Movies

My entertainment articles have been published in the Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Inquirer, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Allentown Morning Call, and San Francisco Chronicle. I started reporting for Box Office Mojo, a box office tracking service, in 2002, after years of covering movies and entertainment for newspapers during the Nineties. My reports, interviews, and reviews significantly expanded the site’s content beyond statistics and improved Box Office Mojo’s traffic.

Review: Red River

Posted September 29, 2008

Released in black and white 60 years ago, Howard Hawks' 1948 Western, Red River, starring John Wayne at his best, is a masterpiece. Based on a piece of fiction in the Saturday Evening Post by Borden Chase, who also wrote the screenplay, Red River captures the American spirit. It is an epic about earning respect, love and money. Read more >>

Review: The Lucky Ones

Posted September 29, 2008

Director Neil Burger’s follow-up to his romantically clever The Illusionist, The Lucky Ones, is a wry character study about three American soldiers posted in Iraq. Like his first movie, this small-scale picture is involving. Watching an Army trio’s road trip to Las Vegas—on leave from service in Iraq—is easy. Read more >>

Review: Jarhead

Posted September 29, 2008

Admittedly, Jarhead looked awful from the tag line, "Welcome to the Suck," and this 1990s rehash of a zillion war movie clichés is a plotless nomad in the desert, which is a shame; with 2,000 U.S. military deaths in the Middle East, where the movie takes place, America could use a provocative movie about what it means to fight. Read more >>

Review: Stop-Loss

Posted September 29, 2008

Paramount's Stop-Loss is overdone but pointed, the type of topical war drama Hollywood used to make for television, (Carol Burnett's searing 1979 Vietnam War picture, Friendly Fire, comes to mind). Because it's made by attention-deficit Music Television (MTV), which assumes everyone under 30 has the patience of a puppy, Stop-Loss doesn't rise to that level of quality. Read more >>

Review: Lions for Lambs

Posted September 29, 2008

Packed with star power in a dialog-driven drama about the most urgent issue of our time—the Bush administration's undeclared, unsuccessful so-called war on terror—Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs roars. Read more >>

Review: Eagle Eye

Posted September 26, 2008

With function following form, director D.J. Caruso’s Eagle Eye is yet another assault on the senses. Use earplugs and be ready to watch explosion after explosion, wipeout after wipeout and a multitude of game-like video simulations. With an anti-technology premise, this secondhand movie lifts from better movies—too many to mention—and defaults on its assets. Read more >>

Review: Lakeview Terrace

Posted September 22, 2008

Like Michael Douglas in Falling Down, Samuel L. Jackson taps into the disaffected middle class male prototype in the provocative Lakeview Terrace. Also based in southern California, also set to a series of suburban triggers—parenting, crime, natural disaster—this movie revolves around two men, both neighbors, and how they approach life. Read more >>

Review: Appaloosa

Posted September 22, 2008

Appaloosa, co-written and directed by actor Ed Harris (The Human Stain), is surprisingly accessible and involving, though it will probably escape attention. Still, it’s worth seeing on DVD or at a matinee. Built on good performances, flirting with anti-heroism and emerging as an underdeveloped exercise in counterfeit romanticism, this Western has conflict, action and humor, which is better than nothing in the wake of bad news and bad movies. Read more >>

Review: Righteous Kill

Posted September 22, 2008

The innocuous re-teaming of Seventies superstars Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, Righteous Kill, offers mild character intrigue in a modern morality potboiler. Probably a must for diehard fans of either actor, the movie, directed by Jon Avnet (Up Close and Personal) and written by Russell Gewirtz (Inside Man), is measurably less than that for anyone else. Read more >>

Review: Ratatouille

Posted September 22, 2008

Pixar’s animated story of a rat that strives to become a top French chef, the irresistible Ratatouille, is pure summer entertainment. Pleasantly light and amusing, it’s a visually appealing tale of work and luck as the key to success. Read more >>

