A chilling murder mystery set against the haunted nights and frozen days of the Scandinavian tundra, the American adaptation of Swede Stieg Larsson’s bestselling novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo seems, at first glance, like the perfect material for renegade filmmaker David Fincher. One of Hollywood’s most celebrated and sought-after directors, Fincher’s resume already boasts two of the best serial killer films of the past twenty years in Seven [...]

In Rodrigo Garcia’s Albert Nobbs, Glenn Close (The Stepford Wives) stars as a buttoned down manservant working in a posh Dublin hotel who lives in constant fear of losing his livelihood due to the secret fact that he is actually a woman. A fascinating premise for a period film one might think, but alas what could have been an off-kilter examination of the social and sexual hang-ups of 19^th century [...]

While it might not have been what Arthur Conan Doyle had in mind when he first put pen to page, 2009s Sherlock Holmes was a rip-snorting action picture that was hugely popular with audiences and critics alike. Two years later and to the surprise of no one, Hollywood has decided it’s time for a sequel, reuniting director Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) with stars Robert Downey [...]

Based on the timeless Belgian comics by Hergé, directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) and brought to life using the same motion capture technology popularized by Robert Zemeckis (The Polar Express) and perfected by James Cameron (Avatar), The Adventures of Tintin bears, in theory, all the promise of a cinematic event. Not so in execution. Part gumshoe mystery, part animated Indiana Jones, [...]

While its revolting premise and some ingenious marketing has earned The Human Centipede much notoriety online, the 2009 Dutch horror film about three unfortunate tourists sewn anus to mouth by a maniacal German scientist isn’t really all that difficult to stomach. Indeed, the relatively small amount of gore and bodily fluids that director Tom Six actually depicts in the film – along with the general crumbiness of the dialogue, plotting, [...]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film – live action or animated – quite like Happy Feet Two, and I don’t mean that in a good way. If the original Happy Feet were a whirlwind adventure, this manic sequel is a Category 5 hurricane, the intent being to sweep audiences off their feet, but the result being more  in line with taking a flying brick to the face. Director [...]

The bitter cynic within me — located just left of the pancreas, if we’re being precise — would want nothing more than to rip into the manipulative emotional rollercoaster that is Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo, the kind of on-rails Hallmark drama where every ascent is followed by a predictable fall. Yet preventing such a scathing report is my inner romantic, a resident of the heart who shows up [...]

Now that we’ve collectively agreed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull never happened, let us return to fawning over Steven Spielberg for that kind of “gee whiz, let’s do that again!” giddiness you get from watching movies like The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. The director might be working from a collection of mid-20^th century comics by Belgian artist Hergé, but this is undeniably [...]