Movie review by Greg Carlson WARNING: The following review reveals plot information. Read only if you have seen “Looper.” The best scene in writer-director Rian Johnson’s “Looper” frames the profiles of Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Old Joe (Bruce Willis) in the booth of a small, mostly deserted diner. The two men are one and the […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson A vast improvement over the weak 1995 adaptation by Danny Cannon, “Dredd” better understands the pulp sensibilities of the dystopian nightmare patrolled by Mega-City One Justice Department employee Joseph Dredd (Karl Urban), the grim, perpetually helmeted law officer whose authority as a judge fuels the fanboy power dream of immediate […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson With a mash-up premise that unites buddy movie, family drama, character study, and crime caper, “Robot & Frank” raises stakes higher by placing all of these ingredients inside the sci-fi trappings of its not-too-distant future setting. The movie marks the simultaneous feature narrative debut for former NYU classmates Christopher Ford, […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson A maddening exercise in self-seriousness, “The Words” might find future success in basic screenwriting courses as an example of script structures to be avoided. Of course, that notion assumes the movie will be remembered at all. The film’s story, about a writer creating a story about a writer who steals […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson A violent, pulpy, Prohibition-era slugfest, “Lawless” adapts Matt Bondurant’s historical novel “The Wettest County in the World,” a yarn based on the adventures of the author’s bootlegger grandfather and two great uncles. Loosely interpreting the events of the so-called Great Franklin County Moonshine Conspiracy, the Virginia-set melodrama capitalizes on the […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Lower your expectations and David Koepp’s “Premium Rush” entertains as late summer junior varsity Hitchcock. The increasingly appealing Joseph Gordon-Levitt commits far more than is necessary to his role as daredevil, fixed gear, no brakes courier Wilee, the innocent man caught up in a dangerous cat-and-mouse chase with a crooked […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson An optimistic, opposites-attract bromance polished to the kind of high-gloss sheen perfected by and valued in Hollywood, French box office smash “The Intouchables” defies viewers to resist its charming fantasy exploring the relationship between a fabulously wealthy white quadriplegic and the streetwise black immigrant hired to provide around-the-clock personal care. […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Judging by the vibe of the “Skyfall” trailer that ran before “The Bourne Legacy,” Mr. Bourne has made a lasting impression on the architects of Her Majesty’s Secret Service. There were plenty of political-espionage-action movie junkies who made the claim that the Bourne series upped the ante for the long-lived […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Memorable and stirring, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” snaked through the Sundance Institute screenwriting, producing, and directing labs on its way to some of the best reviews of the year and the Camera d’Or at Cannes. Overwhelming critical support, however, has not prevented several pointed jabs at filmmaker Benh Zeitlin’s […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson A lushly photographed and finely acted adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s 1987 novel, Anh Hung Tran’s “Norwegian Wood” labors to balance its central poles exploring sexuality and death. Embracing the most melodramatic aspects of a story tracing the late teens and early twenties of Tokyo student Toru Watanabe (Ken’ichi Matsuyama), Tran’s […]