Hillary Titley

Cameron Diaz’s June is blind-sided by Tom Cruise’s rogue ex-CIA agent, Roy, in an airport terminal. It seems that Cruise has been framed (or is he?) for a major breach in government security, and the two must steal away together to far-flung parts of America and Europe. Cruise plays Roy with the usual overwrought commitment. […]

So many of these movies simply slap a world up on the screen without bothering to invite you in. You waste two hours of your life watching piss-pot characters bark out the arbitrary details of their inane, meaningless struggles, arcs and journeys. So is the case with The Last Airbender, where fire, water, earth and […]

Excluding Punch-Drunk Love, what Adam Sandler movies are you willing to go to the mattresses for? Maybe 1995’s Billy Madison or 1996’s Happy Gilmore? But could those be youthful indiscretions, where Sandler’s goofball-pursuing-his-pleasure shtick felt more like thrilling wish fulfillment than an affront to mature sensibility? In Grown Ups, even Sandler has given in to […]

Still wanted by the government, surviving as soldiers of fortune, The A-Team is updated, recast and reimagined with a sense of glee and a taste for the ridiculous. I don’t know about you, but when a band of men on a mission attempts to fly a tank as a last resort, I swoon for their […]

In this update of the 1984 original, young Dre (Jayden Smith) and his mother (Taraji P. Henson) start a new life in Bejing, China, where Dre rubs the local bullies the wrong way and falls under the tutelage of maintenance man/kung-fu master Mr. Han (Jackie Chan.) Jayden Smith’s father is Will Smith (who also produced […]

Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) is sent to London to fetch rock god Aldus Snow (Russell Brand) for an LA concert. The film can’t be praised as a completely funny movie because it is more like a collection of funny ideas, however the film’s one deep pleasure is Brand’s Snow and the filmmakers know how to […]

The Sex and the City franchise’s pop-cultural touchstone status has turned once reasonable and articulate film critics into braying, hysterical gasbags. Are screechingly hostile reviews like that of The Stranger’s Lindy West or the Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert necessary? Why not calm down and write up the movie as it is: a terrible romantic comedy […]

“Splice very self-consciously owes a debt to many films,” says director Vincenzo Natali of his movie, which opens this week. Splice stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as rebel geneticists, specializing in combining various animal DNAs to create new life-forms in the name of science and medical technology. Eventually their curiosity gets the better of […]

Li Chixin (Chi Cao) is plucked at age 11 from his rural Chinese village and sent to Madame Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy, eventually winning a scholarship to train at the Huston Ballet Company. Invigorated by the plentiful freedoms of America, Li decides to stay and has his Chinese citizenship revoked as a result, separating him […]

Ridley Scott’s austere take on the legend of the Sherwood Forest prince of thieves has movie-goers recalling their feelings toward other notable adaptations of that man in tights. Versions of Robin Hood have ranged from grinning silliness (Mel Brooks’ spoof and the 1973 Disney animated romp) to sincere adventure (Errol Flynn’s classic 1930s portrayal, Sean […]

In Verona, Italy, Shakespeare’s Juliet is a kind-of Ann Landers for the romantically confused and brokenhearted, and Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), on vacation with her chef boyfriend (Gael Garcia Bernal) replies to an ancient letter, imploring Juliet for advice. The author, Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), travels to Sophie —dragging along her prick grandson (Charlie Egan) for Sophie […]