This is brain-dead cinema, where the fast and loose science is just sort of there in an attempt to stop people from thinking too long.

… without David Koechner playing the annoying neighbor Nathan, Extract would be completely devoid of humor.

State of Play’s lead character is Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe), a scruffy-looking reporter for the Washington Globe. He has shared a longtime with Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), a politician fighting back against a growing military contractor. Their relationship is key to the story, and is not necessarily complex, but deeply valuable the plot. Their [...]

Waiting a while to push out another Tom Clancy/Jack Ryan escapade after Clear and Present Danger led to a few problems. The jolt of a mis-cast Ben Affleck is problem one; continuity is unexplained even though this was the first book in the series makes for number two; and an awful payoff for the story [...]

He’s Just Not That Into You is a romantic comedy. It seems as if this one is going to be different, dealing with interconnected people in various relationships at various levels. It seems like this won’t end where you think it will, as if the genre may finally be getting a boost. Then you realize [...]

When audiences had their first glimpse of the Ben Affleck starring Daredevil back in 2003, reception was less than stellar. That reaction led to a director’s cut that supposedly fixed the criticisms of the shorter release. Whether it’s any better as a film is still up for debate. Key to the films problem is Ben [...]

To hate most of Pearl Harbor is natural. It’s not that the viewer becomes impatient waiting for the attack, it’s that the build-up to get there is simply a dreadful exercise in Hollywood schlock. There’s little doubt that Randall Wallace’s script is attempting to pull a Titanic, but at the least, James Cameron’s mega-budgeted disaster [...]