ViewGuide

First class prequels are Hollywood mutants, crisply intelligent rather than trite – obligatory touchstones notwithstanding. X-Men: First Class surpasses that standard, rebooting a tired saga with fresh casting, well grounded plot devices and an engaging mix of resonant themes.

Marvel achiev…

A cheated wife gets her revenge in The Other Woman by stealing the movie from “the other woman”. That would be Leslie Mann stealing from Cameron Diaz, the big star and a natural as the other woman. Mann is hilarious as a kookie wife who gets not just the last laugh, but most every other one a…

The Lone Ranger is Tonto’s movie. Good thing, since Tonto is played by Johnny Depp. Everybody knows this, just as everybody knows Johnny Depp is mighty white. Ironically, only in P.C. Hollywood would it be politically acceptable for a white guy to play an iconic Indian character in a 21st ce…

Hollywood must be licking its chops to remake this Swedish hit. Chockablock with career-making roles, combining fashionable anti-capitalist politics with feminist blood-lust, and striking a crisply efficient thriller tone, it suffers only from a poor title, not that that matters given how huge t…

Cravenly exploitative and sporting a bad title, The Eagle mostly lays an egg. While it’s kinda worth watching for hard-bitten war movie guys, slumming history buffs should steer clear. As one of those stories that starts where the legend leaves off, the history is tripe. Fortunately the prod…