» in general
» articles
Movie Reviews
There are 58 articles in the CJscribe database in this category. The display below is ordered by date published. It can also be sorted alphabetically or by star rating.
The Devil Wears Prada 
Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is the bright, just-out-of-college aspiring Serious Journalist of lore -- the kind who's happiest when writing stories about janitors' unions and social injustice. But a thudding lack of response to her job applications.... » read more
The Lake House
You know what they say: Timing is everything. That's true for "The Lake House's" star-crossed lovers, who are two years out of sync with each other -- but it's even more of an issue for the film itself, whose languorous pace kills any sense of.... » read more
An American Haunting 
Slowly draining the life out of a victim may be a popular theme with the "Saw" set, but not when the injured party in question is the storyline. "An American Haunting" utterly stultifies the thrilling Bell Witch legend on which the film is based;.... » read more
Akeelah and the Bee
Eleven-year-old vocabulary prodigy Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer) at first shrugs off her uncanny ability to memorize, comprehend and, most impressively, spell some of the most daunting polysyllabics to take up space in the OED. She doesn't see.... » read more
Kinky Boots
'Pull yourself up by your kinky bootstraps' is the theme of this based-on-a-true-story comedy in which "The Full Monty" meets Frederick's of Hollywood's shoe department. Charlie Price ("King Arthur's" Joel Edgerton) is a wannabe ad exec finally.... » read more
V for Vendetta
Who knew that smirky mask with the silky wig could evoke such power, passion and hope? Who imagined that a demonically grinning Pierrot with a fey taste for high art could reignite the human spirit? Certainly, it couldn't have looked good on.... » read more
Tamara
By now, we all know what you did last summer and have had our ticket punched at our final destination. And nerdy girls have been turning hot and wreaking revenge on their nemeses at least since ZZ Top's heyday. Perhaps the Seventh Art didn't need.... » read more
Nanny McPhee
A fugly Mary Poppins meets "Nanny 911" in this family comedy whose overly familiar elements still go down easily as if with a spoonful of sugar. Adapted from Christianna Brand's 1960s "Nurse Matilda" children's books, "Nanny McPhee" is about a.... » read more
Last Holiday
First off, any movie that has hunky LL Cool J fall in love with the Plain Jane protagonist before her Gorgeous Georgia transformation is already several million points out of 10 ahead of the game with its target audience (women ages.... » read more
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
It can be discombobulating going back and forth between J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" books and their fantastical filmic adaptations. At the 30-minute mark of the fourth movie, "Goblet of Fire," those still caught up in the sixth book might.... » read more
Just Like Heaven
Boy-meets-girl gets a new twist -- specifically, boy-meets-ghost-of-girl -- in this romantic comedy, which stars Mark Ruffalo as David, a young widower wallowing in depression, and Reese Witherspoon as Elizabeth, a workaholic doctor who's hit by.... » read more
Margaret Cho: Assassin
Stand-up comedian Margaret Cho is describing an X-rated gift she received from Jeff Stryker. She starts in on the Jeff Stryker backstory, only to interrupt herself by acknowledging, "If you're here, you know who Jeff Stryker is." That says a lot.... » read more
The Brothers Grimm
It's readily apparent why Terry Gilliam's "Brothers Grimm," filmed in 2003, has been bumped down the release schedule so many times. What's puzzling is why it wasn't shelved altogether, or better still, buried in a mirror-lined coffin, a.... » read more
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
What is this, some kind of freak-out? The answer to that question, posed by an overwhelmed Violet Beauregarde in the 1971 original film, is yes and no. On the one hand, the current version isn't "rated PG for quirky situations" for nothing:.... » read more
War of the Worlds
It's not quite schadenfreude -- delight in someone else's misfortunes -- as it's the closeness to home that's so electrifying. But it isn't exactly masochism, as we do everything in our power to avoid a paper cut, let alone mass tragedy or global.... » read more
Bewitched
Calling Dr. Bombay! This attempt to resuscitate the fun and clever '60s witch-com is flatlining. We need an infusion of Hollywood magic, romantic alchemy and whimsical enchantment, stat! Nicole Kidman as Isabel Bigelow looks the part of a.... » read more
Kicking and Screaming
