“The Woman in Black,” a shadowy supernatural tale of a ghost who haunts and terrorizes a small English town, doesn’t scream Oscar material, but does make for some face-hiding, seat-squirming fun. Daniel Radcliffe (“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II”) plays the more mature role of Arthur Kipps, a… Read more »

Late 19th century Dublin is a place of hardships; fear of typhoid and poverty grip citizens as they go about their daily lives in a struggle to survive. Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close, “Damages”) is among the lucky few employed as a waiter in an upscale hotel, making enough money to… Read more »

Stephen Daldry’s (“The Reader”) newest screen adaptation, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” is a well thought-out story of a 9/11 child-victim’s struggle to cope with loss. But it tries a bit too hard. Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn, debut) and his father (Tom Hanks, “Larry Crowne”) have a visibly close relationship.… Read more »

Wolves are back, but it’s not another “Twilight” sequel. This winter, there is “The Grey,” an existential man-versus-beast flick with more violence than sense and more fun than substance. “The Grey” is rated R, presumably to keep out immature viewers. But its pudgy, cartoonish wolf monsters would barely convince a… Read more »

Meryl Streep does what she can with a poorly constructed overview of the highlights of Margaret Thatcher’s career as the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom in director Phyllida Lloyd’s “The Iron Lady.” Margaret Thatcher (Streep, “It’s Complicated”) is losing her mind to dementia. Her dead husband (Jim… Read more »

On the heels of the successful American version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” Hollywood shows once again that damsels aren’t always in distress. Some cause it. In “Haywire,” the latest thriller from director Steven Soderbergh (“Contagion”), a highly skilled operative (Gina Carano, “Blood and Bone”) seeks revenge after… Read more »

The silent movie genre has long been considered extinct, but French writer/director Michel Hazanavicius revives the format in the film he calls his love letter to cinema, “The Artist.” In 1927, Hollywood’s most beloved silent film star is George Valentin (Jean Dujardin, “A View of Love”), a handsome, dashing heartthrob… Read more »

What makes a good candidate for a book-to-film adaptation? No one would touch Tolkien’s popular Lord of the Rings trilogy until Peter Jackson finally approached it in the early 2000s. And fans of American novelist William Faulkner probably never could have believed his unchronological, stream-of-consciousness interior monologue-filled book “As I… Read more »

For the first time in seven years, I was denied admission to a movie because it was sold out. With the increase in ticket prices and decrease in audience attendance recently, I was understandably surprised. So I bought tickets for the next show time of “The Muppets” and resisted George… Read more »

Compelling and emotional, “J. Edgar” will captivate audiences. Director Clint Eastwood (“Hereafter”) and writer Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”) outdid themselves in recounting the remarkable life of the late J. Edgar Hoover, who served nearly 50 years as the face of law enforcement in America. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the difficult role… Read more »

The most recent, visually stunning film from Danish director Lars von Trier, “Melancholia,” is without question the masterpiece of his career. Tackling the staggering subject of the apocalypse, von Trier has managed to present the end of days as both heart-wrenching and beautiful. He begins with an eight-minute prologue similar in… Read more »

Tonight, Madison’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community will have the chance to glow in the limelight. Through Sunday, the Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Film Committee will be hosting the Reel Love Film Festival. This festival is the city’s first film fest devoted to exploring LGBT identities and cultures. While the… Read more »

“There’s a thin veneer between the dream and the reality. You wake ‘em up and people might ask for their money back.” These cynical words come from a weary editor who cautions journalist Frank Kemp (Johnny Depp, “Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides”), from reporting on hard-hitting issues that… Read more »

It’s hard to imagine that anything new, interesting or exciting could possibly happen in the “Paranormal Activity” series’ third attempt at a decently scary film. The biggest shock in the theater this year wasn’t the overused demon motif or the cheesy, superficial acting. The surprise was the large crowd that… Read more »

There’s no reason that a logical flaw should be central to an evaluation of a movie about shape-shifting aliens in Antarctica. It’s a premise so absurd that stepping into the theater signals a sort of implicit contract between viewer and filmmakers to suspend disbelief for an hour and a half… Read more »

Kevin Bacon’s iconic role in the 1984 version of “Footloose” will always have a special place in the hearts of film aficionados. His powerful and emotional dance scene in an abandoned warehouse is a film sequence that will never be forgotten. The idea that Director Craig Brewer (“Black Snake Moan”)… Read more »

