Body of Lies has slipped on and off my radar over the past couple of months. It's hard to ignore because it's Ridley Scott working with Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, and yet the previews haven't looked all that original. But I went anyway, hoping to be entertained and thinking that if it turned out to be thought-provoking as well, all the better.

The thing is, this movie doesn't do more than it has to in terms of both entertainment and thought-provocation. There's a tedious quality to it that, despite some good action scenes and funny lines, is hard to shake. That said, I appreciate that Scott aims to give us a slightly different, more psychological view of life on the ground for American operatives in the Middle East. But to see why I'm a bit torn about this movie, read more

I normally cry at weddings (and wedding scenes), so spending a whole wedding weekend with Rachel and her family in Rachel Getting Married was quite the teary experience. It’s not all weeping and sighing (though there's a lot of that, in both the joyful and the heart-wrenching scenes) — there is also silliness and humor. It's a movie about forgiveness, heartache and the tenderness of human frailty. So, despite the lovely main plot point (a backyard wedding overflowing with the generosity of friends and family), it's incredibly heavy.

Rachel (Rosemarie Dewitt) is indeed getting married at her father's home in Connecticut, and her recovering addict sister Kym (Anne Hathaway) is coming home from rehab to spend the weekend with her family. The duration of the movie takes place over this weekend as we watch the roots of the family's dysfunction unravel before us. There isn't a ton that happens in the story, but an awful lot is said and even more implied. The family spends the weekend in the warm company of friends and family, but while the guests are in full wedding celebration mode, the simmering emotions between the sisters, their father and their mother boil over, creating some majorly messy drama. For more of my thoughts on the film, read more

It’s hard to care too much about someone as obnoxious as Sidney Young, the main character of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, played by Simon Pegg. Having a main character as unlikable as Sidney is one of the key things that doesn't work in it. There are some things that do work — a few funny bits, some great comedic performances — but they don't quite make up for the experience of watching the movie as a whole, which ends up being just kinda "meh."

The character of Sidney Young is based on the real Toby Young, who wrote the memoir on which this movie is based. In the film, Sidney is a cynical British writer who is obsessed with the notion of celebrity while simultaneously finding it ridiculous. He puts out a magazine in England called Post Modern Review, full of snarky pieces about famous people. Amused by this, Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges), editor of Sharps magazine in New York offers Sidney a job and the bumbling, uncouth Sidney sets off for glamorous New York. Once at Sharps, however, Sidney discovers that he's expected to write only "safe" celebrity profiles, and that his sarcasm and brutal honesty are unacceptable. Thus, Sidney struggles to succeed at Sharps — as a writer, but also as a boorish guy in a glamorous magazine world — without relinquishing his identity altogether. Of course, there's a love story tossed in, too, so for more on that and everything else, read more

I saw Blindness by myself, with nothing to occupy me on the way home but a copy of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Bad idea. This movie requires a funny friend or mindless magazine afterward to decompress. I don't shy away from depressing films, but Blindness is one of the bleakest things I've ever seen on screen. At times bleaker even than Babel or Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. But cheery isn't really an option when portraying a dystopia plagued by a mysterious epidemic "immune to bureaucracy."

Based on the novel by Nobel laureate Jose Saramago and directed by Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardner), this apocalyptic allegory is imperfect but powerful. Reminiscent of Children of Men and old zombie flicks, Blindness begins with a man going blind while driving. His eye doctor (Mark Ruffalo) is puzzled by the affliction, in which eyesight is obscured by white rather than cloaked in dark. But soon the doctor is also rendered blind by the contagion, so read more

Appaloosa is a totally passable and — to my surprise — fun (and funny) Western movie. I'm amazed Ed Harris, the star/director/co-writer of the film, hasn't played more gunslingers, because his face was built for it. Under the shadow of a wide-brimmed hat, his skin looks believably weathered and creased, his bone structure sturdy and chiseled. By contrast, Harris's costar, Viggo Mortensen, is not what I think of when I think "cowboy." He's long and lean and hardly recognizable under a strange (but probably historically accurate) haircut and facial hair. His character drags around one of those giant long-barreled shotguns as opposed to expertly twirling a smaller one out of his holster.

