The Happening opens in Central Park. Two woman are sitting on a bench reading books. One seems to be notably confused, while the other reacts to a scream heard off in the distance. Everyone in the park suddenly stops walking, and a woman on the bench pulls out a hairpin, and stabs herself in the [...]

Many of the recent American film disasters have been based on video games. While Max Payne may not lower itself to the level of a House of the Dead, there’s still very little to recommend about this sluggish and oftentimes confusing film translation.
An unclear narrative is an immediate turn-off. The rapid-fire story flies by with [...]

Even with a number of things going for it, Invincible feels too familiar. It’s a movie that’s been done to death, with the underdog sports star finally getting his chance to make something of himself. Despite the energy and charisma of Mark Wahlberg, Invincible is little more than an average sports movie.
It’s not that Vince [...]

If you’re going to steal $35 million worth of gold bars, where are you going to sell it? Surely someone will be on the look out for it, good or bad, and completing a transaction of that size is going to gain some attention. That’s not just a problem with the 2003 remake of the [...]

A classic case of misrepresentation, We Own the Night is advertised as an all out brother vs. brother crime war. It’s the furthest thing from it. What you do get is a deeply woven family crime drama, with Joaquin Phoenix taking the show as his own.
Mark Wahlberg stars as Joseph Grusinsky, a NYPD detective assigned [...]

Remakes are exceptionally tricky when the source material is highly regarded. For Planet of the Apes the deep social and general societal issues along with the intriguing look at science made the film the classic it is. Tim Burton’s massively budgeted update only contains brief moments of this brilliance, crafting a decent chase film out [...]