From the opening scene of his newest movie, Ryan Gosling makes one thing very clear: He’s come a long way since “The Notebook,” and there’s no turning back. The up-and-comer heads an impressive cast in the highly anticipated political drama “The Ides of March,” which came out Friday. The film… Read more »

The not so typical romantic comedy “What’s Your Number?” is a perfect blend of over-the-top humor and sentimental moments. Ally Darling (Anna Faris, “The House Bunny”) is a fiery, outspoken party girl who is on a quest for love after numerous failed relationships. From the opening lines of the movie,… Read more »

Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, “Inception”) seemingly has it all — a hot girlfriend, a solid job, a loyal friend and a supportive mom — until he goes to his doctor to get what he thinks is just irritating back pain checked out. It turns out he has neurofibroma sarcoma schwannoma —… Read more »

Any Badger likely remembers their tour of the school, if they had one. Despite all of the marketing and hype, tour guides always readily admitted what they believed to be the school’s only flaw: There was no movie theater within walking distance. And yet, despite the frequency of this complaint,… Read more »

We touch our face 2,000 to 3,000 times a day, according to Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet, “The Reader”) in the recently released medical thriller, “Contagion.” This statistic makes the possibility of catching an airborne virus chilling, especially given how many objects we touch throughout the day—objects riddled with the… Read more »

Not everything is just as good 12 years later, but due to some twists and revamps over the years, the Cinematheque film series at the University of Wisconsin has proven to do just that. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that so many people love films — each is a piece… Read more »

Unfortunately, nice guys don’t always finish first. That’s the case for Ned (Paul Rudd) in “Our Idiot Brother,” whose unrelenting honesty and good-natured attitude gets him into trouble. After being tricked by a uniformed police officer who wanted to buy pot from him (Ned tries to give it to him… Read more »

An obvious creation of the French screen-writer and producer Luc Besson (“The Fifth Element”) and self-dubbed director Olivier Megaton (“Transporter 3”), “Colombiana” is an action packed, revenge-centric B-movie starring the gorgeous Zoe Saldana (“Takers”). The film begins in Bogotá with young schoolgirl Cataleya (Amandla Stenberg in her debut feature film)… Read more »

It’s finally here: The end of an era, the final installment of the phenomenon that defined a generation: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 2.”  This is a conclusion more than 10 years in the making, and those belonging to the generation the series defined have a special stake in… Read more »

Say you were just sitting around one day and a mysterious ball of green light encapsulated you and dragged you off to the location of a crashed alien spaceship. I would hope you would attempt to pinch yourself awake, or at least question what in the world was going on. Or… Read more »

The last time a bee was the focus of a major motion picture, audiences narrowly avoided disaster in Jerry Seinfeld’s “Bee Movie.” This time, human civilization might not be so lucky, or so would argue the environmental documentary “Queen of the Sun,” from director Taggart Siegel, screening this weekend at Sundance Cinemas.… Read more »

It’s probably best to get this out of the way immediately: “Fast Five” is not going to win any awards for excellence in filmmaking. It isn’t a life-changing movie by any stretch of the imagination. This fact doesn’t matter, however, because it never tries to be a movie like that.… Read more »

FOUND Magazine, the brainchild of Michigan native Davy Rothbart, is almost like an unwitting PostSecret. People from across the country send random notes, photos, stories and scraps of paper that they’ve found to Rothbart, who then assembles them in a magazine. The magazine is also a central subject in filmmaker… Read more »

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, “Twilight” lovers of all ages! Step right up for a filmmaking spectacular that will leave you dazzled, romantically satisfied and all-the-more confident that Robert Pattinson cannot act but can look dang good while (not) doing it.Whether your faith lies with Robert Pattinson and… Read more »

“Don’t fuck with the original,” swears Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, Wes Craven’s not-so-distressed damsel in the latest installment of his hit slasher franchise, “Scream.” Craven (“My Soul to Take”), known for the ultra-self-allusiveness of his horror flicks, takes his trademark to the brink of absurdity — with perhaps a… Read more »

