal existence, and one that director Philip Groning bravely immerses himself in (he was only allowed to film this hidden world by living and working alongside the monks). From the outset, we are flies on the walls of this solitary, silent universe, and the doc’s title is an appropriate one, for silence is hardly the end of these men’s stories, but merely the beginning.
A Mighty Heart
Often resorting to shaky, hand-held cameras and mostly relying on longer takes that are quickly edited together, there is an immediacy to the film that draws us in, despite the fact that we already know their strategies and urgency will, in the end, prove fruitless.
Ratatouille
the most mature Pixar film yet. Giving this animated work a greater sense of depth than we’ve ever seen before, here’s a movie with definite spaces, where the kitchen feels distinctly like a three-dimensional space.
Red Road
a thriller that seems almost custom-made for the digital age, a mystery that manipulates proximity the same way most movies of this ilk rely on butcher knives, mysterious late-night phone calls and bombastic soundtracks.
Sicko
... is about something far more universal and unmistakable. Here, Moore is less trying to point fingers than to draw a picture, throw up his hands, and look us in the eye with one simple question: Does this look as broken to you, as it does to me?
Evan Almighty
Despite the fact the film boasts the considerable writing talents of Steve Oedekerk (the writer behind 2003’s “Bruce Almighty”) and the directing talents of Tom Shadyac (“Ace Ventura,” “Liar Liar”), “Evan Almighty” is not nearly as funny as you might expect.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
All of these scenes with this interstellar surfer (voiced by Laurence Fishburne) are interesting, as he evolves from a menace to a prisoner, and then a member of the team. But outside of his 15 minutes or so of screen time, it’s painfully clear that “Fantastic Four” has very little for its characters to do.
