Movie review by Greg Carlson While his films remain an acquired taste for even die-hard cinema buffs, Guy Maddin toils as one of the most original and interesting independent auteur filmmakers working today.  Brewing up feverish melodramas with a visual style reminiscent of silent-era masters like Robert Wiene and Dziga Vertov, Maddin’s stunning filmography is […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson A thoroughly funny David vs. Goliath comedy, “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” delivers a steady supply of laughs both subtle and vulgar. Buoyed by a cast of sensational comedic actors, including Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Rip Torn, Stephen Root, and Gary Cole, “Dodgeball” hits its mark early and often, as […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson A mostly toothless satire of contemporary Christian culture as imagined by the popular media, “Saved!” is an amiable, mostly entertaining teen comedy that scrapes by on the talent of its formidable young cast. Directed by Brian Dannelly from a script he wrote with Michael Urban, “Saved!” wraps its simple sociological […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson To say that “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” is the strongest of the three movies in the series is something like faint praise; translating Potter to the screen has consistently resulted in long-winded, ponderous juggernauts that try way too hard to please fans of the novels by cramming […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson “The Day After Tomorrow,” a stupendously awful disaster flick in the tradition of “Earthquake” and “The Towering Inferno,” is an absolute howler. Writer-director Roland Emmerich continues to build his dodgy resume (“The Patriot,” “Godzilla,” “Independence Day”) with another computer effects-driven spectacle; the only difference this time is that he weirdly […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson A carefully engineered crowd-pleaser with equal measures of jokes for children and adults, “Shrek 2” improves on the original by expanding its palette to include vivid new characters and different locations for the principal characters to visit.  While the DreamWorks animation department still falls well short of the technical brilliance […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson “Troy,” director Wolfgang Petersen’s spin on the uber-classic Homeric epic “The Iliad,” turns out to be another link in the chain of outstanding sword-and-sandal camp.  More a testament to Brad Pitt’s considerable biceps and rippled six-pack abs than a serious philosophical treatise on war, love, honor, and immortality, “Troy” obediently […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Director Stephen Sommers has already had his way with the Mummy, turning the great Karl Freund’s atmospheric 1932 classic into the noisy and noisome computer-driven action-thriller that starred Brendan Fraser.  With “Van Helsing,” Sommers dumps the Mummy in favor of assembling a package of Universal’s stable of staples: Dracula, Frankenstein’s […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Shrewdly, Saturday Night Live head writer and Weekend Update anchor Tina Fey insisted on adapting Rosalind Wiseman’s non-fiction book “Queen Bees and Wannabes” without a phalanx of more “seasoned” screenwriters to offer their guidance and support via unnecessary rewrites, deletions, and additions.  Scripts by committee often yield disastrous results, and […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson It is too darn bad that “13 Going on 30” didn’t explore the meatier psychological dimensions of making a leap from gawky teenager to older high-fashion hottie in the blink of an eye. Body switching comedies have run the gamut from graceless (“Like Father, Like Son”) to great (“Big”), but […]