Summer blockbusters. Next to Thanksgiving and Christmas, those precious three months of sun and fun may be the most lucrative seasonal opportunity for Hollywood to serve up amusing comedy romps and mind-blowing adventure flicks theater-goers still continue to ponder (read: “Inception”). Whatever the genre, summer movies are notoriously coveted on… Read more »

Once upon a time — in a land far, far away, where two moons existed instead of one and wizard weed ruled supreme — two men decided to embark on a journey to design a comedic fantasy film. Along the way, they managed to pick up prestigious Hollywood actors such… Read more »

There’s something intriguing about a child being raised away from civilization; a kind of Mowgli brought up by wolves. Think, then, about when that child is reintroduced to the modern world—never having seen electricity or another child to play with. This is the life of Hanna (Saoirse Ronan, “The Lovely… Read more »

An island is very representative of Joe Wright’s (“The Atonement,” “The Soloist”) latest creation, “Hanna.” All three leads, Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana and Saoirse Ronan, were actually born on one — Blanchett and Bana in Australia and Ronan in New York City. Plus, the latter actress was raised on yet… Read more »

Dramatic and strangely romantic, “Jane Eyre” is resurrected in this modern day adaptation, which does not disappoint in packing a powerful punch. There have been upward of 20 TV and movie adaptions to Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 classic novel “Jane Eyre,” but Cary Joji Fukunaga trumps any other attempt at bringing… Read more »

Preceded by previews that seem redundant and showy and boasting a plot line that’s definitely been done before, “Limitless” encourages the audience to set its expectations low and brace for a predictable action flick filled with flamboyant and drug- trippy cinematic techniques. But instead, “Limitless” puts on quite a show… Read more »

We’ve all been exposed to aliens and foreign invasions in the realm of popular culture. But rarely do we witness an apocalyptic fight between mankind and extraterrestrials from a first-person perspective, all set in the sprawling expanse of Los Angeles. The upcoming film “Battle: Los Angeles” has been touted by… Read more »

It’s not often an audience of all ages can laugh uproariously at the misadventures of a chameleon donning a Hawaiian shirt. Then again, it’s not often Johnny Depp (“The Tourist”) is providing the voice of said lizard. Acquaint yourself with Rango: A much less phlegmatic Clint Eastwood reincarnated as an… Read more »

Picture this: potty jokes, body parts, a car chase or two and Owen Wilson. If this sounds appealing, then “Hall Pass” is the flick for you. As for the rest of us, we can easily use a “pass” of our own and skip out on the Farrelly brothers’ (“The Heartbreak… Read more »

It seems Johnny Depp finally caught the fever — Bieber fever, that is. “We just established that I’m a Belieber,” Depp said while shaking the “Never Say Never” star’s hand at a recent “Rango” press conference in Los Angeles. Depp was describing how he first channeled his inner lizard to… Read more »

BEST PICTURE 127 Hours Black Swan The Fighter Inception The Kids Are All Right The King’s Speech (WINNER) The Social Network Toy Story 3 True Grit Winter’s Bone Last year, the Academy doubled the number of Best Picture nominations to ten for the first time since 1943. The Oscars will take on the same format this season, yet once again,… Read more »

For a film complete with high-speed car chases, conspiracy theories, a bout of amnesia and the uncertainty of losing one’s sanity, Liam Neeson’s latest action thriller, “Unknown,” attempts to cover the formulaic bases of a satisfying suspense film. Unfortunately, while the snow swirls around Berlin’s historic landmarks, the film’s plot… Read more »

What happens when a little white lie turns into a web of lies, forcing someone to give a sheep CPR? You just go with it. One bizarre scene after the next makes “Just Go With It” the perfect title for Adam Sandler’s latest movie. Sandler (“Grown Ups”) plays a plastic… Read more »

Most are familiar with the scene. It’s August, and the time has come to move out and head off to college, where an assigned roommate awaits. While this time is certainly anxiety-ridden, having an obsessive roommate seems an unlikely worry. Or does it? Enter “The Roommate,” a recent release bringing… Read more »

When the word “exorcism” is heard by a moviegoer, it dredges up images of contortions, spinning heads and the spewing of split pea soup. “The Rite,” however, uses drastically more modern special effects, although to a less eerie and less disturbing effect. Sir Anthony Hopkins (“The Wolfman”) is undoubtedly the… Read more »

