Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day: Movie Review (Text and Video)

It's a miracle she made it through it

Directed by Bharat Nalluri, written by David Magee and Simon Beaufoy, 92 minutes, rated PG-13.

The first third of “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” is so irrepressible, there’s no keeping the damn thing down. The direction, staging and acting are so high strung, there’s every indication that its main character, a failed governess named Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand), might be found dead from exhaustion by the end of the it--right along with the rest of the characters.

Pressed to capture the tone of screwball farce, everyone involved goes out of their way to do so, straining the movie’s seams in ways that can be off-putting in the face of such excess.

And then there’s a shift.

Working from a screenplay David Magee and Simon Beaufoy based on Winifred Watson’s 1938 novel, director Bharat Nalluri eventually allows his romantic comedy to settle into itself. The over-the-top energy he favors at the start is dropped several notches, where it achieves a less stagy feel. Characters come into their own. The film never shakes the formula it courts, but it still becomes more enjoyable as it unfolds.

Set on the eve of war in 1939 London, the film follows Pettigrew, a disheveled, out-of-work mess whose luck appears to have run dry until the day she meets Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams), an American singer and wannabe actress who is busy juggling the affections of three men in an attempt to climb to the top.

First up is Phil (Tom Payne), a wealthy young producer whose father owns the theater at which Delysia is trying to land her first major acting gig. Second is rich Nick (Mark Strong), who lends Delysia his swank apartment while he’s away on business and who owns the cabaret at which Delysia performs with her boyfriend, Michael (Lee Pace), a struggling pianist whose love for Delysia in genuine. Trouble is, Delysia is such a cheerful little climber, she doesn’t believe that love is what she needs at this point in her life. Certainly, it isn’t as important as the critical and financial success she craves.

Enter Miss Pettigrew, a moral force who knew love once and lost it. She’s so desperate for a job, she wedges herself into Delysia’s life as her social secretary and then becomes her unwitting guide to what matters in life. Over the course of one day, the two change each other profoundly, with Pettigrew gently guiding Delysia toward the one man who should matter most in her life, while Delysia ushers Pettigrew into another world--one in which high fashion matters and dramatic makeovers can take place.

It certainly does for Pettigrew, who is scrubbed from head to toe and catches the eye of lingerie designer Joe (Ciaran Hinds), whose relationship with snarky Edythe (Shirley Henderson) is on the rocks. Since Edythe isn’t about to lose Joe, and particularly because she knows a few secrets about Pettigrew, complications thicken for all as the movie mounts a climax that’s at once airy and serious.

The air belongs to Adams, whose Delysia bounces through the movie until the ramifications of her selfish behavior stop her cold. Adams is very good here, somehow making Delysia likable in spite of her willingness to repeatedly hurt Michael.

As for McDormand, it’s through her nuanced performance that Nalluri strikes his best observations about the meaning of love and friendship in middle-age. In the frenetic early scenes, when she’s asked to be a vehicle for comedic farce, she gives it her best shot and is as good as she can be given the weaker material. But it’s at the movie’s end, when she’s called upon to act and touch you with the truth, that she is at her best, stepping outside the film’s limitations and creating a better movie in the process.

Grade: B-

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day: Movie Review (Video)

Enchanted: DVD, Blu-ray Review (2008)

“Enchanted” DVD, Blu-ray

Disney’s hit, fish-out-of-water comedy succeeds as well as it does because it understands the affection surrounding the studio’s earliest animated projects, and because it knows there always is room for some good-natured hair pulling, which is what gives this enjoyable movie such a surprising edge.

Amy Adams is Princess Giselle, who is set to marry Prince Edward (James Marsden) and naturally live happily ever after when Susan Sarandon’s Queen Narissa complicates everything by sending Giselle out of their animated world and into the real world.

There, she meets Patrick Dempsey’s Robert, where romantic complications ensue, particularly when Edward comes to fight for her hand.

Marked by Adams irrepressible charm, several complex musical numbers and a clever script, this movie lives up to its name.

Rated PG. Grade: A-

View the video review here. It's the first of three in the set:

I Am Legend: DVD, Blu-ray Review (2008)

“I Am Legend” DVD, Blu-ray

Another day, another movie that features a virus wiping out humanity.

