Underworld: Awakening

     Release Date: 01/20/2012   Rating: R  Runtime: 1 hr 28 mins   Genre: Horror   Director: Bjorn Stein  Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Rea, Michael Ealy, Theo Jame Review After sitting out most of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, the 2009 “prequel” to the Underworld saga, Kate Beckinsale returns to her trademark role as the face of the blockbuster action-horror franchise in Underworld: Awakening. The...

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Man on a Ledge

Release Date: 01/27/2012Rating: PG13Runtime: Not Yet AvailableGenre: Drama, ThrillerDirector: Asger LethCast: Sam Worthington, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris, Edward Burns Review In the cinematic desert that is the January-February movie-release schedule, one gains a greater appreciation for mere competence. And that’s precisely what you’ll get with Man on a Ledge, a mid-budget thriller with modest aspirations and genuine popcorn appeal. Sam Worthington...

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Red Tails

A drawn out history lesson that nose-dives from beginning to end. While Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan helped define the style of a modern day war film, it was his HBO mini-series Band of Brothers that truly captured the World War II experience. The multi-part saga dealt with every nook and cranny of the US military's involvement in the war, from large scale battles to intimate character details. The new movie Red Tails, developed and...

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Joyful Noise

Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton try their best to make this cinematic noise into something joyful.A massive hit never ends at its own conclusion, for better or worse. Lost, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, The Blair Witch Project and other pop culture milestones spawned plenty of imitators of wavering quality that trickled on to screens until the phenomena tapered off. Joyful Noise, the new film starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton, is one...

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'Haywire'

According to official Haywire lore, director Steven Soderbergh chanced upon the woman who would become the star of his breakneck action-thriller one night while watching television. Which isn’t entirely unusual, except that Soderbergh wasn’t watching some obscure indie film or BBC miniseries, but a bout of women’s mixed martial arts fighting. So impressed was he at the sight of Gina Carano, an American Gladiators alum turned cage fighter, that he had the Haywire script, from The Limey writer Lem Dobbs, reworked to accommodate her casting. In the...

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