The pair make a fine acting duo; they have an easy chemistry I could watch all night long. Beyond that, Appaloosa tells a well-thought-out story. But unlike Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven or last year's remake of 3:10 to Yuma, there is no new cinematic ground being broken here. For the most part, it's simply a traditional Western, which — depending on your outlook — can either be a great way to spend a night at the movies or a teensy bit disappointing. To see what I mean, just read more

I'm trying to separate the experience of watching the movie Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist from the experience of reading the book. In truth, the two bear only a few similarities and I enjoyed the book more than the movie. Still, as a standalone piece of entertainment, the movie version is fun and silly and adorable, mostly due to the great cast. At the heart of what's so likable about it are Nick and Norah themselves, two precocious, creative, music-loving teens who spend a wacky night in New York City together, both learning to grow beyond their past relationships and into something that feels exciting and right. Ah, young love. Is there anything sweeter?

If there is, it's Michael Cera's cute little face. He plays Nick, a funny, self-deprecating young man who is the sole straight guy in his band. He's struggling to get over his ex, Tris (Alexis Dziena), when he meets Norah (Kat Dennings), a droll, witty girl who shares Nick's love for a band called Where's Fluffy? Nick and Norah have an immediate connection and Nick's bandmates, sensing the possibility for Nick to forget Tris, offer to take Norah's drunk friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) home, and send Norah off with Nick in his yellow, beat-up Yugo. Things go awry, of course: Caroline runs away from Nick's friends, Nick and Norah have a fight, Tris becomes jealous and follows Nick around the city, and Norah's sort-of-ex-boyfriend Tal (Jay Baruchel) keeps making Norah feel conflicted. Through it all, these cool, indie teens are trying to figure out where Where's Fluffy? is playing their secret show in New York. For my thoughts on all this, read more

Of course The Duchess is dramatic. Georgiana Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire, led a dramatic life and she herself was a dramatic — and smart, and charismatic — woman. I really liked this movie, but I might have liked it more if it were a slightly broader examination of the Duchess. I don't mean that they should have included more years in her life (I think that would have been a mistake) but the vast majority of the film is about her romantic and reproductive woes. She was a daring, intelligent, and remarkably influential woman during a time when women were expected to be anything but those things. While I liked this sweeping period drama, I might have enjoyed less soap opera and a tad more substance.

The costumes, however, cannot be disputed, for they are devastatingly gorgeous. I would watch this movie over and over with the sound off just to feast my eyes on the clothes. Dressed to perfection in every scene, Keira Knightley plays Georgiana, who marries William Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire when she is just a teenager. The marriage is soon strained as it appears that Georgiana will only bear daughters. While the relationship grows bitter in private, Georgiana starts to become quite popular in public and immerses herself in the world of politics and high society. She's a natural charmer and trend-setter, though her husband puts more and more distance between them, choosing other women over his wife. Before long, Georgiana finds herself falling in love with a young politician, Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper), but the threat of scandal proves too great for the Duke and Duchess and a relationship with Charles is forbidden. There's much more to the story, but I won't spoil things for you. I can still share some thoughts, though, so read more

As you might've predicted, Nights in Rodanthe is a sentimental, non-threatening weepie that could have just as easily been made for TV and run on the Hallmark channel. The story is bland and yet sugar-saturated at the same time. It's tame, not too racy and it features unlayered characters. There’s redemption in the male character’s storyline and an awakening in the woman’s. It’s boring as all get-out sometimes, and tries its damndest to make you cry. So, in other words, it's your average Nicholas Sparks stuff.

Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane) separated from her husband after he cheated on her with her best friend. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) is a doctor whose workaholic tendencies drove away his wife and son (played by James Franco). After a patient dies on his operating table, Paul travels to Rodanthe to meet with the patient's husband. He stays at the inn that Adrienne is running while her friend is away. There's a big storm that brings the two of them together, bada bing bada boom, they both learn how to love again. What follows is a string of scenes meant to be either heartwarming or heartbreaking, depending on Diane Lane's incredibly expressive face. For more of my thoughts on all this, read more

It's hard to say bad things about a movie this well-intentioned and sweet. It's a story about Iraq War soldiers that is heartwarming and funny, which is something we haven't seen much in films about the current war. I have no idea why the trailer for The Lucky Ones includes Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You," a song practically engineered to force people to cry, because this movie isn't really sad. I brought tissues and I didn't even use them.