Those who predicted "Kicking and Screaming" would repeat the "Bad News Bears" formula were overly optimistic. Would that it had followed such a winsome template. Instead, "Kicking and Screaming" is as big a mess as the Tigers, a loser junior.... » read more
The Amityville Horror
The film's opening declaration that it's "Based on a True Story" -- stark, scary font and all -- is shamelessly misleading. Whether the original "Amityville Horror" tale, chronicled in the 1977 Jay Anson novel, was itself a true story is highly.... » read more
Constantine
All Hell is breaking loose. Again. According to all manner of science fiction, the Devil is obsessed with taking over Earth and turning it into a wasteland of desolation and suffering. Only the Satanic scions in "Little Nicky" seemed to get it.... » read more
Bride & Prejudice
Director/co-writer Gurinder Chadha ("Bend It Like Beckham") wants to have her kalakand and eat it too with this Bollywood-style adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." In the Elizabeth Bennet role is Aishwarya Rai as Lalita, a.... » read more
Boogeyman
The trailer looked thrillingly creepy until the title popped up. "Boogeyman," intoned the announcer ominously at the last possible second, respectably keeping a lid on what must have been his dripping contempt. How can anyone be scared of.... » read more
Hide and Seek
"Come out, come out, wherever you are" is the limp catchphrase of this thriller, but it probably sounds much more menacing in the halls of CAA, where Robert De Niro is no doubt trying to flush out the agent who sold him on this astoundingly bad.... » read more
White Noise
Thanks for the movie about people cursed to die after watching mysterious haunted video images, but we liked it better when it was called "Ringu." "White Noise" generates a number of boo! moments -- the hiss-suffixed, vegetable-throwing kind. But.... » read more
Birth
Every psychological drama needs a shocking twist, and the revelation here may just be that director/co-scripter Jonathan Glazer is from Mars. He seems to have no sense of how humans act, communicate, think or feel. And to make Nicole Kidman come.... » read more
The Forgotten
"1-800-MISSING" gets plugged into "The Matrix" in this psychodrama-turned-paranormal thriller, but it plays less like "The Twilight Zone" than a Bizarro World Lifetime Channel Movie of the Week. The film starts off powerfully, despite the fact.... » read more
Spider-Man 2
"Gossip...rumors...panic in the streets...we're lucky," exults ruthless newspaper magnate J. Jonah Jameson (as channeled in all his cigar-chomping glory by J.K. Simmons) when word of New York's latest travails reaches his office. It's a sentiment.... » read more
Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster
You know the "Queer Eye" phenomenon has gone too far when Metallica starts having meaningful discussions about their feelings. The seminal heavy metal band, formed in 1981 by lead singer/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, was on.... » read more
Ju-On: The Grudge
Horror fans will hold a grudge against writer/director Takashi Shimizu for conjuring some of the most frightening wraiths in cinematic history, only to dull their terror with repetition and a convoluted plot. For quite some time we're petrified.... » read more
Before Sunset
Writer/director Richard Linklater takes the concept of real-time seriously. This sequel to 1995's "Before Sunrise" not only documents the protagonists' every exchange, every movement, minute for minute; it also is set nine years later, which is.... » read more
Around The World In 80 Days
If director Frank Coraci wanted to rehash "Rush Hour 2" and "Shanghai Knights," was there any need to drag Jules Verne into it? This adaptation of "Around the World in 80 Days" takes the premise of the 19th-century author's classic novel about.... » read more
The Terminal
Combine "The Secret of My Success" with "Being There" and...who knows what you'd get, but it's bound to be better than this manufactured and cloying comedy/drama about a Chauncey Gardiner-type hero who triumphs despite his own.... » read more
The Stepford Wives
The wives of Stepford do have a secret, as promised by the tagline. Despite trailers and even TV commercials that seem to unfold the entire plot, and a widely-seen original film that's so iconic its title is an archetype, there are a couple of.... » read more
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban
"Something wicked this way comes!" sings a toad-clutching choir of students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's welcome feast. Is it a maniacally snip-happy director they're ominously auguring? Because the scariest thing about this.... » read more
Shrek 2
