reviews

'God Bless America' Review: Dark Satire Curdles into Cranky Rant

May 10, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait’s jeremiad against reality TV feels preachy, ponderous and about five years out of date

  

'Dark Shadows' Review: It's Not Just the Vampire That Sucks in Tim Burton's Retread

May 10, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Johnny Depp’s courtly vampire provides the only laughs in this leaden misfire of the "Dark Shadows" pop-culture reboot

  

Sara Watkins CD Review: Fiddling While 'Sun Midnight Sun' Burns Brilliantly

May 8, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

A Fiona Apple duet and songs by Willie Nelson and Dan Wilson help ex-Nickel Creek member Sara Watkins come up with the year's best Americana album

  

'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' Review: A Sweet and Funny Fantasy for Retirees

May 3, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and an all-star cast of Brits get their groove back in a ramshackle retirement home in India

  

'A Little Bit of Heaven' Review: 107 Minutes of Cutesy, Cancerous Hell

May 3, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Kate Hudson vehicle marries the worst of rom-com whimsy with the deadliest pretty-girl-with-cancer clichés

  

'Smash' Soundtrack Review: Everything's Coming Up Skimpy

May 1, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

The curiously short soundtrack is a sampler that particularly stiffs fans of the Marilyn Monroe-themed show-within-a-show "Smash"

  

George Harrison Review: 'Early Takes' Puts a Gorgeous, Stripped-Down Spin on 'All Things'

May 1, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

The ex-Beatle's demos and early takes from "All Things Must Pass" offer a stripped-down alternative to the Phil Spector treatment they got in 1970

  

'The Avengers' Review: A Satisfying Super-Hero Sandwich

May 1, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

In "The Avengers," director Joss Whedon gets the Marvel Comics super-team the same way that Spielberg and Lucas understood serials in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”

  

Carrie Underwood Review: 'Blown Away' Doesn't Kick Up More Than a Breeze

May 1, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

Although she's in typically expert vocal form, Underwood doesn't offer much sense of a real emotional or musical personality on her scattershot fourth album

  

'The Pirates! Band of Misfits' Review: This Clay Play Goes Overboard But Gets the Booty

April 27, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

The latest Aardman Animations adventure is silly enough for kids and smart enough for their parents, but it gets a bit frantic by the end

 

  

'The Five-Year Engagement' Review: Too Long, But Worth the Commitment

April 26, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Jason Segel and his “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” collaborator score with another hilariously prickly and poignant look at relationships

  

'Safe' Review: Jason Statham Gives This B-Movie Some A-Movie Cred

April 26, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

British action star Jason Statham keeps the adrenaline pumping as he protects a young girl from corrupt cops and Russian and Chinese mobsters in "Safe"

 

  

Jack White CD Review: 'Blunderbuss' Spins Gold Out of Girl Trouble

April 24, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

White's first solo album has a bit of a bad attitude about women, even as his all-female band helps drive the diversified rockers home

  

Carole King Review: 'Legendary Demos' Honors a '60s Recording Career That Never Was

April 24, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

King's album of pre-"Tapestry" classics proves she could've ruled as a singer as well as songwriter in the '60s, too

  

'Chimpanzee' Review: Welcome to the Disneyfied, Sanitized Jungle

April 20, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Stunning photography gets cranked through the happy-ending machine, resulting in a kid-friendly doc that’s neither fish nor fowl

  

'Darling Companion' Review: This Shaggy Dog's a Loveable Mutt

April 19, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Diane Keaton heads an all-star cast that mixes Lawrence Kasdan’s zingy dialogue with his weakness for spoiled Baby Boomers

  

'Think Like a Man' Review: Cast Makes Romantic Infomercial Click

April 19, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

An engaging cast and a steady stream of laughs help mask the familiarity of this rom-com based on Steve Harvey’s dating guide "Think Like a Man"

  

'Lucky One' Review: It's Got Sparks (and a Grown-Up Zac Efron), But No Charm

April 19, 2012 By Leah Rozen 1 year ago

Zac Efron's attempt to transition into adult roles continues to fall flat

  

Jason Mraz CD Review: Severely Laid-Back 'Love' Makes Elevator Music Seem Downbeat

April 17, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

Jason Mraz abandons all attempts at pop-rap playfulness in favor of trying to revive easy-listening as an artform

  

Train CD Review: 'California 37' Derails With Wacked-Out Wordplay

April 17, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

Pat Monahan has gone off the rails since writing 2001's "Drops of Jupiter"

  

'The Cabin in the Woods': See It Before Someone Spoils It

April 12, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Joss Whedon’s "The Cabin in the Woods," a witty and scary take on teenagers on a doomed vacation, is best enjoyed if you go in knowing as little as possible

  

'The Three Stooges': Lots of Yucks Amid the Nyuck-Nyuck-Nyucks

April 12, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

"The Three Stooges," the comedy nobody wanted, turns out to be hilarious. It's the Farrelly Brothers' best since “There’s Something About Mary”

  

Bonnie Raitt Review: For World-Weary Fans, 'Slipstream' Arrives in the Nick of Time

April 10, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

On her first album in seven years, Raitt splits the difference between quiet covers of Dylan's most depressing ballads and reviving that greasy, slide-guitar-fueled, "Thing Called Love" spirit

  

Monica Review: 'New Life' Makes the Ex-'90s Teen Queen Sound Sleepy Before Her Time

April 9, 2012 By Chris Willman 1 year ago

It's admirable that Monica wants to act her age (31) and eschew hip-hop for R&B. But just one up-tempo club banger wouldn't have killed this collection of droopy ballads

  

'Damsels in Distress' Review: Whit Stillman's Latest Has Great Lyrics, But the Music's a Little Off

April 6, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

“Metropolitan” director Whit Stillman returns after a long hiatus and once again charts the mating habits of the contemporary preppy

  

'American Reunion' Review: This Pie Has Become Tasteless

April 5, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

The balance of sweet and smutty that made the original “American Pie” so memorable is sorely absent from this pointless sequel