In this case, the exception is Will Smith’s resourceful Robert Neville. Save for his faithful dog, Neville is alone in this science-fiction/horror potboiler--or so he thinks before the undead start charging after him at night.

Based on Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel--which has been filmed twice before, first with Vincent Price in 1964’s “The Last Man Standing” and then in 1971 with Charlton Heston in “The Omega Man”--the movie is strong until its final third, when it lapses into a funk of cliches and sentiment that undermine much of the goodwill that came before it.

Still, since what comes before it is involving--the special effects are especially good --the movie is recommended, with reservations.

Rated PG-13. Grade: B-

View the video review below. It's the second review in a series of three reviews:

The Mist: DVD Review (2008)

“The Mist”

Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King's 1980 novella was one of last year’s more successful horror movies.

It’s about how a mysterious mist takes rise on the horizon after a storm slams into a coastal Maine town, leaving its residents rushing to repair the destruction left in its wake. Of course, nothing in the mist is as terrifying--or as heroic--as what we ourselves can become when pressed by fear.

That's the film's point and that's what it reveals so well, particularly with Marcia Gay Harden in the juicy role of the trouble-seeking, Bible-thumping Mrs. Carmody.

With Thomas Jane in the lead, the movie offers solid supporting turns from Toby Jones and Laurie Holden, several surprises tucked within the so-so special effects and genre cliches, and an ending that's so good, it proves that even in today's mass-market movies, sometimes Hollywood has the guts to turn a blind eye to the box office, focus on what best serves the story--and just get it right.

Rated R. Grade: B+

Read the full, unedited review here.

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Drillbit Taylor: Movie Review (2008)

Who's screwing who?

Directed by Stephen Brill, written by Kristofor Brown and Seth Rogen, 102 minutes, rated PG-13.

Stephen Brill’s new comedy, “Drillbit Taylor,” knows a few things about bullies, most of which we already know--all of which bear repeating.

For instance, the movie understands that for the most part, the average bully is a weak little miscreant whose fists and tough talk, when pressed into a corner by the real thing, pack the punch of a feather. On the other hand, it also knows that not all bullies are created equal and that some are so sociopathic, drastic measures must be taken to get them under control.

What measures? When school administrators aren’t willing to protect those being bullied, protecting yourself can take some doing, even if the methods for promoting change can be extreme.

Witness, for example, what happens to bespectacled Wade (Nate Hartley), heavy-set Ryan (Troy Gentile) and stunted Emmit (David Dorfman) when they are targeted by the bully Filkins (Alex Frost) during their first days at high school. For no reason other than the fact that these kids aren’t conventionally hip, Filkins makes it his mission to make their lives miserable.

Along with his cruel sidekick, Ronnie (Josh Peck), Filkins terrorizes the boys, so much so that they decide to pool their money and hire a bodyguard. After a string of amusing interviews with people they can’t afford, the person they choose is the homeless huckster Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson), who tells them what they want to hear (“I’m an ex-Army Ranger”), but who only is here to scam these kids out of their allowances.

Still, as Filkins’ violence escalates, Drillbit predictably softens and decides to help these kids learn to fight for themselves. The problem is that he isn’t exactly adept at teaching anyone how to fight, which leads to all sorts of complication best left for the screen.

While the movie shares much in common with Judd Apatow’s “Superbad,” there’s a reason--Apatow produced “Taylor,” which mirrors Apatow’s “Knocked Up” in that it also stars his real-life wife Leslie Mann. Here, Mann is an English teacher who develops a crush on Drillbit when he infiltrates the school as a substitute teacher. Mann is one of the best comic actresses working, but here, she’s sorely underused.

Fortunately, the same can’t be said for Hartley, Dorfman and the very likable Gentile, who rise above the so-so material and make it a lot funnier than it might have been otherwise. As for Wilson, he’s good, coming through with exactly the sort of safe performance you expect from him, and yet in spite of the movie being named after his character, “Drillbit Taylor” oddly could have done without him. The movie succeeds because you pull for these three picked-upon kids, who give the movie an energy and an edge that Wilson fails to match.

Grade: B-

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Never Back Down: Movie Review (Video Version)

Below is the video version of "Never Back Down":

New on DVD: Enchanted, I Am Legend, The Mist (2008)--Video Reviews

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Never Back Down: Movie Review (2008)

Back the hell down

Directed by Jeff Wadlow, written by Chris Hauty, 113 minutes, rated PG-13.

