Film.com Movie Reviews
The latest movie reviews from Film.com.

Review: Alice in Wonderland Mostly Works

"Strangely, about the movie you'd expect."

The Jefferson Airplane version of Alice in Wonderland ("White Rabbit") has always been my favorite, and it's the one I turn to again and again when pondering the iconic Alice. Hum along with me now, won't you?

And if you go chasing rabbits
and you know you're going to fall...

Alice in Wonderland is, strangely, about the movie you'd expect based on the talent involved. It's a Tim Burton film, through and through. Johnny Depp acts Mad (as…

Review: Brooklyn's Finest: Not the Finest Cop Drama

"Reminiscent of Fuqua's Oscar-winning Training Day, but not as groundbreaking or good."

It takes the blink of an eye (or one drug-money murder) to figure out that Brooklyn's Finest refers to officers that are far from the finest the New York police force has to offer (or one would hope). Nothing is fine about the film set in the worst area of the worst crime precinct in Brooklyn. Or subtle. Or new.

It begins with a bang. Two men talk in a car at night. One boastfully recounts…

Review: Go Nuts with The Crazies

"The film is tense, exciting, and occasionally very scary."

There isn't a lot for The Crazies to do that hasn't already been done, and not just because it's a remake. (The 1973 original was written and directed by zombie godfather George A. Romero.) As setups go, "a small town is hit by a virus that makes people homicidal" is only slightly less common than "a guy walks into a bar." It's what comes next that makes or breaks it, and The Crazies, directed by Breck Eisner (Sahara),…

Review: Cop Out Is Derivative, Fairly Miserable

"Joyless, pointless, humorless."

Cop Out is probably meant to be an homage. Cheesy synthesizer music, a collection of scenes that have been done a dozen times before, the buddy cop movie boiled down to the bare essentials. But homages are tricky things, aren't they? I mean, I could do a stick figure drawing of Michelangelo's David, but you probably wouldn't line up to take clandestine camera-phone photos of it, would you? The homage is only as good as the work itself, not the…

Review: We Are Pleased to Inform You That The Messenger Is Really Good

"There is great power in examining raw human emotions, especially when it's done so gracefully and honestly."

The first thing we see in The Messenger is a soldier putting drops in his eyes, a war wound having left him with vision trouble. The drops produce tears; it looks like the man is crying -- an irony, given that the rest of the film will have him doing a job where crying is forbidden.

The soldier, Army staff sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster), was hurt in Iraq and sent…

Review: Shutter Island is Scorsese at His Best

"The film is brilliant, an elegantly told tale that generates real suspense."

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and set in the 1950s, this is the story of two federal marshals called in to investigate the disappearance of an inmate from the mysterious island prison Shutter Island. A maximum security prison for the clinically insane, Shutter Island is home to the most dangerous, deluded, and unstable prisoners in the penal system -- tended to by a cadre of doctors working to treat…

Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

"It will hold up with fans of the books."

Christopher Columbus' vision of the first Percy Jackson book seems to miss out slightly on the subtleties the books contain. Part of the magic of the Percy Jackson book series is the retelling of ancient Greek mythology ? gods, monsters, and parables ? within the confines of a modern Western society.

The gods, as in the ancient days, are promiscuous, creating many children with mortals. For reasons unclear, even at the end of the film…

Review: Wolfman Is a Miss

"A drearily self-serious bloodbath that can't decide whether to be faithful to the original or try something new."

Universal Pictures is rightfully proud of its heritage as the Hollywood studio that first popularized horror films. Most of the iconic movie monsters of yesteryear -- Dracula, the Mummy, Frankenstein's monster, the Wolf Man, the Invisible Man -- were Universal properties, and their impact is felt every time you leap in terror at the sudden appearance of a…

Review: Valentine's Day Lacks Cohesion

"The most prominent feature of Valentine's Day is its overall disjointedness."

It was the singer Pink who once said:

This used to be a funhouse. But now it's full of evil clowns.

Sure, she was talking about her own situation, but she might as well have been commenting on the romantic comedy genre as a whole. The comedy angle has been completely lost while the romance factor continues to devolve, against all odds, into an even more tepid and thin product. Into this melee strides…