Audiences have seen Natalie Portman as a troubled child, a prostitute, a comic book teenager and a galactic queen. With such an eclectic and highly-regarded repertoire, the multi-Golden Globe winner’s ability to ease Katherine Heigl-style into a romantic comedy comes, at face value, as a shock. However, as soon as… Read more »

“She looks like my child,” Ashton Kutcher said jokingly of his “No Strings Attached” co-star, Natalie Portman. It’s true, the former underwear model towers over the “Garden State” star’s 5-foot-3 stature, a disjunctive exterior that has caused some to consider them an unlikely matchup as onscreen sexual partners. However, “No… Read more »

The Green Hornet is hardly a household name. From the 1930s radio program that started it all to the 1960s television show which floundered after its first season, the Hornet has failed to maintain much buzz over the years. Compared to Christopher Nolan’s dark and brooding Dark Knight franchise, or… Read more »

When it comes to boxing, a true contender is judged by his performance inside the ring. In movies, however, it’s what happens once the fighter steps off the canvas that can make or break the film. It’s watching Rocky overcome adversity as he sprints up the stone steps of the… Read more »

Everybody loves an underdog. Since biblical times when David downed Goliath, people have been drawn to the little guy, no matter whether it’s in sports, life or even a little of both. “The Fighter,” an upcoming boxing biopic from director David O. Russell (“I Heart Huckabees”), tells the true… Read more »

The first time audiences saw Jake Gyllenhaal (“Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”) and Anne Hathaway (“Alice in Wonderland”) together was in “Brokeback Mountain,” where Hathaway plays the wife of Gyllenhaal’s character, who carries on an intimate relationship with another man. Besides an awkward sex scene, viewers really didn’t… Read more »

Ever since “Hairspray” in 2007, musical lovers have been waiting in anticipation for another film to project singing, dancing, costumes and overall energy of live performance theater onto the silver screen. Steve Antin’s newest film “Burlesque,” an upbeat film starring Cher and Christina Aguilera, has renewed this collision of… Read more »

I first landed in the wizarding world when I was 10. My mom, my sister and I were visiting our grandparents in Vancouver and my grandma had the first Harry Potter book waiting for me. I was skeptical about a book full of barely-pronounceable Latin spells and a main character… Read more »

Excuse me laying this on you, but I’ve had a crisis of faith recently. It started in class the other week, when a clip of 1998’s “The Siege” was shown. After the conclusion of the trailer, the professor in question asked for responses to the clip. “I just can’t… Read more »

“Morning Glory” is just as bright and perky as it sounds. A fairly standard romantic comedy, it comes darn close to hitting all of the right notes while still managing to fall short on emotional investment and a believable love story. Despite this, “Glory” is an enjoyable romantic comedy with… Read more »

Let’s face it: After bringing us the epically original “The Hangover,” director Todd Phillips has got some tough shoes to fill — his own. With its 2009 release, “friendships” quickly became known as “wolf packs” and a blundering bearded man was put on the map as a comical genius. As… Read more »

The final scenes of “Saw VI” answered nearly every question “Saw” devotees might have been asking since the end of the franchise’s first installment in 2004. A few things were left open-ended (i.e. what happened to the handful of people who survived Jigsaw’s traps over the years by mutilating themselves… Read more »

Criticize mainstream Hollywood actors and entertainers as you will; berate its constituents, scoff at the thespians you once idolized and enjoy their illustrious fall from underground grace to commercial commonality to all to your pretentious hearts’ content, but know this: Some semblance of fortitude remains in front of the silver… Read more »

Matt Damon’s new film “Hereafter,” although compelling, provides no answers to what comes after death and might not be worth the eight dollars and two hours spent to learn nothing. In the story a French journalist, an American psychic and a young English boy, all experience death and are only… Read more »

The boys are back. After 10 years, two movies and a slew of hospital trips, Johnny Knoxville and company have returned with another compilation of reckless pranks and stunts in “Jackass 3-D.” As always, they will shock you, make you laugh and occasionally gross you out. But before getting into… Read more »

You could call it a joke with one hell of a punch line. At the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, a table accommodating roughly 20 reporters sits in the dead center of an uncomfortably large room. A white tablecloth extends from end to end, upon which pitchers of water sit… Read more »

