Cop Out (review)

Shame on Silent Bob. I realize that times is tough and everyone’s gotta make a living, and that that’s probably why Kevin Smith agreed to direct a big-budget studio buddy action comedy. But shame on him anyway.

Ninja Assassin (review)

‘Ninja assassin.’ It’s like ‘monster trucks’ and ‘automatic weapons’ and ‘zombie Nazis’: you take two great things that are awesome separately, and then you put ’em together and it becomes like totally mindblowing, dude. Oh not.

12 Rounds (review)

This ain’t the real *12 Rounds.* Not the actual movie. It’s more like a storyboard. Or an animatic. That’s it. Just to give you an idea of what the real movie’s gonna look like. Man, you’re gonna love it, I swear.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (review)

It’s something close to a stroke of genius that once-wunderkind screenwriter Shane Black sought out Robert Downey Jr. to star in his directorial debut. Not because Downey is so achingly sublime an actor and so funkily charismatic a screen presence that it near to makes you want to weep with despair at what brilliance we’ve missed from him over the years during which he wasn’t able to keep his shit together — though he certainly does give us one of the most deliciously shivery-great performances so far this year in *Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.*

The French Connection (review)

The French Connection is Patient Zero in Hollywood’s epidemic of blood, guts, and mayhem, the Typhoid Mary that spread gunplay, car chases, and psychotic cops throughout filmdom. Like Typhoid Mary, though, The French Connection has only a mild, nonfatal case of the sickness that continues to rage through movies. This film demonstrates how smart action movies can be, and points out how dumbed down most of them have gotten.