Movie Mom
All reviews by Title
Hillary Swank does not have the chi...
This crass, crude, and overly familiar formula comedy has Vin Deisel as Shane Wolf, an all-business Navy Seal who has to play babysitter for five children in the suburbs. He's all about securing p...
Genre:
MPAA Rating: R
Audience: Adult
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Posted on Thursday April 25, 2013
This thriller, in the claustrophobic mode of "Rear Window", finds Meg (Jodie Foster), a recent divorcee, and her combative daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart), trapped in the secret vault/bomb shelter...
This is the touching story of Whitwell, Tennessee,a small coal mining community (population 1600) outside of Chatanooga. The population is almost entirely white and entirely Christian. When the lo...
This delightful remake of the Hayley Mills classic stars Lindsay Lohan as both Hallie and Annie, twin girls separated at birth, who meet up at summer camp and decide to switch places. Lohan is utte...
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Posted on Monday December 24, 2012
This is the movie equivalent of a juicy beach book, an old-fashioned guilty pleasure chick flick.
The plot is "Sliding Doors" crossed with the fairy tale of the dancing princesses with a touch o...
This is both more and less than a movie. In one sense, it is less a movie than the heartfelt prayer of a gifted film-maker. In another it is a narrow and harrowing perspective on a story that, no m...
If the real-life Robin Williams were a doctor, he would be the real-life Patch Adams, who believes that doctors should treat the patient, not the disease, and that sick, frightened people need to f...
As I watched this movie, I kept thinking of the tagline from "Jaws 4:" "This time it's personal." Mel Gibson plays Benjamin Martin, a veteran of the British army who was a hero during the French a...
Director Greg Mottola ("Superbad," "Adventureland") is an expert at mixing raunch and sweetness. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost ("Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz") are experts at making funny but knowing ...
Some things are so inherently funny they transcend time, language, and culture. Slipping on a banana peel. A cream pie in the face. And now we must add to the list Kevin James in a uniform ridin...
A child challenged to change the world comes up with a plan. He will do three important favors for people who need them. Then, instead of allowing them to pay it back, he will ask each of them to...
Scientists will discover a way to bend the laws of time before anyone remembers that a movie about bending the laws of time has to have some way of handling the problem of determinism versus free w...
Remember when Humphrey Bogart told Ingrid Bergman that "it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world?" Well, this is a s...
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Posted on Thursday May 9, 2013
This off-beat and uneven fairy tale has somethin...
A teenager feels like he doesn't fit in anywhere. It all comes together when he finds out that he has inherited some special powers from the father he last saw when he was seven months old. And he...
Think of it as the "Good News Bears." This sweet, sometimes sugary film is based on a real-life Little League team from Monterrey, Mexico who came to the United States to play in the Little League...
The story takes place in Georgia, at an all-white private boys' boarding school called Blanton, in 1959. Blanton is famous for its boys' choir. The candidates for the prestigious "lead boy" positio...
This sugarplum of a movie is held together with good intenti...
The word "perfect" should not be used anywhere near this disappointing and downright icky would-be romantic comedy, in which a teenage girl creates a fake online boyfriend to cheer up her lonely mo...
It's very hard to make a good book into a good movie, even a good book that seems inherently cinematic, as this one does, with all its swirling winds and crashing waves. But in adapting this book,...
Was Ashley Judd at the hairdresser the day this script came in? She's usually the star of movies like this -- the low-level potboiler with the plucky girl in jeopardy, and Morgan Freeman around so...
It's an engaging idea -- to make a movie about the one sense least able to be evoked by film, the sense of smell. The great triumph of the cinema is the way it unites sound, words, and images to t...
Marjane Satrapi brings her awar...
With near perfect adherence to the original text, director Rebecca Miller has adapted three of the seven short stories from her book “Personal Velocity” for this engaging film about life’s tu...
Oh, the cleverness of storyteller James M. Barrie, who gave us Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, a St. Bernard nanny, Tiger Lily, and the crocodile that ticks because it swallowed a clock! And o...
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Posted on Thursday February 28, 2013
It occured to me as I watched this movie that this was the third time in the last few months that I was watching a large black woman bringing shock and awe to to a bunch of slender, clueless white ...
Even the most paranoid fantasies have to make sense at some level, and this one just doesn't.
The premise is all right. Colin Farrell plays Stu, whose job is Hollywood's favorite indicator...
The Pianist is an emotionally devastating true story of a Jewish pianist in Poland caught up in the horrors of World War II.
Director Roman Polanski, himself a survivor of the Holocaust who l...
One of my favorite Thanksgiving films is this touching story of a young woman, estranged from her family, who invites them to Thanksgiving dinner at her apartment.
I love movies that don't feel lik...
This movie is not very interesting, imaginative, engaging, or exciting, but at least it avoids being too sugary. And it is is truer to the stories and spirit of the original books by A.A. Milne th...
