| Jeff Beck Reviews: Brooklyn’s Finest |
Director Antoine Fuqua returns to the underworld of cops who are corrupt and on the edge, where violence is an everyday fact. Fuqua previously explored this world in “Training Day,” [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: The Crazies |
Breck Eisner’s “The Crazies” has been advertised as a kind of horror/thriller, which makes it rather strange that the film is somewhat lacking in both of those areas. There is [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Alice in Wonderland |
Director Tim Burton, well-known for his dark style of filmmaking (“Sweeney Todd,” “Edward Scissorhands,” and “Batman” to name a few), returns with his take on Lewis Carroll’s classic story, “Alice [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Cop Out |
It’s rather difficult to have to talk about Kevin Smith in a negative sense. His films tend to be interesting, charming, witty, and character-driven, which is everything that is missing [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: The White Ribbon |
Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” is a film that has already had a lot of buzz about it ever since it won the Golden Palm (the equivalent of Best Picture) [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: From Paris with Love |
Throughout Pierre Morel’s “From Paris with Love,” I was constantly reminded of two films from last year: “Terminator Salvation” and “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.” Now if you’ve seen [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Crazy Heart |
What else can be said about Jeff Bridges’s performance in Scott Cooper’s “Crazy Heart?” He’s had just about every accolade thrown at him from every conceivable angle, but he’s deserved [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: The Wolfman |
Nearly 70 years after the original film in which Lon Chaney Jr. played the titular character comes a remake of the classic story. Joe Johnston’s version of the film has [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Shutter Island |
After finally winning a Best Director Oscar back in 2007 (it only took about 30 years…), Martin Scorsese returns to the thriller genre which he hasn’t done since “Cape Fear.” [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief |
Here we have yet another film based off of a novel that is supposedly popular with teenagers, but that I had never heard of until the film (like “Harry Potter” [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Valentine’s Day |
Couples, if you want to do yourselves a big favor, don’t take your boy/girlfriend to see “Valentine’s Day.” Keeping this one simple rule in mind is one big step towards [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: The Young Victoria |
Here is a romance the way only someone in a position like Queen Victoria’s could experience it. The eyes of the empire are watching her every move with not much [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: When in Rome |
Straight off the romantic-comedy assembly line comes “When in Rome,” a film that is just about as generic as you can get when it comes to the genre. It’s another [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Edge of Darkness |
Martin Campbell’s “Edge of Darkness” has been rather misleading with its marketing. From the trailers and TV spots, this film is made to look like a revenge thriller along the [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Dear John |
Here’s a great idea. Let’s take the guy most known for being flat and lifeless in “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and put him in a movie that actually [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Tooth Fairy |
I’ll be one of the few to say that this film is not nearly as bad as you might think, which is saying quite a lot about a film feature [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Legion |
According to this film, the first time God lost faith in humanity, he caused a flood to destroy them. Now, having lost faith in mankind again, he sends an army [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: The Spy Next Door |
One has to wonder what Jackie Chan was thinking when he signed onto “The Spy Next Door.” We can assume he at least got to read the screenplay before hand [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: The Book of Eli |
The Hughes’ Brothers “The Book of Eli” is like “The Road” with a pulse. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good film though. In fact, in this case, it wasn’t [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: A Single Man |
The title pretty much says it all. The film is about a single man, who up until recently had been living happily with someone else. However, it is also the [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Leap Year |
At first, it looked like Anand Tucker’s “Leap Year” would be another painfully predictable rom-com that would be as bad as “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” Fortunately, only part [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: The Lovely Bones |
The team behind the brilliant “Lord of the Rings” brings us something completely different with their new project, “The Lovely Bones.” After “King Kong,” it was hoped that director Peter [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Youth in Revolt |
One of these days people are going to realize that Michael Cera is not a good actor, but today is not that day as we have yet another film with [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Sherlock Holmes |
Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” breathes a new energy into the character made famous in the stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Many of the elements of this new vision [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus |
After Heath Ledger’s tragic death in January 2008, it was wondered if director Terry Gilliam would be able to finish his latest project, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. However, after [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Daybreakers |
The Spierig Brothers’ “Daybreakers” offers an interesting twist on your standard vampire tale. Instead of it being just one or a few vampires causing havoc, imagine if it were nearly [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: A Serious Man |
The Coen Brothers’ “A Serious Man” has been described as a modern retelling of the Book of Job, a story in which a man has his faith put to the [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Broken Embraces |
Director Pedro Almodóvar, who last brought us the bizarre and ghostly “Volver,” now brings us his latest film, “Broken Embraces.” In its own way, it too is quite bizarre in [...]
