Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer (Review)
Geniunely goofy film adaptation stays true to its source
0 Comments · Friday, June 10, 2011
Megan McDonald, the writer behind the beloved children’s series of books based on the Judy Moody character, teams up with television screenwriter Kathy Waugh and director John Schultz to bring Judy (Jordana Beatty) to life in this genuinely goofy adaptation that dares to remain faithful to its third-grade-reader roots by not pandering with inappropriate pop-cultural references to lure in teens or adults. Grade: C-plus.
Building a New Metropolis
Local filmmaker explores the challenges facing America’s first suburbs
1 Comment · Wednesday, November 4, 2009
It it perceived that talented and creative people leave our cities and others for bigger and supposedly better environs. But Cincinnati resident and award-winning documentary filmmaker Andrea Torrice claims our city as inspiration.
Several new DVDs beg the question: What makes a movie star?
0 Comments · Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Since I started teaching film feature and review courses as an adjunct two years ago, first at Xavier University and now with the University of Cincinnati
Film: Review: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Romanian abortion drama uses hyper-realism to powerful effect
0 Comments · Wednesday, July 16, 2008
What keeps film alive as a creative artistic medium is the influx of exciting, challenging new movies from countries we never expected to be factors in contemporary cinema. The latest is Romania
Film: Review: The Dark Knight
The latest Batman movie delivers more than a menacing farewell performance
0 Comments · Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Here is the ugly truth nobody at Warner Bros. can possibly utter aloud: The death of Heath Ledger will be good for The Dark Knight's bottom line. Make no mistake, the movie was going to be huge
Film: Review: Hellboy II
Guillermo del Toro delivers an entertaining, surprisingly light sequel
0 Comments · Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy sequel is a simultaneously exhilarating and underwhelming experience due to the idleness of its characters and nebulous subplot elements that contrast against the di
Film: Review: Journey to the Center of the Earth
Jules Verne goes 3-D with fun summer treatment
0 Comments · Wednesday, July 9, 2008
This maiden feature-length digital 3-D movie is a breathtaking adaptation of Jules Verne's classic sci-fi novel, filled with eye-pleasing gags and sudden shocks of surprise that fall under the s
Film: Review: Hancock
Will Smith mines familiar terrain for the summer holiday season
0 Comments · Wednesday, July 2, 2008
There's something genuinely redundant about casting Will Smith as a superhero in a release on the Fourth of July. Much has been made about his supreme box-office domination of America's summer
Film: Review: Wanted
Action film stumbles in an effort to redraw the comic book genre
0 Comments · Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) might seem more than vaguely familiar to both film and comic book fans. Wesley is a societal drone in a world that has never felt genuinely dynamic or three-dimensio
Film: Review: Fugitive Pieces
World War II era drama is too ethereal for its own good
0 Comments · Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Jeremy Podeswa's Fugitive Pieces dives deep from the get-go, immersing itself in the scarring emotional terrain of World War II-era Poland. A young boy, Jakob (Robbie Kay), hides in a secret wal
Film: Review: The Incredible Hulk
New blockbuster is a nostalgic, often noisy look back
0 Comments · Sunday, June 15, 2008
In an effort to perhaps exorcise the sense of failure surrounding Ang Lee's 2003 film version of Hulk -- which did a monster opening weekend then promptly circled the box-office drain -- most of
Film: The Hustler
Local film actor Russell Hurley keeps his dream alive via 'The Vagrant'
0 Comments · Wednesday, June 11, 2008
"Anything that you write bad about this is my fault," Russell Hurley says of his role as producer of The Vagrant. "Even if it didn't look like my fault, it was my fault." There's no need f
Film: Review: Standard Operating Procedure
Errol Morris takes on Abu Ghraib in new documentary
0 Comments · Wednesday, June 4, 2008
When a documentary tackles a subject as important as the prisoner abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib prison, it almost seems gauche to review it on the basis of anything other than just its subject
Film: Review: Kung Fu Panda
Animated film looks great, but its story is hollow
0 Comments · Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Like any child, I was willing to believe in fairies enough to clap and help save the dying Tinker Bell in Peter Pan, and felt touched and empowered when it worked. But I'm older now. I still be
Film: Americans in Cannes
Checking in on the U.S. filmmakers at the world's most prestigious film festival
0 Comments · Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Cannes, France -- Sean Penn has great taste in movies. He championed Russian director Elem Klimov's 1985 Come and See long before most critics had ever even heard of it. So it's fitting that the