Genre:
MPAA Rating: R
Audience: Adult
Another week, another Apatow movie. Another Apatow movie, another story of lame, pot-smoking slackers up to all kinds of hijinks and discovering the true meaning of friendship.
Sigh.
Comedy is o...
Anyone remember Ted Wass? He starred in Curse of the Pink Panther.
Alan Arkin (Inspector Clouseau) tried to step into the banana-slipping shoes of Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. Robert...
I have seen taxidermy livelier than this moribund mess which further sullies the reputation of the original series of films starring Peter Sellers as well as those of everyone associated with this ...
Celebrate "
Talk Like a Pirate Day" by talking like these delightful rascals!
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Posted on Sunday September 19, 2010
Even in a summer blockbuster, sometimes less is more.
Especially when it comes to the story. They throw in so many plots, so many battles, so many tonal shifts, so many characters, and ul...
This is what big summer blockbuster studio movies are all about -- love, honor, humor, villains evil enough to make it really satisfying when they are beaten and scary enough to keep you wondering ...
Jack is back.
And he is doing what he does best -- stealing the movie from everyone else. Johnny Depp continues Captain Jack Sparrow's conquest of center stage with this fourth in the "Pirates...
The
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Posted on Friday January 11, 2008
The sensationally talented Anna Kendrick finally gets to play the lead in a story about the cutthroat world of a capella competitions. It's "Stomp the Yard" with singing, or "Glee Goes to Col...
The mood is romantic. The couple is parked in a secluded spot overlooking their charming home town. They lean in for a kiss. And then an alien rocket ship lands. I hate it when that happens.
...
lTim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" is less a remake than a re-imagining of the classic staring Charlton Heston. This version has no loincloth and no Statue of Liberty, and no Roddy McDowell, but H...
The players get played in a romantic buddy comedy with one important distinction -- one of those players is the resident of an assisted living facility who gets some assistance he was not expec...
This theatrical production of the real-life story of deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie is a real treasure for family viewing. As with the other productions from Globalstage, it may take some kids a...
In "Dave" and "Big" screenwriter Gary Ross gave us characters whose innocent honesty and goodness revealed and transformed the adult world. Now, as both screenwriter and director of "Pleasantville,...
It's better than the first one. That isn't saying much, especially since the prime audience for this film doesn't really care much about niceties like character, dialogue, or quality of animation....
I suppose that it's a sign that we've passed the peak of Pokemon frenzy that the word "Nintendo" got a bigger reaction from the kids in the audience than the word "Pokemon," but this movie mustered...
In this fourth installment of Pokemon feature films, Ash and his friends explore an enchanted forest and meet Celebi, a dove-like Pokemon with the power to move through time. They also make friend...
Each of the previous Pokemon movies has seemed slightly better to me than the one before, but this lackluster fifth in the series is at least two steps back.
Pokemon master Ash and pals Bro...
Human scientists have figured out a way to create a bigger and stronger clone of the most powerful Pokemon ever, Mew. The result is a sort of Maxi-Mew called Mewtwo. Mewtwo decides to go after tha...
"Are you sure?"
This is a question asked several times during this movie, based on the exquisitely lovely Chris Van Allsburg book. It is a fitting question for a story about a boy strugglin...
The best biographical movies do three things. They show us why the life being depicted was important and how the main character had an important impact on the way we see the world. They give us a...
Plot: Pollyanna (Hayley Mills) arrives in Harrington to live with her wealthy aunt, Polly Harrington (Jane Wyman), after the death of her missionary parents. Polly is generous with money, buying Po...
Hayao Miyazaki has produced another trippy fantasia, this time a fish out of water story along the lines of "The Little Mermaid." A little girl goldfish with magical powers loves a little boy and ...
Small children will enjoy this gentle story of making friends. Their families will be grateful for the fact that there is a suitable movie for younger kids and they might enjoy the pretty water-co...
This remake is so stripped down it doesn't even have time for two of the three words of the original: this isn't The Poseidon Adventure -- it's just "Poseidon." If they remake it, it will be called...
No one thinks more carefuly about words than poets, scholars, and detectives. All three come together in two parallel love stories spanning two centuries, based on the astonishingly inventive, da...
There is not one single thing in this movie that you don't see or guess from the trailer, but for some audiences that means that it will deliver just what they are looking for.
Alexis Bledel pla...
The Powerpuff Girls' first feature-length movie may be a treat for the fans of the show, but its non-stop excitement and sense of humor is going to win over just about anyone. Move over Pokemon, th...
This uneven adaption of Alice Hoffman's lyrical novel is the story of two orphan girls from a family of witches. Raised by aunts who feed them brownies for breakfast and are visited by neighbors on...
Garrison Keillor's voice is a national treasure. It is so warm, so magnetic, even hypnotic that it lulls you into a whole different dimension, an idealized past located somewhere between innocent ...
