Latest DVD Reviews

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Frost/Nixon (2008)

Entertaining and provocative...a satisfying intellectual bout.
Grease (1978)

Problematic but ultimately irresistible adaptation of Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey's hit Broadway musical.
Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Pollack excels by establishing an interesting situation, sustaining it, and—in keeping with the paranoid-thriller genre—resolving it on a pleasingly ambiguous note.
Wayne's World 2 (1993)

Wayne's World 2 revels in silliness even more than the first movie, but it turns out that's a good thing as compensation for the otherwise repetitive feel.
Wayne's World (1992)

With Myers feeling his oats as a comedy star, Wayne's World turned out to be an irresistibly silly (and masterfully marketed) option for audiences.
Major League (1989)

A meat-and-potatoes '80s movie, that maybe doesn't 'taste great,' but at least is 'less filling.'
Tango & Cash (1989)

A bizarrely appealing movie, Tango & Cash is the essence of camp: it's bad and knows it's bad, so therefore, it's...good?
There's Something About Mary (1998)

Gauche, garish, and gross, a prime example of the coarsening of our culture and of the art of comedy in film. It's also pretty darn funny.
A Bug's Life (1998)

A Bug's Life [is] sure to endure as a superb children's entertainment.
Collateral Damage (2002)

Schwarzenegger's Brewer remarks, 'If I don't do it, it seems no one else will,' but that's a lousy excuse for...a multi-million dollar mistake like this one.
The Wedding Singer (1998)

The tone set by director Frank Coraci tends to the cartoonishly broad while making jokes at the expense of grotesques.
American History X (1998)

If didactic and overwrought at times, it's also powerful and persuasive.
The Sky Crawlers (2009)

The technically proficient The Sky Crawlers is nice to look at and listen to...but by relying on zombified blank-slate characters, Oshii makes a point at the expense of engagement, much less entertainment.
Dexter: The Second Season (2006)

The screws tighten to an almost unbearable tension by season's end, when Dexter must answer the threats posed by Lundy, Doakes, and Lila without hurting anyone he loves—and preferably without losing his life or liberty.
Paycheck (2003)

Playful but inconsequential...the interpretation of Dick's intriguing concept is a street which mostly just dead-ends into noisy silliness.
Big (1988)

One of Hollywood's all-time most appealing magic realist fantasies.
John Q (2002)

Strands good actors in mushy, movie-of-the-week material.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

With fine acting all around, and Fincher's typically meticulous filmmaking engagingly, if coldly, transportive above and beyond Roth's mediocre script, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button bears examining.
Without a Paddle (2004)

They say that still waters run deep. Suffice it to say that the waters of Without a Paddle are raging...a soggy embarrassment for all involved.
Last Chance Harvey (2008)

Sometimes all we really want from a movie is to spend some time with beloved actors.
The Grudge (2004)

The archetypal haunted house story might be more effective as a campfire story which takes ten minutes to tell...as a 90-minute movie, it's a crushing bore.
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

A full-fledged mutant jamboree, but one that blunts thematic and character development in favor of narrative expediency.
The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Too measured to be lively, too skittish to be provocative, too dramatically slack to be more than a ploddingly literal book-on-film.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

A next generation Eddie Haskell, Ferris Bueller redefined "cool" misbehavior for Generation X....Hughes has a knack for memorable set pieces.
The Uninvited (2009)

Unlike the rest of the Class of '09 thus far, The Uninvited marches to an off-beat, and thank goodness for small favors.
X2 (X-Men 2) (2003)

Runs hot and cold, but mostly satisfies with its "upgraded" science-fiction razzle-dazzle.
The Last Kiss (2006)

The Last Kiss isn't afraid of exploding romantic conventions--um, at least not at first.
Frank Miller's Sin City (2005)

Retrograde, sexist, and gleefully sadistic... pitiable and fearful in the language we go to the movies to learn. The old cop line 'There's nothing to see here' hardly applies.
Mean Girls (2004)

Like Heathers with the edges filed down a bit...the kind of smooth, clever (and rare) entertainment that critics and audiences can all enjoy, guilt-free.
Arctic Tale (2007)

Arctic Tale isn't a documentary. They say it right there in the title, see? It's a tale.
In the Realm of the Senses (1976)

Like his characters, Oshima is determined to explore and transgress sexual boundaries, if they even exist, by posing a challenge to conventional morality.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

More of a mess than the pleasant surprise one might have hoped.
Marley & Me (2008)

Even dog skeptics might be surprised how deftly Marley & Me adapts newspaper columnist John Grogan's book...into the equivalent of a kid's movie for adults.
The Wrestler (2008)

Darren Aronofsky’s character study...[has in Mickey Rourke] an actor unusually in sync with a role, indeed what seems to be the role of his career.
The Wages of Fear (1953)

A classic suspense film...also the screen equivalent of a classic existentialist drama...The chemical reaction Clouzot gets from these genres is pure dynamite.
Moonraker (1979)

Primo kids' stuff, but under-satisfying for adults.
The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Though in story The World Is Not Enough is not one of the best Bonds, pound for pound it delivers as much thrilling action as any of them.
Never Say Never Again (1983)

Connery proved plenty fit for one more outing...a likeable but somewhat mediocre adventure handsomely mounted in the traditional Bond style...
8 Mile (2002)

You can't stop him or crop him/He's in widescreen and large/
He ain't playing when he's baggin' Curtis Hanson for Sarge...
Gigi (1958)

Given the shortage of dancing and soaring vocal melodies...Minnelli must lean heavily on personality and a spectacle defined by the pageantry of historic locations, sets and costumes.

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