MELANCHOLIA

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 136 minutes

“Melancholia” is a stunning achievement artistically, intellectually and in terms of filmmaking craftsmanship. Its closing moments rank with the most unsettling and lovely ever put on film…

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Rick Kisonak

THE DESCENDANTS

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 115 minutes

It’s a smarter-than-average soap opera with its share of dandy dialogue and fine performances but a glorified soap opera nonetheless…

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Rick Kisonak

MARGIN CALL

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 107 minutes

My sense is the filmmaker could have moved the last two acts along at a brisker pace as everyone knows what happened next…

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Rick Kisonak

TOWER HEIST

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 104 minutes

The movie is most effective when Murphy is on screen tutoring his mild mannered gang in the ways of grand larceny. He doesn’t attain the sassy heights of his Axel Foley heyday but comes close enough to remind us what a force of nature he once could be…

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Rick Kisonak

THE RUM DIARY

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 120 minutes

While it’s a noble and rare thing for a Hollywood star to champion great literature, Depp would probably at this point be doing his late friend a favor by getting back to swashbuckling and letting Hunter Thompson’s twisted, timeless work speak for itself…

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Rick Kisonak

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 85 minutes

As did its predecessors, “Paranormal Activity 3″ ultimately raises more questions than it answers…

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Rick Kisonak

THE BIG YEAR

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: PG
Running Time: 90 minutes

Frankel has not quite realized its full oddball potential. Nonetheless, “The Big Year” is indisputably a far more rewarding 90 minutes than most are likely to suspect…

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Rick Kisonak

THE IDES OF MARCH

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 101 minutes

Honestly, they would’ve been better off just updating “The Candidate.” “The Ides of March,” in the end, offers everything that beltway exposé did nearly 40 years ago and less…

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Rick Kisonak

50/50

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 99 minutes

This is a picture which took me totally by surprise, a story that manages to be tremendously touching and fall down funny while nimbly side stepping every cliché of the genre…

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Rick Kisonak

I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 89 minutes

What I’d like to know is why they let her keep doing it. Did the suits responsible for green lighting this derivative dreck not see “Sex and the City 2″?

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Rick Kisonak

THE LAST MOUNTAIN

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: PG
Running Time: 95 minutes

Freddy Krueger looks like Mister Rogers next to some of the walking, talking monsters in this movie…

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Rick Kisonak

THE DEVIL’S DOUBLE

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 109 minutes

Even with fictionalized elements added, this tale of look-alikes who couldn’t have been less alike had the potential to be wild and insightful stuff…

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Rick Kisonak

THE GUARD

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 96 minutes

It’s a shame Brendan Gleeson is pretty much universally acknowledged to be Ireland’s finest living actor because his Sgt. Gerry Boyle would have made one hell of a breakthrough role…

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Rick Kisonak