Television has established that beautiful women can fall for beer-drinking canines, Pepsi-guzzling space aliens, Jim Belushi, etc., setting a precedent that allows the union between a damsel and a swamp creature to go unquestioned. But a female's.... » read more
Envy
Ben Stiller's filmography now officially has its own genre: When Bad Things Happen to Ben Stiller. If you really need to see Ben Stiller accidentally kill his second equine in as many movies and look panicked as things spiral out of control, then.... » read more
Carlos Castaneda: Enigma Of A Sorcerer
The documentary that compels you to ask yourself how many spheres of energy you have in your luminous egg, "Enigma of a Sorcerer" examines the teachings of the late Carlos Castaneda, an author and New Age guru alternately referred to here as a.... » read more
Mean Girls
Uh... didn't I just review this movie? Lindsay Lohan is a sweet, pretty, quirky new girl at school who butts heads with the popular clique, acts uncharacteristically selfish, betrays a true friend, learns lessons, bursts into song and wears cute.... » read more
13 Going On 30
It's the ultimate extreme makeover--a gawky teen transforms into a glamorous fashionista magazine editor overnight--but the result is just another good-looking clone without much individuality or character. "13 Going on 30," aka "'Big' with.... » read more
The Punisher
For fans of vigilante justice, "The Punisher" is a guilty pleasure. A very guilty pleasure. We're talking moral, intellectual and judicial culpability here, folks. Undercover police agent Frank Castle's Last Big Assignment has him decked out.... » read more
Ella Enchanted
Did you love "Ever After" and "Shrek" but wish they'd save you the viewing time and combine into one movie? "Ella Enchanted" takes the post-feminist Cinderella story of the former and peppers it with the anachronistic insouciance of the latter to.... » read more
Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen
Lola ("Freaky Friday's" Lindsay Lohan) is a 16-year-old aspiring actress with Anne of Green Gables' loquacious joie de vivre and Cher Horowitz's wardrobe. Her family's move from glamorous New York to the markedly less cosmopolitan New Jersey.... » read more
Against The Ropes
Meg Ryan's attempts to shake her indelible sweet 'n' light rom-com persona have thus far simply not taken, despite good work from the actress. In "Addicted to Love," heavy eyeliner and a jaded attitude didn't change any perceptions, and even her.... » read more
Kitchen Stories
A group of researchers from Sweden studying "home science," or kitchen habits, in order to improve fixture and appliance designs for maximum efficiency, are assigned houses in a small Norwegian town to monitor all day, every day. They set up a.... » read more
Paycheck
"Minority Report" by way of "MacGyver," "Paycheck" stars Ben Affleck as Michael Jennings, a freelance reverse engineer who rips off existing cutting-edge technology and improves on it for the competition. However, in the not-too-distant future in.... » read more
Timeline
So forgettable one almost needs a time machine to retrieve plot details, "Timeline" takes us back not to any interesting historical event or pivotal development in world culture, but to yet another siege at yet another medieval castle. We're in.... » read more
Gothika
"Logic is overrated," Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) icily declares after a psychotic episode has landed her in the asylum over which she used to preside and a violent ghost has shattered her entire belief system. That's fine as a response to.... » read more
Love Actually
Love is a many-splendored thing, but this film could have done with more of the splendor and not so much of the many. Focusing on a number of couples who are connected incidentally to each other, the London-set "Love Actually" strives for Paul.... » read more
School Of Rock
So you want to rock 'n' roll all night and party every day, but you're still in grade school? Not a problem when your teacher is maniacal musician/comedian Jack Black. Black plays mooching layabout Dewey Finn, a rock god wannabe with more.... » read more
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star
In another variant--if that's not overstating the modulation--of his smirky wise-ass persona, David Spade portrays "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star's" titular has-been who, despite the intervening decades, still clings to his bygone identity as.... » read more
The Order
"The Order will find you," warns the tagline. Not if they're looking in theatres screening this annoyingly boring and nonsensical would-be paranormal thriller, they won't. Not to mention that the members of the referenced Order are on the side of.... » read more
Sort alphabetically or by star rating. | [page 1 of 2] |  |
