Mark Palermo

Only the insanity of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly attempting to conduct themselves as everyday people gives Step Brothers its edge. It’s the funniest Ferrell comedy since Anchorman, but its man-child vs parental authority conflict is really a less-substantial Freddy Got Fingered (Tom Green’s bizarre 2001 film, where, among other things, he drinks from […]

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D is 3D porn. I haven’t seen the 2D version, but I can’t imagine it’s worth much; scenes with yo-yo tricks breaking the second dimension and a money shot of a dinosaur coughing flem on someone’s head would seem awkward if seen in normal projection. Having every possible […]

It took a while, but with Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, summer escapism has finally gotten playful. One key: Both movies have the humility to not surpass two hours. Guillermo del Toro’s second adventure featuring comic artist Mike Mignola’s demon-fighting son of Satan is easy to […]

Writing a review for Hancock demands a commitment the movie itself doesn’t return. Hancock plays with our emotions: It’s alternately one of the best movies of the summer and one of the worst (or, at least, it can get as bland as the ones dedicated to being consistently boring). Start with the concept: Will Smith […]

The nerd-empowerment fantasy Wanted, based loosely on a graphic novel by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, turns a nobody into a trained killer. As nerd fantasies go, this one’s caught up in eighth-grade aggression. The hero never fucks his sex-symbol assassin mentor (Angelina Jolie): Wanted is purely about social vindication by way of guns and […]

It’s easy to see the great movie in WALL-E, but it’s dispiriting how fast it lets it go. Though it hits at a level above less-ambitious summer fare (The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, The Happening), the awareness of the film’s potential hurts it. For the first half hour, it’s at its peak. The basically speechless […]

At risk of sounding like my nana, I am going to state up front that I thought this movie was far too loud. Battle scenes are earsplitting—one sequence actually has mega-decibel sound cannons meant to physically cripple the Hulk. The volume is just shy of making your skin undulate. Does anybody else think this? As […]

Watching Kung Fu Panda on the same day as You Don’t Mess with the Zohan and Son of Rambow, one suspects that Americans must be unfulfilled. All three movies are about people (or bears) who realize they’re living the wrong life, and are misunderstood for pursuing their dreams. This makes the animated Kung Fu Panda‘s […]

Your social place can depend on who your friends are. That insight about childhood makes the unlikely alliance in Son of Rambow plausible. Will (Bill Milner) is a shy kid raised in a household so religious he has to leave the classroom when his teacher shows something on TV. Lee (Will Poulter) is the school […]

Adam Sandler is supposed to be an Israeli immigrant in You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, but really, he’s playing a space alien. A Mossad fighter-turned-hair stylist, Zohan (Sandler) brags about the size of his pube-afro, hacky-sacks a kitten and wows New Yorkers with his flexibility in street fights. It’s hard to find anything profound […]

The hate some critics hold for Sex and the City: The Movie has been interesting. The mainstream press didn’t catch on to what made the HBO series a fraud until near the end of its run. It’s the franchise’s huge popularity that’s now a threat: Viewers hate on movies representing lifestyles alien to their own. […]

Fan anticipation for the new Indiana Jones film is mocked in the first shot of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I can’t claim immunity: The series and character factored so greatly into my childhood fascination with movies that I could barely sleep on the night before this one’s release. When the […]