Movie Mom
Reviews by Appropriate Audience
You might expect a movie about strippers to be either a glossy Hollywood fantasy or a gritty, sour, documentary. The surprise of "Magic Mike" is that it avoids both extremes with an appealing nat...
Yes, it's dumb and yes, it's a 15-minute skit stretched out to 80 minutes, but I have to admit it -- it is very funny.
MTV's Jamie Kennedy plays Brad Gluckman, son of a wealthy man (Ryan O'...
It's a little ironic that a movie about the importance of being different is so derivative of other ethnic comedies, such a sitcom-ish would-be "Son of My Big Fat Greek Wedding Only This Time About...
As generic as its title, this drearily predictable and tushie-obsessed buddy cop movie has just one distinction -- it wastes more talent in less time than we get to see very often outside of straig...
This is a dumb guy with nothing to lose explosion movie, which is forgiveable, but it is a pretentious, manipulative, and incompetent dumb explosion movie, which is not.
Vin Diesel plays a ...
Two of today's most talented and charismatic screen performers are lost in an over-big, over-loud, over-heated, over-long, over-everything mess of a story about this year's most popular movie theme...
The Coen brothers ("Fargo," "Raising Arizona," "O Brother Where Art Thou") are known for flamboyant, even grotesque, images and outlandish dialogue. They also have a deep appreciation for film his...
This sleek and supple thriller features powerhouse performances but never quite persuades us that it has anything to add to the cold war classic starring Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury.
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This documentary-style film about teenagers in a mental hospital has enough sincerity to make up for whatever it lacks in professionalism or originality. It is well worth watching with the teenage...
Bodices may not be ripped, but they are certainly loosened in this very liberal adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. This is not your mother's "Mansfield Park." Fans of the book are warned early on t...
Screenwriter Paul Rudnick (Adams Family Values, In and Out) had an idea that could have made a funny seven-minute "Saturday Night Live" sketch -- a culture clash between a pampered Jewish socialite...
Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat is a personal, autobiographical stand-up act from Martin Lawrence that should please his fans.
Runteldat is a live comedy concert that opens with reels of newsm...
This first movie based on Patrick O'Brien's hugely popular 20-volume series of books about a ship's captain during the Napoleonic Wars falls into the Harry Potter category: the intensely detailed b...
Director Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Thelma and Louise, Blade Runner) has assembled the ingredients in this movie like a perfectly iced martini that is stirred, not shaken. The result is dry but refr...
In "A Star is Born," Kris Kristofferson sings a song that begins, "Are you a figment of my imagination or am I a figment of yours?" This is the theme of "Matrix," heavy on special effects, striking...
And the answer is -- Yes! This is the movie the fans of the original "Matrix" were hoping it would be. This movie has electrifying fight scenes, an audaciously dystopic vision, zillions of explos...
Please someone, get me the blue pill. I want to forget that this ambitious and noteworthy series is ending so weakly.
The Matrix: Reloaded ended with the rebel forces of Zion preparing for ...
Already this film is being compared to Brian De Palma’s Carrie, which shares a strange, female, misfit protagonist’s decent into madness, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. However, May is more...
Rachel Griffiths (Oscar nominee for Hilary & Jackie) plays Pamela Drury, a harried 30-something magazine writer who wonders if she made a mistake, 13 years earlier, when she turned down a marri...
When Sam (Rory Culkin) is beat up by a school bully, his older brother Rocky (Trevor Morgan) and his friend Marty (Scott Mechlowicz) plot revenge. They will invite the bully (Josh Peck as George) ...
Author Judith Viorst once wrote about a little girl who looked over at another child and reported on her assessment. "Her dress is very pretty," she said, "but mine is very prettier."
She ...
I am not a huge fan of comedies of excruciation, that genre of movies that draw much of their humor from some poor idiot's painful and humiliating loss of control. But I can appreciate the way tha...
