Patrick Wilson

[1] Roland Emmerich must be stopped. Since 1996’s Independence Day, the director has been obsessed with apocalyptic disaster movies like Godzilla, 10,000 BC, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012 — each one exponentially dumber than the preceding. When I heard he was directing a movie about the moon falling to Earth, I though, ‘Well, of course he is.’ I knew to expect mass destruction and …

[4] I thought the first Conjuring movie was moderately entertaining (for a warmed-up rehash of horror cliches), and was hoping for an improvement the second time around. The sequel could have entertained me by being more about Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), the paranormal investigators who can’t stop helping haunted families even when their aid poses psychic threats to their own lives. …

[5] A womanizer (Patrick Wilson in the title role) loses his testicles right before being slapped with a paternity suit in this soft comedy. Seeing his situation as his last chance at fatherhood, Barry gets to know his baby mama and alleged wackiness ensues. When serendipity plays such a big part in an otherwise character-driven movie, it can be a tough pill to swallow. I …

[8] A 14-year-old goes home with a guy in his 30s. What follows is a nightmarish power struggle. Hard Candy is an intense character-driven thriller that succeeds primarily for the incredible performances of Patrick Wilson (Watchmen) and Ellen Page (Juno). The screenplay dives into murky moral waters, asking us to empathize with a young girl who inflicts torture and a grown man who may or …

[4] Samuel L. Jackson stars as an ex-cop trying to raise two small children on his own. But when Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington move in next door, Jackson’s character has a problem living next to an interracial couple. He goes above and beyond to try and intimidate the new neighbors into leaving the neighborhood, until its pretty much all-out war between them. Other than …

[6] The Conjuring, written by twin brothers Chad and Carey Hayes and directed by James Wan (Dead Silence, Saw), is an old-fashioned haunted house story that morphs into one of demonic possession. After some clunky exposition, the first half of the film is a solid tension-filled spook fest. Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston play parents of four young girls who unwittingly move their family into an …