Given the rush of recent gems that have tumbled from the heavens of Hollywood lately, you’d swear the holidays were upon us again. Lot’s of little movie gifts everywhere. Who wouldn’t be satisfied by the product pouring into cineplexes?

A glance back reveals such noteworthy efforts as “Step Up 2 the Streets,” “College Road Trip,” “10,000 B.C.,” “Doomsday,” “Semi-Pro,” “Fool’s Gold” and “Jumper.”

And now, Hollywood has come through again, this time with the genius that is Jeff Wadlow’s “Never Back Down.” Essentially, the movie is about pretty boys posing, preening and pummeling each other until they knock themselves senseless. Oh, and it’s also about fetishizing their abs, not that anyone here would admit it.

Based on Chris Hauty’s script, the film is a cross between “Fight Club” and “The Karate Kid,” though without the latter’s A-list cast. Yes, that’s right, its A-list cast. When compared to the D-listers assembled in “Back Down,” Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio are so A-list, it hurts.

The film follows Sean Faris as Jake Tyler, who years ago didn’t take the wheel for his drunk dad and who now blames himself for the car wreck that took the man’s life while he was half in the bag.

Filled with rage but essentially good at heart, Jake is a squinty-eyed scrapper, so incapable of dealing with his guilt, that his eyes burn at the idea of a fight when the opportunity presents itself. His tough-love mother (Leslie Hope) is at a loss with how to handle him--she just throws dinnerware as if can afford to do so, which she can’t--but his younger brother, Charlie (Wyatt Smith), still looks up to him, which Jake understands is a responsibility, not that he initially cares much.

When the Tyler family leaves Iowa for Florida, where Charlie is to study to become a tennis pro, Jake finds two outlets for his rage. The first is in Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet), a high school sociopath who enjoys beating the living hell out of people. Since Jake has come to Florida with a bad reputation (apparently, his previous fights have gone viral over the Internet), he’s no exception--Ryan wants a piece of him. So does a saucy minx named Baja (Amber Heard), who is Ryan’s reluctant girlfriend, sure, but who’d rather be swapping blows with Jake.

The second outlet for Jake’s rage is at a gym called Combat Club, which is owned by the secretive Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou). There, Tyler learns how to fight, but under the strict condition that he never use his newfound skills at a public fighting event.

So, what are the odds that he does just that? And could it be that Roqua ejects him from the gym when he finds out? And what of Baja, who might not be the sweet piece of hard candy she initially seems to be? Is she really in it to win it with Jake, who predictably comes to fight Ryan in the film’s feverish denouement?

If you don’t know and still are intrigued, “Never Back Down” is for you.

Grade: D

Sweeney Todd: Video Review

Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is being released on DVD April 1st. View the video review below:

Horton Hears a Who!: Movie Review (2008)

One for the little guy

Directed by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino, written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, 88 minutes, rated G.

The latest movie based on one of Dr. Seuss’ illustrated children’s books is Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino’s “Horton Hears a Who!,” which really is two movies in one--but let’s not consider that a bargain just yet. Some elements in this computer-generated extravaganza are a shade too bargain basement to suit, especially when compared to the richness of its source material.

While none of those qualities extend to the beautifully detailed animation, which successfully captures the bizarre quirkiness of Seuss’ world, the same can’t be said for the awkward way screenwriters Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio try to bridge the gap between Seuss’ work and their own. What we have here is a movie that shrewdly takes as much of Seuss’ words and story as possible--that’s the good news--before it fleshes out the slim story with less-creative elements.

And that’s the problem. The world Seuss created in 1954 for “Horton Hears a Who!” is timeless. It is, in fact, without a time. It might have been created by Seuss as a reaction to McCarthyism, but its strengths nevertheless exist in imagination. So, the idea that the filmmakers have updated the story with a host of pop-culture references--from global warming to the addition of the Who phone--is unnecessary and distracting, and it steals away at least some of the book’s charm.

But not all of it--the bones of Seuss’ tale do remain in place. The better news is that this is the best big-screen adaption yet of Seuss’ work, easily trumping the live-action wrecks, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Cat in the Hat.”

