Reviwed by Richard Lee Zuras
Released July 24, 2009
1 hr. 36 min.
Marc Webb/Fox Searchlight Films
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Zooey Deschanel
Full disclosure: I am a huge Zooey Deschanel fan. (Though I haven’t seen her recent years-long slew of Indie films.) I “discovered” her in her first film, a decade ago, entitled Mumford. Since then, as she has appeared in films […]
Reviewed by Richard Lee Zuras
Released July 1, 2009
2 hr. 20 min.
Michael Mann/Universal
Johnny Depp
Christian Bale
Marion Cotillard
Billy Crudup
Jason Clarke
Giovanni Ribisi
If you aren’t Michael Bay (Transformers), you can do a lot of good with $80 million. Michael Mann has spent his money wisely. The actors are top notch, and in the case of both Depp and Crudup more […]
Reviewed by Richard Lee Zuras
Released May 8, 2009
2 hr. 6 min.
PG-13
J.J. Abrams/Paramount
Leonard Nimoy
Zachary Quinto
Chris Pine
Zoe Saldana
Eric Bana
Bruce Greenwood
Simon Pegg
John Cho
When one watches the pilot episode of a tv show, one is usually advised to allow for the fact that pilot shows are at a disadvantage: they plan to run for a long time–exposing and engaging […]
Reviewed by Richard Lee Zuras
Released Jan. 30, 2009
1 hr. 33 min.
PG-13
Pierre Morel/20th Century Fox
Liam Neeson
Famke Jannsen
Maggie Grace
Xander Berkeley
It is time to wake up and question the world around us. I don’t mean to say here that we should wake up and question the corruption that is allowing prostitution rings like the one in this movie–I […]
Reviewed by Richard Lee Zuras
Released Feb. 13, 2009
1 hr. 45 min.
PG
P.J.Hogan/Bruckheimer Films
Isla Fisher
Hugh Dancy
Krysten Ritter
Critics used to exist to steer folks away from movies like this. In this day and age, people seldom listen to the critics–even when, en masse, the critics rise up and sound the alarm: This film may be hazardous to your […]
Reviewed by Richard Lee Zuras
Released Jan. 11, 2009
1 hr. 56 min.
R
Clint Eastwood/Warner Brothers
Clint Eastwood
Christopher Carley
Bee Vang
Ahney Hur
John Carroll Lynch
Rumored (falsely) to be the last Dirty Harry film, Gran Torino lives up to that lineage in many ways. Though the film does not center around the old Eastwood character, per se, the bitter, recently widowed, do-it-my-way, […]
Reviewed by Richard Lee Zuras
Released Jan. 16, 2009
1 hr. 31 min.
PG
Steve Carr/Columbia Pictures
Kevin James
Bobby Cannavale
Jayma Mays
Peter Gerety
Keir O’Donnell
Odd as it might be to fathom, Paul Blart was/is a heavily marketed vehicle film for Kevin James. Albeit that the vehicle employed truly is a Segway. But a Segway is exactly the kind of vehicle the Kevin […]
Reviewed by Richard Lee Zuras
Released Dec. 25, 2008
2 hr. 41 min.
PG-13
David Fincher/Paramount&WB
Brad Pitt
Cate Blanchett
Tilda Swinton
Taraji P. Henson
Julia Ormond
Who would ever have thought that a short story F. Scott Fitzgerald’s agent had trouble selling would one day become a thirteen time oscar nominated $150,000,000 budget blockbuster?
Perhaps the question should be: For those who have read Fitzgerald’s […]
Reviewed by Richard Lee Zuras
Released Dec. 25
I hr. 44 min.
PG-13
John Patrick Shanley/Miramax
Meryl Streep
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Amy Adams
Viola Davis
Some films have divining rods built into them. It may be argued that a film such as Doubt has such a rod. After all, who among us that has been raised in or amongst those who […]
Jan. 17, 2009
Reviewed by Richard Lee Zuras
Released Jan. 16, 2009
2 hr. 17 min.
R
Edward Zwick/The Weinstein Company
Daniel Craig
Liev Schreiber
Mark Feuerstein
Jamie Bell
This is a truly defiant movie. On one hand Defiance is the true story of a band of Jewish me, women, and children who fled to the Belarussian forests during Hitler’s 1941 campaign. But it is […]
