Mummy Returns, The (2001)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

The joy of 1999’s The Mummy, an Indiana Jones homage with a breezy attitude and exhilarating action, was that it moved light on its feet. This sequel, like most, gets bogged down by an overblown scope (relentless special effects, a convoluted narrative) designed to meet high expectations. Featuring the ballyhooed appearance of professional wrestling’s The

National Lampoon’s Pucked (2006)

Comedy Rated R

This Z-grade comedy centers on an aging slacker who sits around dreaming up doomed ideas. The movie could be one of them. Consider the producers’ decision to cast Jon Bon Jovi in the lead role. The rock star has held his own in dramatic parts (U-571), but he looks dazed in a comedy. Not that

Osama (2003)

Drama Rated PG-13

This 2003 drama follows a widowed mother and her daughter in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. As they struggle to make ends meet in that closed society, their only hope is to have the girl pose as a boy so she can work. The movie’s roots go back to the neorealist tradition of post-World War II Italy. Using

Tripper, The (2006)

Horror Rated R

"Exhibit A for Courteney Cox if she does end up divorcing David Arquette…"

Fracture (2007)

Thriller Rated R

“There are times when you can tell Gosling is as entertained by Hopkins’ antics as we are…

Hot Fuzz (2007)

Comedy Rated R

“…such a dead-on parody of the Michael Bay school of loud, senseless and bombastic action cinema that it gave me an authentic Bad Boys headache.

American Gangster (2007)

Drama Rated R

“What are the chances you would leave a movie starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe shrugging your shoulders?

Perfect Stranger (2007)

Thriller Rated R

“It’s hard to choose the ickiest part of Perfect Stranger…

Vertigo (1958)

Thriller Rated NR

Vertigo is too fussy and hermetic to be the best film from Alfred Hitchcock (that would be Rear Window), yet it certainly is his defining picture – the one that reveals the obsessiveness at the center of his art. Kim Novak is the center of obsession as Madeleine, a suicidal San Francisco socialite who is

Casanova (2005)

Romantic Comedy Rated R

This doesn’t quite have the devotion to zaniness that excellent farce requires – director Lasse Hallstrom keeps squeezing in forced sentiment – but the madcap cast makes the movie a minor delight nonetheless. Heath Ledger ably anchors this comic riff on the legendary lover and writer of 18th-century Venice, while Jeremy Irons and Oliver Platt,