Email Author L.A. Weekly Film Critics

2008 Stories by L.A. Weekly Film Critics

• Movie Reviews: The Tale of Despereaux, The Yellow Handkerchief, Yes Man

  published December 18, 2008

  GO  GOMORRAH Matteo Garrone’s dramatic portrait of the notorious Italian Mafia organization... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Dark Streets, Nothing Like the Holidays, Timecrimes

  published December 11, 2008

  DARK STREETS So obsessed with mimicry it’s practically a tribute band of a movie, Dark Streets throws copious... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Hunger, One Day You'll Understand, A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy

  published December 4, 2008

  GO  THE BLACK BALLOON Produced for what was likely a day’s Botox budget on Baz... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Ben X, Four Christmases, Special, Transporter 3

  published November 27, 2008

  THE BEAUTIFUL TRUTH Writer-director Steve Kroschel’s documentary preaches (and preaches and preaches) the gospel of Dr.... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Twilight, Dostana, Eden

  published November 20, 2008

  GO  DOSTANA Carefully established as womanizing wolves trolling Miami, male nurse Sameer (Abhishek Bachchan) and... More >>

• Film Reviews: Antarctica, The First Basket

  published November 13, 2008

  THE ALPHABET KILLER Any number of TV shows in recent years has depicted an out-of-the-ordinary investigator who either talks... More >>

• Movie reviews: House, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Also, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

  published November 6, 2008

  THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS During World War II, a Nazi officer (David Thewlis) receives a promotion and moves his wife... More >>

• AFI Fest: Not Over Till We Say So

  published November 6, 2008

  CRITIC’S PICK  AFTERSCHOOL (USA) Set at an elite boarding school in some unspecified corner of the leafy... More >>

• AFI Fest: A to W

  published October 30, 2008

  GO  ACHILLES AND THE TORTOISE (Japan) The best film since Dolls (2002) by actor,... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Filth and Wisdom, The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Splinter

  published October 30, 2008

  ABLE DANGER Though it knocks along with the steady heartbeat pace of a thriller and is painted in the languid, low-contrast... More >>

• Movie Reviews: High School Musical 3, Passengers, Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom

  published October 23, 2008

  THE ELEPHANT KING In the miasma of permanent-vacation desperation (c.f., Malcolm Lowry, Saint Jack) we find Jake... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Max Payne, Sex Drive, What Just Happened?

  published October 16, 2008

  CHOOSE CONNOR Pimply Owen Norris (Alex Linz)... More >>

• Movie Reviews: City of Ember, Quarantine, Rocknrolla

  published October 9, 2008

  AN AMERICAN CAROL In this astonishingly inept, alleged satire from director and co-writer David Zucker — an even more... More >>

• Movie Reviews: An American Carol, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Flash of Genius

  published October 2, 2008

  ALLAH MADE ME FUNNY For the three Muslim-American standup comics showcased in Andrea Kalin’s concert film Allah Made... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Choke, August Evening, Eagle Eye, Nights in Rodanthe

  published September 25, 2008

  THE AMAZING TRUTH ABOUT QUEEN RAQUELA The amazing truth about Queen Raquela is that she’s constructed from... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Save Me, Take Out, Hounddog

  published September 18, 2008

  GHOST TOWN It takes a good while for Ricky Gervais to warm up in Ghost Town; it takes even longer for the audience to... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Young People Fucking, A Secret, Ping Pong Playa

  published September 11, 2008

  ALICE NEEL Alice Neel is a spiritual and tonal clone of My Architect, Nathaniel Kahn’s icky,... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Bangkok Dangerous, Babylon A.D., Mister Foe

  published September 4, 2008

  BABYLON A.D. Hardly the utter fiasco promised by its lengthy delay and no-press dumping on Labor Day weekend, Mathieu... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Beautiful Losers, Death Note

  published August 28, 2008

  ANOTHER GAY SEQUEL: GAYS GONE WILD Previously on Another Gay Movie, Todd Stephens’ racist and pandering but... More >>

• Movie Reviews: The Rocker, The House Bunny, Death Race

  published August 21, 2008

  AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL The scattershot America the Beautiful recapitulates vintage Beauty Myth trumpery: Beauty... More >>

• Movie Reviews: The Midnight Meat Train, Mirrors, Star Wars: The Clone Wars

  published August 14, 2008

  FALLING The director Richard Dutcher is far from a household name, even in houses belonging to independent film aficionados.... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Bottle Shock, Man on Wire, The Order of Myths

  published August 7, 2008

  GO  BOTTLE SHOCK It’s amazing that it took 32 years for someone to make a movie about the... More >>

• Movie Reviews: The Mummy, Beauty in Trouble, A Jihad for Love

  published July 31, 2008

  BEAUTY IN TROUBLE At the center of Beauty in Trouble, Czech director Jan Hrebejk’s trying foray into soapy... More >>

• Movie Reviews: Bustin' Down the Door, Love Comes Lately

  published July 24, 2008

  ASIAN STORIES (BOOK 3) Dumped by his fiancée two weeks before their wedding, sorrowful, strait-laced Jim... More >>

• Movie Reviews: The Grocer's Son, Kenny, Space Chimps

  published July 17, 2008

  FELON Clearly overcompensating for all the aggression that he couldn’t get out of his system as the wheelchair-bound... More >>