A perpetual daydreamer, longing to break free from his mundane life, jumps at an unexpected opportunity in James Thurber‘s classic tale The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is your typical geeky introvert. He goes through each day wondering what life would be like if only he could escape the chains of […]
Two retired boxing adversaries get one last chance to settle a decades-old grievance in Grudge Match. Thirty years ago, two boxers — Henry “Razor” Sharp (Sylvester Stallone) and Billy “The Kid” McDonnen (Robert De Niro) — faced each other in two monumental matches with each winning one bout. On the eve of the culminating third event, Razor […]
A confined cat, desperate to explore his tantalizing surroundings, is waylaid by a perpetual loser in Inside Llewyn Davis. Okay, so that’s not the intended synopsis of the latest Coen Brothers film, but it likely would have made a more entertaining tale than the one they actually produced. This period piece from 1961 features a […]
Iconic studio head Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) needs all the magic he can muster to win the screen rights to Mary Poppins in Saving Mr. Banks. The classic tale of the magical title character comes from a series of best-selling stories by English author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson). Mrs. Travers (as she insisted on being called) […]
A elderly woman and a stodgy former government adviser join forces to track down the son she gave up for adoption years before in Philomena. In the 1950s, a young woman in Ireland let herself experience a moment of carnal joy, only to find herself pregnant, alone and ostracized. Social tenets of the day drove Philomena Lee (Judi […]
Hans Christian Andersen‘s classic tale The Snow Queen is reimagined in Frozen, Disney‘s latest animated feature. In the kingdom of Arendelle, there are two young girls — Princess Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel) and her younger sister, Princess Anna (Kristen Bell). Elsa’s a precocious young girl with a very special secret — she can transform anything into ice and snow. As […]
It’s tough for a filmmaker to get a reaction from people when there’s not a lot going on up on the screen. For some people, deadpan and wistful might translate to unfunny and boring. Nebraska is one of those movies that will divide people into two camps — those who get what it’s all about and those […]
An aging father and his newly concerned son reconnect during an impromptu road trip in Nebraska. Director Alexander Payne has been at the helm of three films I absolutely loved: The Descendents, Sideways and Election. He also headed About Schmidt — a solidly regarded Jack Nicholson film that I barely managed to stay awake through. All […]
Four lifelong friends come together for a bachelor party bash and a chance to cure lingering wounds in Last Vegas. Billy (Michael Douglas), Paddy (Robert De Niro), Archie (Morgan Freeman) and Sam (Kevin Kline) spent their childhood as inseparable friends. They knew how to have a great time. The streets of Brooklyn stood in for […]
An awkward, socially inept 21-year-old finds out that every man in his family has an incredible special ability and sets out to make the most of it in About Time. Here we meet Tim (Domhnall Gleeson aka Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter films) who, upon turning 21, is told by his father (Bill Nighy) the extraordinary […]
A crass old man in his mid-80s travels the countryside with his young grandson in tow, tormenting and shocking everyone they meet in the new hidden-camera reality movie Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) is the quintessential dirty old man. He’s sleazy, horny, crude, rude and, as it turns out, screwed. His drug-addicted […]
A New Jersey lothario finds that his real-life sexual encounters pale in comparison to his porn fantasies and looks to effect a change in Don Jon. Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a character who could have been taken right off the set of Jersey Shore. He’s all about presentation. He works out incessantly, hangs out […]