| Jeff Beck Picks: The Best Films of 2009 |
As I made up this list, there were a couple of films that I haven’t yet gotten to see (A Serious Man and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus) that might [...]
| Jeff Beck Picks: The Worst Films of 2009 |
Yep, on the flip side of there being some great films of 2009, there were also some that deserved to be thrown in the dumpster. Again, starting with some honorable, [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel |
I remember growing up with the animated “Alvin and the Chipmunks” cartoon show. It wasn’t really all that bad in those small 20-minute increments. Here we are several years later, [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Coco Before Chanel |
Coco Chanel is probably the most famous name in fashion in the 20th century. Even for someone such as myself, who has practically no knowledge of designer labels, Chanel’s is [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: It’s Complicated |
Nancy Meyers’s “It’s Complicated” is not really as complicated as a typical synopsis of it would seem. It’s actually a rather delightful and hilarious comedy with some standout performances from [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: The Princess and the Frog |
Disney returns to the art of hand-drawn animation with its latest feature “The Princess and the Frog.” It’s quite refreshing to see a film done in this manner once again, [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Up in the Air |
Writer/Director Jason Reitman has done something that very few directors are able to do nowadays. He has given us three outstanding films in a row: “Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno,” [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: The Messenger |
They deliver the news that nobody wants to hear, that a loved one won’t be coming back from war. This is the purpose of death notification duty. There’s not exactly [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: The Men Who Stare At Goats |
Grant Heslov’s “The Men Who Stare At Goats” is one of those stories that begins with a statement of its truthfulness. If this story were true, that would probably be [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Did You Hear About the Morgans? |
I think we have heard about the Morgans, many, many times before. Not necessarily the Morgans themselves, but couples stuck in other really bad romantic-comedies. Yet here we have “Did [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Where the Wild Things Are |
Spike Jonze has brought us some unique film-going experiences in the last decade, including “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation.” Now comes another fascinating entry in his filmography, “Where the Wild [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Brothers |
Jim Sheridan’s “Brothers” is a sharp, effective drama that mixes together several different elements such as family, guilt, war, and forgiveness to tell an increasingly intense story. It starts off [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Avatar |
It has been the most talked about movie of the year. James Cameron, Academy-Award-winning director of “Titanic,” has been working on “Avatar” for several years, incorporating new technologies that claim [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Armored |
Nimród Antal’s “Armored” looked like just another heist-gone-wrong film, and in many ways it is, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be suspenseful, devious, and full of tension. It [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Invictus |
Whenever director Clint Eastwood makes another movie, it’s a pretty fair bet to say that it’s going to be Oscar bait, not because they look the part, but because they [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: The Blind Side |
Most sports films tend to have too much of a concentration on the sport played in the film. However, every once in a while, a sports film comes along that [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Thirst |
It was hoped that Chan-wook Park’s “Thirst” would be the anti-”Twilight,” a film that would put the much needed bite back into the vampire genre. Unfortunately, what we get is [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans |
If there’s one good thing to be said of Werner Herzog, it’s that his films at least have some interesting elements to them. However, in his case, the elements never [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Everybody’s Fine |
Frank Goode (Robert De Niro) is man who doesn’t have that much left in his life, other than his four grown children who are now dispersed across the country. He [...]
