Born to Be Wild is a terrific but all-too-short IMAX experience. At first glance, the idea of paying almost twice the cash for an IMAX movie seems ill-advised.  What could the experience possibly provide that a traditional digital screen could not?  Spend an afternoon in one of them, and you’ll...

We Bought a Zoo is an old-fashioned family film that’s just deep enough to keep the adults engaged, so long as you’re not keeping a scorecard. At first glance, We Bought a Zoo might seem like a kid’s film that’s more dessert than entree.  But peel back its layers and you find...

Does the Blu-ray release of War Horse match the Oscar nominations and critical acclaim it received?  “Some days are best forgotten; today ain’t one of them.”   War Horse represents a curious entry among the nine films nominated for Best Picture in the 2012 Oscar season.  While dripping...

Does Mission Impossible IV: Ghost Protocol return Cruise to Top Gun status, or do further damage to his once legendary reputation? For many people, a singular decision sends them down a path that determines the rest of their lives.  For Tom Cruise, that decision came in the form of a couch, and...

The Descendants is a well-made, touching, and sometimes funny look at the worst kind of death. Death is uncompromising.  When it’s your time, you better have your affairs in order.  To those who know about the slow descent to death, either through witnessing a family member or friend deal with...

A feature-laden box set celebrates one of the greatest trilogies ever released. The Bourne Trilogy is a series that defies conventional wisdom. Call it The Hollywood Law of Diminishing Returns, but the theory suggests that the first film in a series is always its best, with each successive release being...

The Muppets’ release to Blu-ray comes ready to play the music and light the lights! I love the Muppets. From my earliest memories of Sesame Street, to The Muppet Show and Muppets Tonight, these insanely funny little puppets have been making me laugh for the better part of my life. I think it’s...

Does the Blu-ray release do J. Edgar justice, or relegate it bargain-bin status? As a student (and teacher) of history, I had high hopes for J. Edgar, the Clint Eastwood biopic that promised to tell a full story about the enigmatic leader of the FBI.  So much of Hoover’s life is wrapped in mystery:...

Does In Time hit the mark, or miss the point? What happens when all disease is cured, but your life is literally measured in how many hours or minutes you have left? That’s the idea behind In Time, a futuristic thriller that attempts to send a political message about equity, poverty, and one...

The movie’s excellent, but is the transfer worth the money? For many, the name Alfred Hitchcock is synonymous with films like Psycho, The Birds, and North By Northwest (my personal favorite).  When Notorious is mentioned, reaction is generally somewhere between blank stares and lying about...

Does The Double get too convoluted, crushing under its own weight, or does it rise above the rest of the 24 wanna-be’s? Growing up in the 80′s, I was surrounded with Cold War television.  My father, a WWII vet as tough as anyone you’d ever meet, warned me that “The world...

 Is Bucky Larson destined for cult film status or the $5 bin at Walmart?  The answer might be both.  I like cult films. Whether it’s classics like The Dark Backward or Begotten, cult films represent a genre that is not easy to define. For me, these films underperform and are ridiculed by the press,...

When Fox cancelled Futurama in 2003 after its fourth season, it was seen as typical behavior on the part of the network. Fox, in a seemingly endless effort to make themselves look stupid, decided that the futuristic nerdfest from Matt Groening wasn’t worth its timeslot and killed it. But those of...

 “Another tragedy prevented by gun violence!” The Simpsons are an American institution.  Granted, it’s not Sesame Street or 60 Minutes, but the evidence for their standing is compelling: 23 seasons, featuring over 1,000 guest voices, and a penchant for leaving few races or social issues untouched. ...

There was a time when Jim Carey could not be stopped. From his first television appearances on In Living Color, to his roles in Ace Ventura, Liar Liar, The Mask, and Batman Forever, Carey was the encapsulation of an insanely funny man on film. Littered around those gems were duds: Bruce Almighty, The...