There is a sub-category of comedy that can only be termed "comedies of excruciation," in which we laugh at the hideously humiliating experiences of some poor sap. If this is your kind of humor, th...
Woody Allen's latest movie has a great premise. But while it is surer and more intriguing than the arid Anything Else and Hollywood Ending, it still fails to give us characters who connect in auth...
Movies can show us visions of other worlds, exotic vistas, customs, fashions, rules. And they can show us visions of ourselves, with our longings, our fears, our dreams, the and the way love can i...
"More of this is true than you would believe," "The Men Who Stare at Goats" cheekily informs us as it opens. And while its tone is high satire, even farce, the story it tells is not hard to believ...
Two of the biggest stars in Hollywood took pay cuts to appear in what is essentially a quirky independent movie -- with two of the biggrest stars in Hollywood. Even though Brad Pitt and Julia Robe...
Michael Clayton (George Clooney) spends a lot of time facing into the dark midnight of the soul, his own and others'.
Late one night and early the next morning, he does both at once as he g...
Basic Movie Plot #2 is the fish out of water, and that is because it works so well. Whether we're talking about a mermaid coming to Manhattan, a guy from the Australian outback coming to Manhattan,...
The scorchingly funny guys behind "Spinal Tap," "Waiting for Guffman" and "Best in Show" have produced a kinder, gentler film that is still very, very funny.
Once again, this is a "mockumen...
"My name is Harvey Milk and I want to recruit you!"
This disarming introduction became the trademark of the man who would become the first out gay man to hold major elective office in the United ...
“Million Dollar Baby” is a strong contender, but it suffers a TKO in the last round.
At first, it is a fresh, assured, and evocative take on the classic boxing formula. A tired old tra...
Someday, I'd like to see a thriller in which there are no "fooled you!" fakeouts, no one that the audience thinks is dead turns out to be still alive, the characters are allowed to have actual pers...
It is fifty years from now, in Washington, D.C., where familiar landmarks like the Washington Monument are surrounded by vertical highways and where computers in The Gap not only recognize you when...
Sandra Bullock the producer found a pretty good vehicle for Sandra Bullock the actress in this variation on the classic Hollywood "makeover movie." As in predecessors from "Cinderella" to "My Fair...
"The Missing" is a disappointment, relentlessly politically correct and even more relentlessly bleak and brutal.
Cate Blanchett plays Maggie, one of those indomitable frontier women who can...
In "Mona Lisa Smile," a vibrant and independent-minded teacher shows her students a paint-by-numbers kit for a Van Gogh picture to demonstrate the difference between art that is insightful and mean...
The new movie from the people behind "James and the Giant Peach" and "A Nightmare Before Christmas" has some of the same trademark visual inventiveness, but this is no children’s story.
"M...
Aileen Wuornos peers into the murky mirror of the gas station bathroom. Somewhere in that lumpy, mottled face, she catches a glimpse of a girl who dreamed of being admired and cared for. We glimp...
"Monster's Ball" is the derisive term the prison guards use for the gruesome ceremonies the night before a death row prisoner is to be executed. In the movie of that name, Hank (Billy Bob Thornton...
Jane Fonda is having such a blast being back on screen in a pull-out-all-the-stops performance that it seems a little stingy not to enjoy it more. But this latest variation on Meet the Parents and...
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Posted on Thursday May 31, 2012
Rodrigo García, who showed great taste, restraint, and sensitivity in telling the intertwined lives of women in "Nine Stories" and "Things You Can Tell Just from Looking At Her" shows less of all ...
I really tried to go with this attempt at a creepy thriller, but found it impossible to be either creeped or thrilled.
Richard Gere stars as John Klein, a star Washington Post political repo...
This is a big overstuffed everything- and the kitchen sink mess of a movie. It is an ambitious, often gorgeous, occasionally brilliant mess. But for all its superficial abundance, there is an es...
Can This Marriage Be Saved? (With apologies to the Ladies' Home Journal)
John's turn: We got married before we really knew each other. Now I wonder whether we'll ever know each other. She...