Movie and DVD Review: Bambi

Posted September 21, 2008

After somehow managing to avoid seeing Bambi on the silver screen—a nature movie with all those trees and birds was a turnoff to a kid who favored movies with planes, skyscrapers and people—the animated feature’s premiere on DVD finally brought Walt Disney’s favorite forest to my undivided attention and, like that first dewy morning at summer camp, the reward was worth the wait. Bambi really is wonderful. Read more >>

Bambi Remembered by Hollywood Artists

Posted September 21, 2008

Among those in Hollywood who remember seeing the animated classic in movie theaters during Disney’s re-releases, the DVD release of Bambi elicits excitement. Animation artist Alex Dilts, who attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia—founded by Walt and Roy Disney—is looking forward to watching the digitally restored special edition.
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Looking Back at Bambi

Posted September 21, 2008

With generations of fans and millions of dollars in profits, a 900-word script and a running time of 69 minutes, Walt Disney’s classic Bambi is an example of quality and economy. Its staggering success is not unlike the story of its title character: unstable in the beginning, unmatched in the end. When the animated feature premieres on DVD format for the first time on March 1, the accompanying historical features assure that Walt Disney’s favorite picture also offers 21st century Hollywood several lessons in making money with movies. Read more >>

Movie and DVD Review: Lady and the Tramp

Posted September 21, 2008

Walt Disney’s Lady and the Tramp is another animated feature in Disney’s vault that deserves praise and attention. To this uninitiated viewer, this movie, released in 1955, always looked like a harmless treat about a couple of dogs that swoon over one another. It is that and more, and it’s far superior to what passes for kids’ movies. Read more >>

Movie and DVD Review: The Little Mermaid

Posted September 21, 2008

Walt Disney Pictures’ 1989 adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, The Little Mermaid, is a brilliantly animated musical about the glory of becoming human. Colorful animation, wonderful songs and unspoiled heroism make this a great movie. Flowing with good characters and values, The Little Mermaid is one of Disney’s best pictures.
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Movie and DVD Review: The Jungle Book

Posted September 21, 2008

Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book, an animated musical loosely based on Rudyard Kipling’s stories, is a benevolent outing. The 1967 movie follows a child named Mowgli (Bruce Reitherman) from infancy through boyhood. Each encounter takes place in India’s wild jungle—with animals and a setting rich in shades of orange, dark gray and green—where deadly threats come with the territory. Read more >>

Review: World Trade Center

Originally posted on Box Office Mojo, August 2006

Oliver Stone makes the worst attack in American history seem practically humdrum in World Trade Center, his take on the darkest day—so far—in this undeclared war between radical Islam and the West. Read more >>

Review: United 93

Originally posted on Box Office Mojo, April 2006

United 93, a taut recreation of the September 11, 2001, United Air Lines flight in which passengers counterattacked Islamic suicide hijackers, is powerful as a perceptual-bound experience. Unfortunately, that's the sum of it; the motion picture, written and directed by Paul Greengrass, achieves nothing else. Read more >>

Review: Munich

Originally posted on Box Office Mojo, December 2005

Once again, Steven Spielberg transforms a serious subject—an historic act of Arab terrorism—into a skillfully arranged horror show, trivializing another example of 20th century barbarism. Recalling the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich, West Germany, Olympic Games, in which 11 Israeli athletes were seized and murdered, Munich tracks besieged Israel's response. It makes for a slow motion wreck. Read more >>

Review: Death Race

Posted August 21, 2008

Death Race is apparently a remake of one of those campy, dystopian Seventies pictures like Rollerball, Soylent Green and Logan’s Run. The usual complaints apply: this action movie is very loud and pointless violence and foul language dominate the show. Be seriously ready to cover the ears if you value your ability to hear. Read more >>

Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Posted August 14, 2008

Having suffered through the three recent Star Wars incarnations, I attended a press screening of Star Wars: The Clone Wars with the lowest expectations. Though mildly entertaining, and any Star Wars product without Jar Jar Binks has to be considered an upgrade, this movie’s message is clear: the good exists only at the mercy of the mixed. Read more >>

