"My Life in Ruins" is a romantic comedy featuring Nia Vardalos as a tour guide in Greece whose group of tourists gets mixed up in wacky situations. This unappealing farce is one that we have seen before, with stereotyped characters and a secondhand plot. Director Donald [..]
Julie & Julia (2009)
"Julie & Julia" is artsy filmmaking at its best. Producer-director-screenwriter Nora Ephron put together this project that is two movies in one. The story of the famed Julia Child early in her career is told concurrently with the story of a young writer named Julie Powell, [..]
All About Steve (2009)
The worst film of 2009 is without a doubt "All About Steve." This horrible try at a romantic comedy film was produced by Sandra Bullock, who also starred as a shy homely woman awkwardly pursuing a cable news cameraman. Director Phil Traill did not know what [..]
G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
The special military unit called the G. I. Joe Team are called upon to battle an evil organization that is threatening world peace by using an army of nanobots in "G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra." Director Stephen Sommers ("The Mummy" 1999) filled the movie with [..]
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Director Steven Spielberg's second act in the Jurassic Park series certainly hit the mark. "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" is loaded with action sequences, realistic looking dinosaurs terrorizing people, a reasonably good storyline, and more. Four years after the original film, John Hammond loses control of [..]
Jesse Stone: Thin Ice (2009)
Police chief Jesse Stone is busy with two investigations: The shooting of the state homicide captain and a baby kidnapping case. So goes the fifth of nine installments of the made-for-television movies based on the series of novels by Robert B. Parker. [..]
The Informant! (2009)
Matt Damon plays "The Informant!" who blew the whistle on Archer Daniels Midland's price fixing stunts in the early 1990's. The energetic performances by Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, and Melanie Lynskey and the fantastic screenplay by Scott Z. Burns make this movie very watchable, though not [..]
The Waiting City (2009)
Australian cinema has probably reached a new low point in "The Waiting City." Actors Joel Edgerton and Radha Mitchell play an Australian couple who travel to India to adopt a child. After a while, they discover the process takes longer than they expected, drawn out by [..]
Knowing (2009)
A confusing plot, weak storyline, and improbable natural disasters are just a few of the problems with "Knowing," a science fiction film poorly directed by Alex Proyas ("I, Robot" 2004). The story centers on a strange paper filled with numbers that somehow predict disasters that will destroy [..]
Amelia (2009)
"Amelia" is a biopic featuring Hilary Swank playing the famed aviator Amelia Earhart. Director Mira Nair ("Vanity Fair" 2004) took Jack Webb's approach: Just stick to the facts. As a result, the film has an old-fashioned Hollywood "A" production feel to it. The excellent screenplay [..]