The film follows Horton (voice of Jim Carrey), a gentle elephant busy bathing one day when he comes upon a speck knocked loose from a flower.

When the speck floats past him, Horton hears tiny screams emanating from it that ignite in him a rush to protect it. Trouble is, now that he has it in his possession, he must convince others in his rough-and-tumble jungle community that what he hears within that puff of dust is another world, one that might be far smaller and different than theirs, but which nevertheless is worth saving.

Good luck to Horton. Indeed, for him the problem is that only he has heard and communicated with the speck’s inhabitants--the Whos of Who-ville--a curious race governed by Who-ville’s bumbling mayor (Steve Carell), who is trying to make his Whos understand that their lives are in danger.

Making matters worse for them all is the character who doubts Horton most, the self-righteous, crazed fanatic Kangaroo, who is voiced with such sneering menace by Carol Burnett, the only person who could best her small-minded evil is Oklahoma state representative Sally Kern. But maybe they'll use her in the sequel.

Anywho, what ensues is a movie that finds the Whos joining together to be heard while Horton literally is imprisoned and mistreated for trying to help. The ending is especially powerful and intense, with Horton literally going through Hell to help the little guy. And here is where the movie presses into the uneasy realm of politics. Since Horton is played by an elephant and not a donkey, one has to wonder at what point some bright star in Washington might view him as a viable running mate for the republican presidential nominee, John McCain.

In that circus, anything can happen.

Grade: B-

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Atonement: DVD, HD DVD Review (2008)

"Atonement" DVD, HD DVD

Joe Wright's “Atonement” has everything you could wish for in a period drama--beautiful cinematography, set design and costumes; exotic locales; and a story designed to rip out your heart and crush it when a rushed, heated romance between two young lovers is poisoned by the lies and deceit of another.

Keira Knightley is Cecilia Tallis, a privileged, brittle beauty who isn't especially likable, which is a problem since the movie eventually asks us to feel something profound for her. Looking bored and bothered in 1935 England, Cecilia has issues with Robbie (James McAvoy), who was put through Cambridge with Tallis money and who now is treated as something of a third-wheel member of the family.

The youngest member of the household is spooky Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a wide-eyed lass with a mean mouth and a tight-fisted gate who fancies herself as something of a writer.

She favors fiction, which is key, and she also has a crush on Robbie, which is critical to why she does all that she does in a key plot element not to be revealed here.

"Atonement" isn't a boring movie--there's lots of lovely furniture to look at here, nevermind the appealing vision of its romantic leads--but it isn't a very gripping movie, either, because Cecilia and Robbie aren't allowed to create a fierce, believable bond onscreen before they're torn apart.

The trouble with the film is that you're always aware that you're watching a movie. There's no sinking into "Atonement," no losing yourself to it, no moment when the screen fades away and the story and the characters come to the fore to overcome you.

This is a film you watch from the sidelines, thinking how pretty Knightley looks in this gown, that bathing suit, and how the lighting in a key scene in which Cecilia and Robbie have sex against a wall of books is more interesting than the scene itself.

Read the full, unedited version of the review here.

Rated R. Grade: C+

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The Ice Storm: Criterion Collection DVD Review

"The Ice Storm: The Criterion Collection"

Listen to the Podcast here.

Everyone in Ang Lee's excellent drama about 1970's suburbanites in New Canaan, Conn., is emotionally bankrupt, morally afloat, afraid of the truth, and mired in the pseudo-intellectual dogma of the time.

The film focuses on a period in our culture when suburban, middle-class families tried to play catch-up with the groundbreaking sexual revolution of the late 1960s.

The problem? Lee's characters aren't revolutionaries. Thus, when they gather at parties to swap wives for an evening of casual sex, drink and do drugs in an effort to anesthetize their own ridiculousness, or willingly put their lives at risk during an ice storm, they seem at once shocked and rattled when they're slapped with the deadly repercussions of their own reckless behavior.

Lee strings a wealth of deeper issues throughout his film, but the characters are incapable of dealing with those issues. Why? Because in their emotional timidity and immaturity, they seem determined to live their lives solely on the surface, where things appear relatively safe and manageable--even while their lives are crumbling around them.