Star Wars Trilogy Premieres on DVD

Originally posted on Box Office Mojo on September 21, 2004

Twentieth Century Fox released creator George Lucas's first three Star Wars movies, A New Hope (released as Star Wars in 1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), today in the popular DVD format. Read more >>

Review: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

Originally posted on Box Office Mojo in May 2005

The series that began with an idealistic farm boy's choice between complacency and a noble crusade, with classic Hollywood banter and conflict, ends in an orgiastic blur. Creator George Lucas made Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, the last installment of his epic Star Wars, more like a video game than a motion picture. With 90 computer-generated minutes—20 more than Attack of the Clones—sensory overloaded Sith fizzles in a blaze of gore. Read more >>

Commentary: George Lucas Vs. The Stormtroopers

Originally posted on Box Office Mojo on September 26, 2004

America's highest-grossing movie series continues to reflect the culture—this time, with alarming implications. Because the pictures were changed to suit George Lucas, Mr. Lucas' Star Wars trilogy, which premiered on DVD this week, has unleashed a storm of controversy. Read more >>

Commentary: From Luke to Anakin: Growing Up with Star Wars

Originally posted on Box Office Mojo on May 18, 2005

The excitement over Revenge of the Sith's release recalls standing in line to see the original Star Wars when it opened in 1977. My parents enjoyed taking the family to the movies, which offered personal, low-cost entertainment. We could hardly wait to see The Sting in 1973 and The Towering Inferno a year later. The following year, my sister and I defied our mother to see Jaws, which Mom was convinced was a horror movie. Read more >>

Mamma Mia!

Posted July 23, 2008

Gather friends and family (except younger kids) to see the joyful Mamma Mia! In the key of Grease and last year’s Hairspray, this lightweight musical is pure, frivolous fun from beginning to end. The movie adaptation of the stage production (built on Swedish rock band ABBA’s popular tunes), which depicts the love of life, is a rare, brightly colored treat. Read more >>

The Dark Knight

Posted July 23, 2008

Like the title, The Dark Knight, featuring Bob Kane’s DC Comics character, Batman, reflects man’s capacity for malevolence. As it is stated in the picture, one must either “die a hero—or live long enough to … become the villain.” In other words, man is doomed. Director Chris Nolan, who co-wrote the script, displays the seriousness with which he delivered the superior 2005 adaptation, Batman Begins. Read more >>

Walt Disney Pictures Chairman Dick Cook

Originally published November 15, 2007 by Box Office Mojo

The Disney studio’s top businessman talks about Enchanted, Pirates and Narnia—as well as a fire on the Monorail—in this exclusive interview. Read more >>

The Alamo Diluted History Hurts Disney's 'Alamo'

This 2004 movie review was published in the Los Angeles Daily News.

Disney had a $100 million-plus budget riding on its version of The Alamo, a war epic directed by John Lee Hancock. Box Office Mojo had forecast gross receipts of almost $15 million during its opening weekend and, when it barely reached $9 million, it was clear that The Alamo was in trouble. Read more >>

The Illusionist Edward Norton's Merlin is Magnificent

Originally published August 28, 2006 by Box Office Mojo

The best picture of 2006 thus far is a virtuoso display of acting, direction and storytelling. Read more >>

Akeelah and the Bee How Do You Spell Relief?

Originally published April 27, 2006 by Box Office Mojo

A girl learns how to think as Laurence Fishburne matches a fine performance from a sweet 12-year-old newcomer. Read more >>

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days German Nazi Drama Captivates

Originally published February 27 2006 by Box Office Mojo

An ordinary citizen’s gripping ordeal under National Socialism dramatizes how faith in the state extinguishes life. Read more >>

Eight Below Stranded Sled Dogs Make for Gripping Tale

Originally published February 18, 2006 by Box Office Mojo

Disney's harrowing Antarctic adventure engages with nature-based conflict and eight memorably distinct huskies. Read more >>

Mrs. Henderson Presents Dench Shines in British Mischief

Originally published January 14, 2006 by Box Office Mojo

The Weinstein Company presents a sassy British war story powered by Judi Dench at her best. Read more >>