A lot of critics went gaga over this installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise – which marked the live-action directorial debut of Brad Bird – but I found Ghost Protocol to be only mildly inventive. The showstopper of Tom Cruise clinging to the glass of that skyscraper in Dubai is thrilling, to be sure. And

Another 1990s domestic parable chastising workaholic dads, The River Wild also functions as a gorgeous travelogue and a Meryl Streep action film. Director Curtis Hanson sure packs a lot into one river trip. Streep plays Gail Hartman, a mother and wife who has become exasperated with her absentee husband, Tom (David Strathairn). So she plans

It’s a miracle, really, that Conan the Barbarian works at all, let alone that it works as long as it does. Conan puffs with the pomp and circumstance of an important film right from its opening frame, a Nietzsche quote. Director John Milius, who wrote the script with Oliver Stone, is going for a stirring