Michael Winterbottom hit it big with “24 Hour Party People”, a frenetic look at the Manchester music scene. Sex, drugs, and rock & roll were at its heart, though not necessarily in that order. “9 Songs” strips those same themes…

It may not be a great movie, but you can’t say there isn’t some variety in it. With “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” you get a light, tongue-in-cheek romantic comedy, an exaggerated, heavy-handed screwball comedy, and an all-out action adventure. Moreover,…

First, a word of explanation. “The Polar Express” is one of those computer animations that try to look as photorealistic as possible in their representations of the actual world. As a result, the humans appear almost but not quite true,…

Surely, you joust. Knights rocking out? You have to admire artists who take risks. In just his second directorial outing, Brian Helgeland took one whale of a chance by opting to infuse a period piece set in the 14th century…

For years after I first saw Disney’s “Cinderella” (1950) and “Sleeping Beauty” (1959) back in my childhood, I kept getting them mixed up. They were both about beautiful princesses and handsome princes and fairy-tale castles, and it wasn’t until I…

Everybody starts somewhere. “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood” marked the big-screen debut in 1996 of the Wayans brothers, along with their sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews, and grandmammas. The movie stars Shawn…

Just as “M*A*S*H” survived quite nicely following the exodus of Wayne Rogers, McLean Stevenson, and Larry Linville, “Cheers” did just fine after Shelley Long left the popular sitcom. In fact, it was probably time for a change. After five years…

“The Outsiders,” book and movie, is one of the most remarkable success stories in the history of literature. In 1965 Susan Hinton, a high school student in Tulsa, Oklahoma, wrote a short story that she would publish two years later…

“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour–his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear…is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle–victorious.” So goes the preface…

This is a good example of a filmmaker having his heart set so firmly in the right place, he couldn’t see beyond it. One cannot dispute that writer and director Charles Burnett’s 1994 movie “The Glass Shield” is well meaning,…