As the sun rose over the Belmont Stakes track in Elmont, N.Y., on June 9, 1973, horse groomer Eddie Sweat announced the world was “gonna see something you ain’t ever seen before.” He was indeed correct. On that day, the thoroughbred horse Secretariat became the first horse to win the… Read more »

It took David Fincher 99 takes to get the opening scene of “The Social Network” just right. On the surface the scene looks simple. It’s just a conversation between Mark Zuckerberg and his soon to be ex-girlfriend Erica Albright. They talk about Mark’s obsession with Harvard’s elite Final Clubs then… Read more »

Let’s be honest, sequels usually blow. It is just another way for film industries to try to make more money without putting that much effort into it. It is quite rare when the sequel surpasses the original film. In this case, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” didn’t necessary bypass the… Read more »

Ben Affleck’s latest directing foray starts as a typical bank robbery film. It’s “Ocean’s Eleven” with a Boston accent, or maybe “Point Break” in the slums just outside of Fenway Park. However, as the film progresses it becomes something different. It slowly changes into an existential prison escape film that… Read more »

Loosely based on the classic romantic novel, “The Scarlet Letter,” teen queen Emma Stone’s (Zombieland) “Easy A” centers around Olive, a straight-laced high school girl who, after faking the loss of her virginity, finds her life mirroring that of Hester Prynne. Rumors, drama and judgments ensue as Olive tries to… Read more »

When the trailers for “Going the Distance” first premiered, a glimmer of hope for the future of rom-coms emerged from the depths of this disappointing genre. First of all, Katherine Heigl was nowhere to be found — a key ingredient for the potential success of any film. Secondly, the concept… Read more »

Despite its seemingly epic title, “The Last Exorcism” may not be what you’re expecting to see. Since “The Blair Witch Project” in 1999 to more recent films like “Paranormal Activity” and “The Fourth Kind,” mockumentary horror films have terrified their audiences by leading them into a false wicked reality. While… Read more »

Whipping audiences through the world of top-notch robberies, new flick “Takers” is sure to impress. While it sports a cast that will steal the hearts of female viewers, “Takers” is surrounded by a sea of action completely driven by testosterone. “Takers” ‘takes’ the audience’s attention from the get-go and does… Read more »

Inception: \in-‘sep-sh n\ noun: An act, process, or instance of beginning; commencement. The definition of “inception” according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, and the title of Christopher Nolan’s (“The Dark Night”) latest psychological masterpiece, leaves a lot to be explained. What are we embarking on exactly, and what do we hope to… Read more »

On Friday, “Star Trek” will return to the silver screen for the first time in more than six years, yet, this time around there will be no Patrick Stewart or William Shatner at the helm of the starship Enterprise. What there will be, though, is a massive amount of… Read more »

In film, the biopic genre is like a double-edged sword. If you attempt to tell the tale of a widely recognized public figure, you have to make a rehashed story captivating nonetheless. On the other hand, if you tackle a virtual nobody, you face the challenge of having audiences… Read more »

Throughout the years, a number of British exports have had immense success here in the United States. Whether it is The Beatles, “The Office” or fish and chips, there is just something about these select cultural phenoms that Americans cannot get enough of. One such export is the exciting… Read more »

On the very first page of Facebook bumper stickers are several pictures of the sexy southerner Lucas Till with sayings like, “The reason why I went to the Hannah Montana movie,” and, “Screw Miley — I spent $10 for this,” proving not just eight-year-olds went to see “Hannah Montana: The… Read more »

What do giant stuffed pandas, pot cookies, bad hair and college burnouts have in common? They are just a few of the quirky characters featured in one of the most genuinely charming comedies of the year. “Adventureland” may seem like just another romantic coming-of-age story — or the type… Read more »

It must be a strange feeling to be the star of a hit movie as a young teen, then to grow up and be in a remake of the same movie. This is precisely what Kim Richards and Iake Eissinmann do in “Race to Witch Mountain.” Richards and Eissinmann… Read more »

Director Tony Gilroy’s latest big-screen release “Duplicity” seems to have all the makings to follow in the footsteps of one of his most popular hits “The Bourne Identity” trilogy, complete with a whirlwind of espionage, suspense and action. Unfortunately, Gilroy’s blockbuster formula failed him. “Duplicity” actually lacks all of… Read more »