Alonso Duralde

'The Dictator' Review: Laughs Keep Sacha Baron Cohen's Shaky Regime Afloat

May 15, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Sasha Baron Cohen’s latest is a scattershot mess, but the film delivers enough solid gags to keep audiences from revolting

  

'Where Do We Go Now?' Review: Political Tale Can't Figure Out If It's a Satire

May 11, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Nadine Labaki’s inventive satire of Middle East politics that won Toronto's audience awards makes bold comic statements but collapses when tragedy erupts

  

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Writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait’s jeremiad against reality TV feels preachy, ponderous and about five years out of date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

  

'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

  

'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”

  

'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"

 

  

'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"

  

'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”

  

'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

  

'Goon' Review: Comedy - and Brutality - on the Ice

March 30, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Seann William Scott’s kindhearted hockey brute anchors this hilariously brutal sports comedy

  

'Bully' Review: Best Intentions Don't Always Lead to Best Movies

March 30, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

"Bully," the buzzed-about documentary, says all the right things about the hot-button issue of bullying but doesn’t say them particularly well

  

'Wrath of the Titans' Review: Release the Crappy Sequel!

March 29, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Sure, “Wrath of the Titans” may improve on the awful converted-3D original -- but it's far less compelling than almost anything you can pop into your X-Box these days

  

‘The Deep Blue Sea’ Review: Passion and Torment in a Cold-Water Flat

March 23, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Rachel Weisz mixes sex appeal and melancholy in this examination of an unfaithful wife in post-WWII London

  

'Hunger Games' Review: Compelling But Implausible, Like 'American Idol' with a Body Count

March 20, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Even non-readers of Suzanne Collins’ bestsellers will get sucked into this future dystopia where teens are forced to compete in bloodsport

  

‘Natural Selection’ Review: One Great Performance Can’t Save Trite-and-True(ish) Comedy

March 16, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Rachael Harris blossoms when she hits the highway to find her husband’s long lost son in a movie with too many familiar signposts

  

'21 Jump Street' Review: You Have the Right to Remain Amused

March 15, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Action-comedy starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum treats the forgettable cops-in-high-school show as a launching pad for inspired lunacy

  

'Jeff, Who Lives at Home' Review: Funny ... and Surprisingly Surprising

March 15, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

Comic heavyweights Jason Segel and Ed Helms play brothers in a film that takes one unpredictably fascinating turn after another

  

‘Footnote’ Review: Father & Son Battle Their Wits in Darkly Funny Oscar Nominee

March 9, 2012 By Alonso Duralde 1 year ago

In a wonderfully twisted plot, politics become personal as parent and child vie for the same prize

  
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