Movie Reviews

‘The Dark Knight’ goes for the throat

The film's images of intensity and violence are indelible.

By Craig Outhier - Freedom News Services

Let me assure you that “The Dark Knight” does, eventually, end. This latest Batman opus, a sequel to “Batman Begins” that brings back most of the principal filmmakers and players, is an exhausting 21/2 hours, almost none of it...

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‘Get Smart’ misses it by that much

Maybe more. The film loses much of the charm of the TV series.

By Timothy Mangan - Freedom News Service

The humor – nay, the wit – of the old “Get Smart” TV series was neatly encapsulated in the closing credits of the show. You remember it. Maxwell Smart, looking as natty as ever, approaches the camera from the phone booth at the...

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The thrill is gone from ‘Sex and the City’

Very little of the single-gal sass from the HBO series finds its way into the overlong film.

By Craig Outhier - Freedom News Services

There are men who would rather hang themselves with a monogrammed Louis Vuitton handbag than watch back episodes of “Sex and the City,” but I'm not one of them. On the contrary, I've always been amused and fascinated by the navel-gazing clotheshorse...

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‘Garcia Girls’ forgot sizzle

The film about the sexual awakening of three women isn't remotely sexy and

By Craig Outhier - Freedom News Services

The answer to the implied question in “How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer” is straightforward enough: The Garcia girls had sex. And some awkward foreplay. Harder to ascertain is how writer-director Georgina Riedel managed to take such...

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‘Prince Caspian’ a superior successor

Brooding ‘Narnia’ sequel has more layers than original.

By Craig Outhier - Freedom News Services

“You might find Narnia a more savage place than you remember,” an ally warns our sibling foursome just after little Lucy (Georgie Henley) isnearly turned into a button-nosed, bucktoothed snack by a hungry bear. More savage? I guess! If it's...

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It should stay in ‘Vegas’

The film is so obnoxiously predictable you can't respect it in the

Oh, if only the cast and crew of “What Happens in Vegas …” had taken the famous slogan literally and, yes, stayed there. The fewer people privy to this slobbering, emotionally incoherent rom-com bender, the better. Then again, what...

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“Redbelt” somehow manages to hit its mark

The mixed martial-arts film is lifted from the expected and ordinary by

By CRAIG OUTHIER

“Redbelt” is a middle-of-the-pack David Mamet movie at best, but in the artistically impoverished ghetto of martial-arts flicks, it's practically “The Godfather.” Combining noir suspense, Hollywood intrigue and his own, practiced...

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“Iron Man” is an ironclad winner

The roaring adaptation of the Marvel comic book starts the summer movie

By CRAIG OUTHIER

Starring the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard, “Iron Man” boasts the kind of rarefied call sheet one would typically associate with an Oscar-customized ensemble drama, not a smash-mouth sci-fi blockbuster...

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