For instance, Elena Hood (Joan Allen) knows perfectly well that her husband, Ben (Kevin Kline), is having an affair with their neighbor, Janey (Sigourney Weaver), but does she confront him with it? Of course not--that would mean stripping away the layers of her life and realizing that it's not just empty, but a lie.

At Thanksgiving dinner, Elena's savvy daughter, Wendy (Christina Ricci), is asked by her father to give grace, which itself is a joke as these people bring agnostic to a whole new level. Still, Wendy seizes the moment and launches into an inspired diatribe that manages to include materialism, napalm, and how the white man stole this land from American Indians.

When Ben shouts at her to shut up, it's a pivotal moment that rings clear. How can these people deal with the pending impeachment of Nixon, napalm, and everything else that is wrong with the world, when they can't even have a civil meal together?

That they can't is Lee's point.

Rated R. Grade: A

10,000 B.C.: Movie Review (2008)

Eat the director

View the Hi-Def Video Review here.

Directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Emmerich and Harald Kloser, 109 minutes, rated PG-13.

Sometimes, there’s just nothing good that can be said about a movie, so the best recourse is to just bury the mother and move on.

Such is the case with the dumb new Roland Emmerich movie, “10,000 B.C.,” which is hamburger onscreen—and not the lean variety. This movie is about 90 percent cinematic fat. The other 10 percent? Gristle. Maybe a bit of bone.

Based on Emmerich and Harald Kloser’s script, “10,000 B.C.” doesn’t know where it is, let alone what year it is. Since it’s either too lazy to look back into history and do its homework or too cynical about its audience to believe that they haven’t done theirs, it just charges forward with zero knowledge of the time it’s trying to evoke.

With irritating casualness, the filmmakers set their movie during a specific time and then ignore the realties of that time. This is a movie that makes the similar “Apocalypto” look like a history lesson. What Emmerich has created is his own 10,000 B.C., tossing a hive of elements onto the screen in hopes that they’ll stick without the audience erupting into snorts and sniggers. Let’s wish him well with that.

In its most streamlined form, the cluttered plot goes like this: Steven Strait is the dreadlocked D’Leh, a member of the Yagahl tribe who hunts woolly mammoths for food and who possesses a powerful love hunger for Evolet (Camilla Belle), a blue-eyed goddess-witch who looks like a cross between Fergie, Carmen Electra and Lindsay Lohan, but a bit more rough-and-tumble, if that’s possible.

Strife strikes when Evolet and others are stolen away by a competing tribe. When the Yagahl’s psychic Old Mother (Mona Hammond) falls into one of her creepy hypnotic trances and sees D’Leh’s future laid out in front of her, she instructs him to go after Evolet. This generates all sorts of trouble, not the least of which involves D’Leh coming to throws with some hilarious-looking giant birds, the lot of which are about as real as Rod Hull’s aggressive puppet, Emu, from the 1960s.

Also against D’Leh and his stoic sidekick Tic’Tic (Cliff Curtis) are, well, any number of things--a saber-toothed tiger, which looks as if it sprang out of a weak PS3 game; the most truncated journey ever across barren deserts and mountain ranges; and naturally, since the movie is, after all, set in 10,000 B.C., a lost city filled with pyramids, which the Egyptians apparently built 7,000 years earlier than we thought. Who knew?

Not Emmerich, or maybe he did know and doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter. At least his characters aren’t fighting tooth decay—they all have amazingly white, perfect teeth. And at least many of the men were able to find a BIC in the B.C.--most are shaved, including their chests. But enough. As with any movie that stretches history to suit its needs, “10,000 B.C.” could have been forgiven every one of its missteps and shortcomings had it been a blast, which it isn’t.

This is a movie you actually forget while watching it.

Grade: D-

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Bee Movie: DVD, HD DVD Review (2008)

"Bee Movie" DVD, HD DVD

The work of drones.

Jerry Seinfeld's pet project is so polished, its edges have been rubbed smooth. Set in New Hive City, the movie follows Barry B. Benson (voice of Seinfeld), a bee fresh out of college who is inspired to get humans out of the honey business, and allow some down time for the over-worked bumbles.

Helping him in that task is Vanessa (Renee Zellweger), a florist with boyfriend troubles who agrees to help Barry in his quest to sue the human race for enslavement and thievery.