Bernie Mac doesn't hit this one out of the park, but he manages a solid double in his first starring role, as a retired baseball player who has to get back into shape and suit up for three more hit...
I have to give this film credit for embracing its craziness. This is one movie that proudly raises its freak flag high and lets it wave. But that does not mean it works.
Mr. Brooks (Kevin...
I may be too old for Adam Sandler movies, but it seems to me that he’s getting too old for them, too.
Sandler really brings out my "Mom" side – I want to tell him to stand up straight, s...
If you like movies that make sense, don't go anywhere near "Mulholland Drive." If you like to come out of the theater saying, "Oh, I get it -- he was just pretending to shoot the other guy!" this ...
This is a cleverly updated version of a 1930's movie staple -- a genial small-town comedy with eccentric but endearing characters and a leading man who is not what he pretends to be. Loren Dean pla...
In 1924 there was a murder was so shocking that it was called the crime of the century. What was chilling was the motive -- not money or passion but a cool arrogance that led two wealthy young men...
You know those thousands of heartwarming, triumph of the human spirit, disease-of-the-week movies? With heroes and heroines who suffer through every possible medical catastrophe and become better ...
Those out there who are still hoping for Lloyd Dobler to stand outside their window holding up a boombox playing "In Your Eyes" may be glad to hear that a movie that tries to be Say Anything, Part ...
In "My Boss's Daughter," Tom (Ashton Kutcher) and Lisa (Tara Reid) bond over hating the same movie. I predict that everyone unfortunate enough to see this atrocity will similarly bond over the exp...
A young wife and mother finds out she has two months to live. She makes a list of the things she wants to do before she dies, like recording birthday greetings for her two daughters for each year ...
The coming attraction makes it clear that "Mystery, Alaska" is your basic "Rocky" movie about a grown-up version of the Mighty Ducks -- a team from a small, hockey-worshipping Alaska town gets a ch...
"Looks like damaged goods to me," says a character at the beginning of this movie, and that could refer to everyone we will meet in a story that explores the impact of an unbearable tragedy on two ...
Do You Believe in Miracles? Take some time this week to help someone else. Surprise someone with ...
10 Exercises to Stay Spiritually Fit Get spiritually fit with our 10 tips!
20 Scriptures That Bring Hope to Any Situation Need a lift? Here are 20 scriptures to make you feel better in any ...
5 Ways to Revive Your Dream! Rekindle your joy! Re-ignite your passion. Achieve your wildest ...
7 Ways to Plant Seeds of Greatness in Your Life Visit ways to plant seeds of greatness into your life. ...
20 Powerful Declarations to Fight Discouragement Speak life into your day with these 20 declarations!
5 Ways to Stay Healthy This Summer Here are five ways to remain healthy and happy during the summer!
5 Tips for Better Sleep Top sleep expert Dr. David Volpi, Founder of Eos Sleep Center has put ...
7 Top Health Issues Facing Today’s Women Here are seven top health-related issues facing today’s women and ...
Celebrities Who Won't Back Down Here are five courageous women who won’t back down when their health ...
Words of Wisdom from Dr Joyce Brothers Dr. Joyce Brothers passed away May 13, 2013 at her Fort Lee, New ...
A Conversation with Minnesota Wild Center Matt Cullen With the NHL Playoffs in full swing, Minnesota Wild center Matt ...
Yes, Gratitude Works! Having an attitude of thankfulness brings incredible, unexpected ...
10 Ways to To Handle Life Changes With Courage Here are 10 tips to help you handle the twists and turns on the road ...
The Fruits of Desire Fruits are the ultimate fast food: sweet, healthy and conveniently ...
Nurturing a Healthy Marriage For many couples, years of marriage can sadly lead them to a negative ...
10 Ways to Get Over a Hurtful Past Has someone hurt you? Use these tips to move forward.
Ten Things Every Dad Should Tell His Son Being a father has never been more difficult. It's is a tough world ...