| Jeff Beck Reviews: Ninja Assassin |
Director James McTeigue and the Wachowski Brothers team up once again in an attempt to make another memorable film experience like “The Matrix” or “V For Vendetta.” So what happens [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Precious |
Lee Daniels’s “Precious” is an unrelenting portrait of a 16-year-old girl trapped in a life that will most likely lead her nowhere. What can she ever hope to accomplish with [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: An Education |
Most people tend to think of one singular definition when it comes to the word “education.” However, what we get with Lone Scherfig’s “An Education” is a broader use of [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: The Road |
John Hillcoat’s “The Road,” based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, was supposed to be released around this time last year, but mysteriously had its release date changed to October [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Fantastic Mr. Fox |
Wes Anderson, director of such great films as “Rushmore” and “The Royal Tenenbaums,” brings us his latest quirky project in “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” loosely based on the book by Roald [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: The Twilight Saga: New Moon |
The brooding and sulking is so palpable in “New Moon,” the latest film in the “Twilight” series, that you could probably cut it with a knife. If the filmmakers thought [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Planet 51 |
“Planet 51″ is an interesting twist on your average alien invasion story. We usually see the impact of what happens when an alien lands on Earth, which has led to [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: The Box |
It’s a simple moral quandary. A mysterious package shows up at your door containing a box with a button on top and a note telling you that you will be [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Pirate Radio |
What an absurd notion for a politician to attempt to ban a radio station simply because he doesn’t like the music selection. Imagine someone trying to pull that off today. [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: 2012 |
“2012″ is the fourth time that director/writer Roland Emmerich has felt the need to make a film about massive destruction. In the past thirteen years, this is pretty much all [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: A Christmas Carol (2009) |
Robert Zemeckis’s “A Christmas Carol” is yet another version of the beloved classic story by Charles Dickens. There has been many a version of the story starring a wide range [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Fame (2009) |
Kevin Tancharoen’s remake of “Fame” is a flat, lifeless experience that is missing the emotion required of a film that requires us to get involved with the characters and their [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: The Informant! |
Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant!” is a somewhat misleading film in the way it presents itself. However, we soon find out that this is a very appropriate way to present it [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Carriers |
Alex and David Pastor’s “Carriers” is another entry in the apocalyptic-virus genre, joining films like “28 Days/Weeks Later,” “Outbreak,” and “The Stand,” which was actually a miniseries, but still very [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant |
Paul Weitz’s “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant” is a flat, uninspired attempt at starting up a new series of vampire films a la “Twilight.” It’s interesting that a film [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: The Invention of Lying |
“The Invention of Lying” is a film you will know whether you are going to like or not within the first five minutes. There are those that will love its [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: The Stepfather |
Here we have yet another remake in the long-standing tradition of Hollywood’s unoriginality. I’ve never seen the original “Stepfather,” but I imagine it can’t be any worse than this. All [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: This Is It |
Before I begin, I have to start by saying that I have never been a hard-core Michael Jackson fan, so this review is coming from someone who only knows a [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Astro Boy |
First made popular in Japanese manga and animes, “Astro Boy” finally gets the big screen treatment. I’ve never seen any of those animes or read any of the mangas, but [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Saw VI |
It’s Halloween again, so you know what that means. That’s right, another entry in one of the most worthless franchises ever created. The “Saw” series continues its tradition of gratuitous [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Moon |
***Contains minor plot spoilers. If you haven’t seen the film yet and want to view it without knowing anything then you might want to skip this review.***
There are obvious comparisons [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Amelia |
“Amelia” is what you get when you suck most of the life out of a biopic. You end up with a film that feels flat, distant, and has, as I [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Antichrist |
What a grotesque and abhorrent experience Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist” is. It is shameless in its excess and a sight terrible to behold. If I didn’t know any better, I’d [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Paranormal Activity |
As far as I can tell, those who have seen “Paranormal Activity” can be grouped into two broad categories: those who find it to be a frightening and entertaining experience [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Law Abiding Citizen |
Many people have been calling F. Gary Gray’s “Law Abiding Citizen” a completely preposterous film, which I found strange at first because the first two acts are completely plausible. But [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Couples Retreat |
Peter Billingsley’s “Couples Retreat” is an overly-long, overly-formulaic attempt at a romantic comedy. It has the feeling of a film trying to play it so safe that it gets to [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: The Boys Are Back |
What would the average person think of a father who lets their children do whatever they want or who gives them whatever they want, by having a simple policy of [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Adoration |
