Movie Reviews

It was not a good day to die hard. John McClane has returned, but the yip and the ki-yay and everything that follows has been bludgeoned from the aging character. The latest Die Hard movie lacks the energy, the fun and the cleverness of the previous entries, a disappointing addition to the typically entertaining franchise.

Read FilmJabber’s full A Good Day to Die Hard movie review.

The next Twilight franchise is here, but with a twist:  Beautiful Creatures, about a teenage boy who is drawn to a strange girl who has a strange family (sound familiar?), actually has intelligent writing. Shocking. Breathtaking. And kind of fun.

Read FilmJabber’s full Beautiful Creatures movie review.

The most talked about documentary of 2012 failed to garner an Oscar nomination, but it has my vote. Bully focuses the spotlight on an important and troubling topic that likely plagues every school in the country (if not the world). Take a guess.

Read FilmJabber’s full Bully movie review.

How high would the divorce rate go if they all were as amicable as the one between the title characters in Celeste & Jesse Forever? Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg star as the two former lovebirds whose continued friendship amidst their divorce causes confusion for their friends and, when other potential love interests become involved, the two of them as well.

Read FilmJabber’s full Celeste & Jesse Forever movie review.

Review by Nathan Samdahl (B-)

The beginning of each year is usually littered with the releases of foreign films selected for submission to the Academy Awards but that didn’t make the final cut.  These entries typically have merit, but it is easy to see why they didn’t garner a coveted Oscar nomination. The Australian drama Lore falls into this group, a beautifully shot film with powerful performances but a story that lacks the emotional resonance to elevate it to the next level.

Read FilmJabber’s full Lore movie review.

She stole his identity, Identity Thief stole my happiness. Like a sponge where water is joy, like a Dementor at a soul buffet, like a prism that only bends darkness, Identity Thief pairs two comedic naturals and proceeds to stalk your laughter, lashing out with brutality every time you think you may want to laugh. Which isn’t often.

Read FilmJabber’s full Identity Thief movie review.

A woman is depressed. She is given pills to ease her depression. The pills make her sleepwalk. While sleepwalking, she stabs her husband to death. That is the only the beginning. Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects is a twisty, alluring psychological thriller that is also the first must-see movie of 2013.

Read FilmJabber’s full Side Effects movie review.

It turns out that monsters are more afraid of us than we are of them, according to the animated comedy Hotel Transylvania. Too bad that Monsters, Inc. already tackled this twist of reality ten years earlier.

Read FilmJabber’s full Hotel Transylvania movie review.

More than 20 percent of women in the U.S. military have reported a sexual assault according to Defense Department statistics featured in Kirby Dick’s The Invisible War. The department estimates that 80 percent of assaults are never reported. The Oscar-nominated documentary is eye opening, disturbing and important to see.

Read FilmJabber’s full The Invisible War movie review.

I’ll say it upfront: don’t take my word for it. The live action short film category at the Academy Awards is extremely challenging to predict, because frankly I don’t have a beat on what kind of short film the Academy is going to pick in any given year. Also, my idea of a good short film isn’t always inline (read: rarely) with what Academy voters like.

Read the full article »

With growing acceptance of the gay community and a trend toward equal rights for all, is it already time to shift our focus to a new kind of discrimination? Zombies are an underappreciated and stereotyped bunch, generally assumed to be lacking in intelligence and having an overzealous lust for human flesh. There are no laws against killing zombies; in fact, it is actively encouraged by every government body except for North Korea and Switzerland.

Read FilmJabber’s full Warm Bodies movie review.

First Arnold, now Sly. What a violent flashback to the 1980s January is turning out to be. In Bullet to the Head, the Italian Stallion stars as a hit man (shocker) who, after his client turns on him (shocker), sets out to get his revenge (another shocker). The twist: he forges an unlikely – as in really unlikely – partner with a by-the-book cop.

Read FilmJabber’s full Bullet to the Head movie review.