Former Destiny's Child singer Letoya Luckett has the title role in this touching story of a sheltered young woman from a small town who joins a traveling gospel show. She finds her values and her ...
Claireece (newcomer Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe) is a 16-year-old, still in middle school, illiterate, pregnant with her second child. The first baby has Down Syndrome. Both pregnancies are the resul...
He's a Manhattan bicycle messenger and his name is Wilee, like the coyote. But Wilee (the always-brilliant Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is more like the road runner in this story. He has an envelope t...
With little style and no substance, this low-wattage forgettable thriller plays like a rejected episode of "The Twilight Zone." Linda (Sandra Bullock) wakes up every day in a different reality (an...
As if we should believe him, Hugh Jackman’s character proclaims in “The Prestige” that magicians have a “circle of trust.” “The Prestige” takes that circle of trust and twists it into...
In the 1940's, this movie would have starred John Garfield and been on the lower half of a double feature. In 2000, it stars Jimmy Smits as the father who pushes his three boys to be championship b...
Like all sports stories, this is about teamwork, but the team that matters here is Terrence Howard and Bernie Mac who bring such conviction and authenticity to this story of an inner-city Pennsylva...
Genre:
MPAA Rating: R
Audience: Adult
A big-name cast and some big-time issues are not enough to make up for a small-time script that adds absolutely nothing new to the too-often-told tale of police corruption and family betrayal. It ...
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the best romantic novel in the English language must perpetually be in need of a remake.
And it is equally true that movie adaptations of
Writer-director Ben Younger, who perflectly nailed the high-testosterone world of pump-and-dump stock scams in Boiler Room, is a bit more uneven with a switch over to the estrogen side of things wi...
The title says it all. This is a classic Cinderella story about a hardworking girl from the Wisconsin dairy farm who wants to go to medical school but falls for a handsome and charming foreign exc...
Dreamworks SKG's first animated feature is a respectful retelling of the story of Moses, from the time he was found in the bullrushes and adopted by the Pharoh to the time he led the Hebrews out of...
Roger Ebert launched a thousand blog posts with howls of protest by asserting that
a video game could never be a ...
This witty modern fairy tale by William Goldman (screenwriter of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "All the President’s Men") is resoundingly satisfying. The most beautiful woman in the w...
This is a great big luscious lollypop of a movie, terrific fun for girls of any age and for their families, too.
Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) is a shy 15-year-old who says, "My expectati...
Another sweet lollipop of a movie, “Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” picks up five years later than the first and, though missing some of the original’s spark and humor, it's a pleasant...
Julianne Moore's radiant performance as Evelyn Ryan does for this movie what the real-life Ryan's "contest-ing" did for her family in the 1950's -- it holds it together with such mesmerizing grace ...
The 1968 version of
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Posted on Thursday December 15, 2005
Less engrossing than a Clearasil commercial and more synthetic than a Rebecca Black video, “Prom” is Disney’s attempt to launch a new generation of tween idols with a wholesome confection abo...
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Posted on Thursday June 7, 2012
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Posted on Thursday January 3, 2013
People often speak of "opening up" a play when it is made into a movie. In one sense the Tony- and Pulitzer-prize winning Broadway production of "Proof" has been opened up. Instead of entirely ta...
Another stunning performance from Russell Crowe holds together a movie that is otherwise not sure exactly what it wants to be.
Inspired by a magazine article about "K and R" consultants and a ...
Think "Taming of the Shrew Wears Prada." Book editor Margaret (Sandra Bullock) is whip-smart and whippet-thin, ferociously competent, ruthlessly demanding, and just plain scary. When she strides ...
Martial arts actor Tony Jaa’s follow-up to his breakout performance, 2003’s Ong-bak, could be called Kill Bill with a conscience. The violence is so pervasive that viewers can’t help but beco...
You often hear the expression "feel-good movie" and it usually refers to a heart-warming romantic comedy or maybe something with penguins. This is a real feel-good movie because it is a real story...
Back before the days when trashy faux celebrities from tawdry reality shows merited magazine covers and "gangsta" rappers postured and pretended to be killers, there was once a romanticized fascina...
Comedians use humor to transcend norms and act outside the rules of civility to express the feelings we strive to keep inside – anger, insecurity, resentment, and selfishness. Many of them assum...
It's not as easy to turn a comic book into a movie as you might think, even though comics and illustrated novels are closer to cinema in conception than any other art form. But as this second atte...
If a man goes from homeless single dad to multi-millionaire stockbroker, you know there has to be a movie. This one has the good sense to star Will Smith and his real-life son Jaden.
Their natural ...
If you add up all the recent movies about ordinary-looking people who walk among us with special hidden powers, you might conclude that there are no normal people left. The accountant next door mi...
The popular feline bandit of the "Shrek" series gets his own feature film, one that is less of a fractured fairy tale and more of a swashbuckler. Antonio Banderas returns as the voice of Puss in ...
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 ...
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 ...
