Movie review by Greg Carlson A major improvement over the disappointing “Cars,” Pixar’s “Ratatouille” is a delightful movie buoyed by top-flight animation, gorgeous design, and confident storytelling.  Despite the obvious challenges of marketing a movie dealing with a rat who yearns to be a gourmet chef, “Ratatouille” will please even the most demanding animation fans […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Ken Loach’s “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” continues the director’s tradition of naturalistic depictions of societal and political struggle pitting the marginalized against the powerful.  A gripping indictment of unwanted military occupation and the costs of armed conflict, […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” already ringing up massive receipts due in no small measure to its kid-friendly PG rating, is catastrophically poor.  The best children’s movies contain content that appeals to grown-ups, a notion utterly ignored by the moviemakers in this case.  From dismally one-note characterizations to […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson That unluckiest of numbers adorning the title to Steven Soderbergh’s third “Ocean” caper serves as a harbinger of the events contained within.  Weak, dull, and very often insulting, “Ocean’s Thirteen” never misses an opportunity to remind viewers that they will never possess the charm, wealth, and luck necessary to frolic […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Superior in nearly every way to previous outing “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” Judd Apatow’s “Knocked Up” is the rare comedy that gets to have its cake and eat it too.  Appealing to both stoners/slackers in search of a devilishly crude set of bawdy jokes and the audience seeking the liquid center […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Following the messy, incoherent, and bloated second installment of the wildly popular Disney franchise, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” manages to be just as messy, incoherent, and bloated as “Dead Man’s Chest.”  Obviously, this will not stop audiences of all ages from attending the movie or attempting to […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson “Away from Her,” based on a short story by Alice Munro, marks a strong directorial debut for performer Sarah Polley, who evidently picked up a thing or two when working for filmmakers like Atom Egoyan.  Egoyan happens to serve as one of the executive producers of “Away from Her,” which […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson “The Ex” could have been a bitingly funny satire of young adult insecurities that occur in the first flush of parenthood, job loss, and relocation. Instead, it is an intermittently funny trifle that largely wastes the formidable talents of its cast in favor of a series of up and down […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson The first major studio release of the 2007 summer blockbuster season, “Spider-Man 3” proves that a movie’s ability to stuff a bank vault has nothing to do with the actual quality of the goods.  Word of mouth is not likely to be kind to Sam Raimi’s third outing with the […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Veteran screenwriter Scott Frank makes a strong feature directorial debut with “The Lookout,” a crime caper/character study unafraid to echo stylish influences including “Fargo” and “Memento.” Frank is best known for having adapted “Get Shorty” and “Out of Sight,” and his background research in a variety of forms of delinquency […]