One of the great French films you will ever see. Polisse (French, in English subtitles) is a natural verité drama on the Child Protection Unit within the police department of France that’s streetwise, that’s instructive, that’s illuminating as a social climate record. I supposed I’ve grown tired of police dramas that push upon fake back-story [...]

Historical piece for adults that is a naughty charmer. Hysteria is based on the true story (really!) of the accidental invention of the vibrator in 1880’s London. The dreamy handsome M.D. is played by Hugh Dancy (“Martha Marcy May Marlene,” “Ella Enchanted”), who works as apprentice to [...]

Even to my surprise, I am willing to give this an endorsement. Battleship is stupid-fun in the tradition, of say, “Starship Troopers.” The alien invaders are given more strategic creativity and advanced arsenal than we see in most blow ’em up sci-fi / action pics. The aliens, who are unmasked [...]

Crude and raunchy, but it’s not as sharply satiric as it could be. If The Dictator, however, is the most unfulfilling movie we ever get from Sacha Baron Cohen, then I shall have lived a good life [...]

Maïwenn (actress of “The Fifth Element” and “High Tension”) is the director, co-writer and co-star of the new French import Polisse, opening on May 18th in Los Angeles and New York, then to other market roll-outs in the following weeks. With her film, you get something like two dozen dramatized case studies. The pile up of incidents happen randomly and concurrently for the Child Protection Unit [...]

Big Fish (2003, 125 Minutes, PG-13) is the last Tim Burton film that I can honestly say is magical. When I say “magical” to describe a movie, I’m not just talking about the technological gizmos employed to make fantastical elements come to life, I’m talking about the magical spell a good film can put on you to heighten your awareness and tickle you into high spirits [...]

At first, it’s more Wuthering Heights than Addams Family. Dark Shadows is a droll vampire satire based on a TV soap that ran for five years in the 1960’s. The eighth collaboration between director Tim Burton and star Johnny Depp, and they are once again doing the weird ghoulish humor thing. But while the early scenes demonstrate a rhythm and flow, it eventually comes to a sludging [...]

Haggard, and less than enchanting. I Wish (Japanese with English subtitles) is the new film by hit-or-miss director Hirokazu Kore-eda, and this one is in the latter annals. Perhaps fresh students of Japanese culture will be enraptured by this slow-moving but exotic work. But since I’ve seen so many Japanese films in my lifetime, I feel this isn’t one of the better ones [...]

Can only appeal to indie hipsters, and might have trouble even with that. Tonight You’re Mine has a young male and young female literally hand-cuffed to each other for most of the film, at first hating each other, then really digging each other. They are both performing at Scotland’s T in the Park Festival [...]

Meant as tender empathy for teen girls, but as misguided as they come. Girl in Progress is just awful, despite a dedicated and jaunty performance by Eva Mendes (“Hitch”) as single-mom-in-training Grace. Daughter Ansiedad (Cierra Ramirez), barely thirteen, is one of those plucky teens who gets in trouble for being too smart for her own good [...]

Due to his smart aleck improv genius, Robert Downey Jr., as Tony Stark / Iron Man is my all-star pick of the current worldwide box office smash “The Avengers.” In this video, he talks about what ingredients makes the Marvel Comic Book adaptation such a success [...]

While the highly exposed “Avengers” are tearing it up currently at the multiplex, are you in the mood for more unconventional superheroes this season? Sam Raimi’s Darkman (1990) is the rarest comic book style movie in that it was not based on any previous publication – it was an adventure created directly for the screen. Liam Neeson, in his first lead role and strangely one the best performances he has ever given [...]