Prometheus (2012)

Prometheus (2012)

[7] Director Ridley Scott returns to the Alien franchise in a movie that attempts to shed light on the mysteries of his original 1979 film. On one hand, I'm not a fan of exposing mysteries that have enraptured Alien fans for several…
Pontypool (2009)

Pontypool (2009)

[7] Director Bruce McDonald does a commendable job building tension and suspense in a movie that takes place almost entirely in one room with four actors. Think Talk Radio meets 28 Days Later. The film is also a terrific showpiece for character…
Magic Mike (2012)

Magic Mike (2012)

[6] The latest film from Steven Soderbergh (Sex Lies and Videotape) is more of a bait and switch than I would have liked. Based loosely on the real life stripping exploits of star Channing Tatum, the film promises the fun and sizzle…
Ted (2012)

Ted (2012)

[7] Mark Wahlberg stars as a man whose childhood Christmas wish came true, giving him a walking, talking teddy bear buddy for life. The film is directed by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, and bares all the pop culture references, flashbacks, and…
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

[7] Christopher Nolan wraps up his Batman reboot trilogy by pitting the vigilante superhero against the villain Bane and introducing Catwoman into the mix. Coming in with low expectations (how could they top the last one?), I was pleasantly surprised by how…
Maniac (1980)

Maniac (1980)

[7] More of a verite, psychological approach to the slasher genre than most of the '80s slasher windfall, William Lustig's Maniac rises above its exploitation roots by putting us inside the killer's mind and keeping us there, even as his sanity starts to…
Xtro (1983)

Xtro (1983)

[4] As far as I could tell, Xtro is about a father who is abducted by aliens, then returned to his family as a strange alien-human hybrid. But I'm not sure. First, there's a weird crabby-looking monster in the woods, then it…
The Dreamers (2003)

The Dreamers (2003)

[7] Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor) takes on the intimate tale of an American student (Michael Pitt) who falls into an intense, unusual relationship with French siblings (Louis Garrel and Eva Green). The sexually-explicit escapades earned the film an NC-17 rating, but…
The Change-Up (2011)

The Change-Up (2011)

[3] I'm all for slummin' it through a naughty romp every now and then, and sex comedies are even a favorite genre of mine. But The Change-Up reeks of pathetic desperation, actually giving dick, fart, piss, and boob jokes a bad name.…
Pandorum (2009)

Pandorum (2009)

[4] Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster star in this sci-fi thriller about astronauts who awaken from hypersleep with total memory loss. The filmmakers are hellbent on keeping everything mysterious to the very end: where are we? who are we? what are we…