Drive – 1 1/2 Buckets

There is so much right with Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, but the tone that the director strikes late in the film–and, in turn, the film’s perceived attitude toward violence–essentially renders the great stuff all for naught. I make this assertion… [Read more]

Dirty Girl – 2 1/2 Buckets

For The Daily Trojan: “Abe Sylvia’s debut feature, Dirty Girl, could have easily turned out to be one of the worst films of the year. It is cliché-ridden, both in terms of its characters and its plot, and is as thematically and stylistically…” [Read more]

Higher Ground – 3 Buckets

For The Daily Trojan: “For a decade, Vera Farmiga has blessed audiences with one impeccably conveyed supporting character after another — the police psychiatrist caught between two sides in The Departed, the non-commital…” [Read more]

The Guard – 2 1/2 Buckets

Brendan Gleeson headlines The Guard as the Irish lawman referenced by the title, who is the kind of racist coot with whom you wouldn’t be caught dead associating in public, but deviously cheer on in the dark of a movie theater… [Read more]

Shark Night 3D – 1 Bucket

Late in the second act of Shark Night 3D, after about half of our college-aged protagonists have been chomped to pieces by their aquatic aggressors, there comes the inevitable mention of Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week”… [Read more]

Midnight in Paris – 3 1/2 Buckets

Midnight in Paris has been universally pronounced Woody Allen’s new millennium comeback by critics (who have seemingly forgotten about their beloved Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, perhaps because they were less typical of… [Read more]

Dolphin Tale – 3 Buckets

The defining factor of the most beloved era of children’s films–the 1980s, when E.T., A Christmas Story, The Karate Kid, The Goonies, and more came out within only a few years of one another–is that the films captured the wonder… [Read more]

Warrior – 3 1/2 Buckets

For The Daily Trojan: “Hollywood loves a good sports underdog, and in Warrior, there are two. Filmmaker Gavin O’Connor, who made the stand-up-and-cheer crowd-pleaser Miracle, has struck gold again, this time by turning the…” [Read more]

Kung Fu Panda 2 – 2 1/2 Buckets

At least Kung Fu Panda 2 has a killer third act following its middling first two, rather than the other way around because, this way, viewers won’t leave feeling so disappointed. It’s a convenient benefit of the film’s structure–the battle… [Read more]

The Hangover Part II – 2 Buckets

The Hangover Part II could have been a great comedy had its script offered a single laugh. That sounds like the ultimate way of damning the movie with faint praise, but I’m not trying to be cute here. I can say, without hyperbole, that not… [Read more]

Next Page »