Rachel McAdams is the biggest reason to see this, as her character is so incredibly endearing and McAdams portrays her perfectly. She plays Colee, a young soldier on a 30-day leave from Iraq after a gunshot wound to the leg. Colee is an (extremely) open book, blunt to a fault and full of wide-eyed, childlike naiveté. Tim Robbins is career soldier Cheever who is leaving the Army for good after suffering a back injury. Michael Pena plays TK, a bit of an insufferable know-it-all whose "private parts" are not quite back to normal after being wounded. The three are stranded in New York when they land and discover that all flights have been canceled. There is one rental car available to them at the airport, and thus the three embark on a road trip together. Nothing — seriously, nothing — goes as planned, however, and challenges pop up for these characters faster than a whack-a-mole game. This bombardment of predicaments is both funny and problematic, though, so to find out more, read more

The conflicted and heroic history of World War II's Buffalo Soldiers deserves to be told in a dramatic and thoughtful movie. Unfortunately, Miracle at St. Anna is neither of those things. After seeing the subtle trailer, I was curious how Spike Lee's style would translate into a war epic, but I never imagined this. The overdone melodrama is so weighed down with trivial details that it loses the potentially powerful impact of its subject matter.

With Miracle at St. Anna, Lee sets out to correct that fact that black soldiers have been largely absent from WWII cinema and memory. To that end, the story follows four members of the 92nd Infantry Division, comprised of 15,000 African-American troops. After a devastating battle on the Italian frontlines, the surviving foursome — Stamps (Derek Luke), Bishop (Michael Ealy), Hector (Laz Alonso), and Train (Omar Benson Miller) — are left to fend for themselves with a broken radio and an injured Italian kid they've picked up along the way. For what goes wrong, read more

The story of Big Brother watching and controlling all of the helpless citizens in Eagle Eye might be more effective if it weren't quite so preposterous. That said, this movie intends to thrill and entertain, and it succeeds on all counts. It holds your attention with all the plot twists and the bombardment of explosions, the kind of explosions that make a certain audience cheer. Eagle Eye will probably not be an award-winner, but it's great for when you want to totally escape with a loud, ridiculous, big ol' Hollywood popcorn flick.

For starters, the two leads are seriously likable. I so enjoy watching Michelle Monaghan in pretty much anything (even crap like Made of Honor) because she seems so comfortable on screen. She's like someone we all might know. Not average, really, but familiar in a comforting way — smart, nurturing, sweet, tough. And Shia LaBeouf is utterly adorable in this film. It doesn't ask much of him, but he delivers nicely nonetheless. He plays Jerry Shaw, a slacker living in Chicago and having trouble making ends meet. The sudden death of his estranged twin brother Ethan sets off a series of baffling occurrences for Jerry, starting with a strange woman contacting him on the phone just as he's being set up to look like a terrorist. Oh, this is only the beginning, though, so read more

There's been some controversy and outrage surrounding Alan Ball's adaptation of Alicia Erian's novel Towelhead, which I might understand more if I hadn’t read the original work. People are calling the film "abhorrent," "ethically reprehensible and irresponsible," and "gratuitously offensive." And yet, this isn't really Ball’s fault. His adaptation is completely faithful to the novel — I don’t think there’s even one line of dialogue or one bit of action that isn’t in the book — so why wasn't there this reaction to the novel?

The story is shocking and disturbing. It’s a coming-of-age tale focusing on a young woman (Jasira, played poignantly by Summer Bishil in the film) who is half-Lebanese and half-white, living in a largely white Texas community with a strict father and a leery older male neighbor. Everything Jasira does (from using tampons to dating a black boy) seems to anger her father and disappoint her mother (played by Maria Bello). So, Jasira confuses the attention she gets from her leery neighbor (Aaron Eckhart) with a kind of true affection, which he easily exploits. Jasira's young sense of self and her burgeoning understanding of sexuality get all mixed up with abuse and humiliation and — occasionally — pleasure. This is just the tip-top of the iceberg, so read more