Before “Adoration,” I had only seen one other film from Atom Egoyan, which was called “Exotica.” That film had several issues, the biggest of which was its lingering plotlines that [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: My One and Only |
I am not at all familiar with George Hamilton the actor, whose teen years this film is based on. In fact, after perusing through his filmography on IMDB, it turns [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Whatever Works |
Woody Allen has had an interesting string of recent projects. Some of these have worked like “Match Point,” “Scoop” (though I think I was one of the few who actually [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Love Happens |
“Love Happens” is a film that has been taking a harsh beating from critics, which I found unusual as I was watching the first half of the film. The first [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Zombieland |
“Zombieland” had a very interesting task before it from the start. For a film that looked like a knockoff of Edgar Wright’s excellent “Shaun of the Dead,” how would it [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Whip It |
Drew Barrymore makes her feature directorial debut with “Whip It,” an amusing dramedy that ends up being about more than its central focus: the exciting world of roller derby competitions. [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Pandorum |
“Pandorum” is a sci-fi film guaranteed to leave you bored from its opening frame to its last, and perhaps even a little queasy. It tries so hard to be as [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Surrogates |
Jonathan Mostow’s “Surrogates” is a fascinating sci-fi action flick that brings up some very interesting points and scenarios. Is the human race becoming too dependent on technology? If we had [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: The Brothers Bloom |
The best of con films are ones that are able to fool you up until the last second. You may think you know where it’s going, but in truth, it’s [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: 9 |
“9″ is based on a short film directed by Shane Acker back in 2005, which he expanded into this full-length feature film. The short film is not particularly good, so [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: (500) Days of Summer |
“(500) Days of Summer” is one of the strangest love stories that I’ve seen in quite awhile. But then I realize that the film is right in saying that it [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Jennifer’s Body |
Diablo Cody, the Academy Award-winning writer of “Juno,” brings us something a little different from her previous project with “Jennifer’s Body.” While it is a little different from “Juno,” the [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Away We Go |
After dealing with some of the most twisted relationships in “American Beauty” and “Revolutionary Road,” for once Sam Mendes gets to deal with one where two people are completely in [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Whiteout |
Here’s another film that is very misleading in its marketing. Like the previews for “Extract” presenting itself as a comedy, “Whiteout,” too, fools the audience into thinking that it’s a [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs |
I had the opportunity to view this film in IMAX/3-d, this being the first time I’ve ever experienced the 3-d side of film. It’s fun at first, things flying right [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Extract |
Mike Judge, the writer/director of the brilliant “Office Space,” brings us his latest comedic effort with “Extract.” I’ve always been amazed that Judge wrote “Office Space” since he is also [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Sorority Row |
Here we have an almost exact duplicate of “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” complete with a mysterious figure cloaked in black as the killer. The rest of the [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Ponyo |
Hayao Miyazaki’s imagination is boundless. He is a master of animation that never ceases to amaze and delight audiences around the world. Some people make the unfortunate mistake of thinking [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Gamer |
Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the duo who previously brought us the “Crank” films, return with their latest action film, “Gamer.” It’s loud, full of explosions, incomprehensible at times, and [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: A Perfect Getaway |
There is a scene in David Twohy’s “A Perfect Getaway” in which, after hearing about some gruesome murders, one of the characters is reminded of the film “Natural Born Killers.” [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Year One |
How is it that Harold Ramis, the brilliant mind behind such classic comedies as “Groundhog Day,” “Ghostbusters,” “Vacation,” and “Caddyshack,” ever conceived of such a disaster as “Year One?” He [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: The Time Traveler’s Wife |
Robert Schwentke’s “The Time Traveler’s Wife” has an interesting premise. However, it doesn’t choose to do much with that premise. What we’re given are events that are sweet in nature [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: World’s Greatest Dad |
Imagine my surprise when I found out that “World’s Greatest Dad,” a funny and somewhat deep film, was written and directed by the annoying, squeaky-voiced comedian Bobcat Goldthwait. Shocking because [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: The Final Destination |
If you asked the general public whether we really needed another installment of the “Final Destination” series, you’d probably get an overwhelming “no.” Yet, from the way these films keep [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Halloween II (2009) |
Rob Zombie returns, once again, to the director’s chair for another stab at a horror film, a follow-up to his financially successful 2007 remake. This only goes to show that [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Inglourious Basterds |
After “Death Proof,” fans were wondering if Quentin Tarantino had lost his edge. Now he brings us his next film, “Inglourious Basterds,” a project that was about ten years in [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: Quantam of Solace |
James Bond meet Jason Bourne. Jason Bourne, this is James Bond. I heard this comparison all week before finally seeing the film today and it is a decent analogy. This [...]
| Hawkeye Reviews: The Dark Knight |
It’s a rare thing when a sequel manages to top the original. The best examples I can think of where this has happened are with Terminator 2, and in other [...]