Eventually, they wind up in court and it’s here, in the film’s second half, that it finally leaps to life. This is due in great part to the human race's hefty lawyer Layton T. Montgomery (John Goodman, excellent), who is given to marvelous bouts of histrionics, and also to the fallout that springs from the trial, which is dire. After all, what is the world to do if Barry actually wins his case? Has anyone considered the ramifications? Bees already are in dangerously short supply. If they stop pollinating flowers and plants, wouldn’t a worldwide collapse ensue?

That’s a serious subject to explore, but in a cartoon that would rather squeeze the life out of every bee pun it can get its hands on, the big monster in this movie isn't the human race, but those humans who failed to make a compelling film in the first place.

Rated PG. Grade: C

View the hi-def video review by clicking here.

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Step Up 2 the Streets: Movie Review (2008)

Spin, twirl, crunk like there's no tomorrow

Directed by Jon M. Chu, written by Toni Ann Johnson and Karen Barna, 98 minutes, rated PG-13.

Stripped of surprises and coasting on cliches, the new Jon M. Chu movie, "Step Up 2 the Streets,” is a sequel to 2006’s “Step Up," which pinned much of its hopes on its two leads--former model Channing Tatum, whose Tyler Gage was a Baltimore tough with a hard-knock, hip-hop life, and Jenna Dewan, whose Nora was a well-to-do dancer finishing her senior year at the Maryland School for the Arts.

Essentially, it was up to these two to generate whatever interest and tension the movie had, which wasn’t much since each actor was given the burden of making something out of nothing. And yet for the movie--and for audiences--the good news was that both Tatum and Dewan were enough to best the bum script. They were likeable, their dance talent was undeniable, and their modest chemistry went some way in lifting the movie above the mediocrity it otherwise courted.

The same proves true for the sequel, which takes a giant leap of faith by offering audiences something absolutely new.

In this case, the female lead is the one with the tough exterior and the male lead is the one who comes from a place of academic privilege. That’s a radical stretch, I know, and the writers must have fallen off pointe in their struggle to come up with the premise, but there you have it. And here’s something more--the movie also recalls elements of Mariah Carey's ill-fated 2001 movie "Glitter.” Yes, “Glitter,” which for months put that star’s career in the gutter.

In that film, Carey’s Billie Frank cuts loose vocally at a crowded club, where her champion, a DJ named Dice (Max Beesley), eventually works his magic to change her life. In "Step Up 2 the Streets," Briana Evigan's orphaned Andie cuts loose with some kick moves at a club, which catches the eye of Chase (Robert Hoffman), who is so impressed by what he sees in Briana’s crazed crunk that he works his own magic to get her admitted into Maryland’s coveted School for the Arts.

And that’s where trouble ignites. Who wants to bet that abrasive Andie isn’t exactly a seamless fit amid her stuffy new peers? And that by going to school, she’ll have a falling out with the members of the 410, a street dance team known for causing dancing chaos in public and with whom Andie belongs? Also, could it be that drama awaits Andie and Chase as they grow closer? And what of Chase’s own dreams--might they flourish as he and Andie…err…step up 2 the streets for a dance showdown?

As predictable as all this is and as shameless as the movie is in how it overlooks the realities of race in the inner city, it only really lags when its characters are asked to speak and act--not dance. So, the good news is that they mostly do the latter--and quite well, as the ending of the movie proves with a street dance in the rain that’s fun to watch, as is another scene of salsa that occurs, naturally, at a barbecue.

All of this feverish bending, twirling, twisting and snapping of the body is so infused with attitude, in fact, that it allows the film and its characters to live and breathe in ways that run counter to the movie’s otherwise rhythmless script.

Grade: C+

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Semi-Pro: Video Movie Review (2008)

Video Review: The Spiderwick Chronicles, Jumper and Definitely, Maybe

After weeks of reviewing as many Academy Award-nominated films as possible before the Academy Awards hit, this site has sorely lacked reviewing newer, more popular fare now in theaters.

So, here's some atonement--a video-review rundown of three films available everywhere: The Spiderwick Chronicles, Jumper and Definitely, Maybe.

I, Robot: Blu-ray Movie Review

Below is our video review of the Will Smith movie "I, Robot," which is just out on Blu-ray disc.

Margot at the Wedding Video Review

A video review of "Margot and the Wedding," just out on DVD.