Island, The (2005)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

What would it take to turn your world upside down? For me, it took seeing a good Michael Bay movie. With a newfound feel for a competent action sequence and a strong story to support him – namely a science-fiction yarn about two clones (Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson) fighting for their independence – Bay

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated R

“…the action sequences still have the shock of something new.”

Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The (2004)

Comedy Rated R

All of writer-director Wes Anderson’s droll comedies revolve around a club of some sort – from the inept robbers of Bottle Rocket to the family of former geniuses in The Royal Tenenbaums – and this effort is no different, as Bill Murray plays a reckless oceanographer leading his crew on a disastrous expedition. For all

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated R

“…the disappointment The Matrix Reloaded was accused of being.”

Meet the Parents (2000)

Comedy Rated PG-13

Nobody expresses flabbergasted fluster with as much deranged gusto as Ben Stiller, and he gets plenty of chances to do just that here as a boyfriend (and male nurse) looking to impress his girlfriend’s father (Robert De Niro). If the Academy Awards weren’t too snooty to recognize comedic talent, this breezy, riotous comedy would have

Flirting with Disaster (1996)

Comedy Rated R

More id insanity from director David O. Russell (Spanking the Monkey), who wrote and directed this wild farce about a neurotic new father (Ben Stiller, in one of his defining early roles) who drags his wife (Patricia Arquette) on a cross-country search for his birth parents. Along for the ride is the severely unstable adoption

Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated R

It would be easier to admire the can-do philosophy of Robert Rodriguez – he writes, directs, shoots and edits most of his movies with digital-video technology – if the results were as ingenious as the process. This third installment in his series about a mariachi-turned-assassin (Antonio Banderas, joined this time by Johnny Depp), looks slightly

Color Purple, The (1985)

Drama Rated PG-13

The first time Steven Spielberg mistook seriousness for art. His problematic adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pultizer Prize-winning novel is an obvious mismatch of director and material, not that this saga could easily be translated to the screen by anyone. Purple follows most of the tragic life of a Southern black woman (Whoopi Goldberg) in early

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Drama Rated R

“…may be the most moral movie to ever show this much skin.”

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

Thriller Rated PG-13

A practice run for Woody Allen’s superior Match Point, this essentially has the same premise: an adulterer considers killing his mistress when she threatens to upend his placid domestic life. What Match Point wisely avoided, Crimes indulges in: overwrought philosophical pontificating, obvious symbolism and, most notably, the onscreen presence of Allen himself. Allen has a