Channing Tatum

The Coen brothers first started publicly discussing their idea for Hail, Caesar! over a decade ago, but the resulting film feels jauntily tossed together in a fraction of that time. In some ways that’s a good thing. The film has a loose comic energy that allows it to slip easily from lengthy sketches to plottier sequences. But it’s also lacking in coherence. The Coens seem unsure if they’re making...[Read More]

22 Jump Street is the follow-up to the hugely successful 21 Jump Street (2012) that earned over $200 million at the box office on a budget of only $20 million. Since show business is a business, this sequel was no surprise to anyone. The film was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller – same as the previous entry. They certainly keep this film moving along at a similar brisk clip here for th...[Read More]

Cast aside any doubts you might have had, because The Lego Movie is wickedly funny, smartly written, surprisingly heartfelt, and will almost certainly end up being one of the best family films of 2014. As I’m sure was the case for many people of my generation, I loved playing with Legos when I was a kid. And when the news first broke that a feature film based on Lego was in the works, I was ...[Read More]

White House Down is a much better version of the recent release Olympus Has Fallen. Please be advised though, it’s a long one folks – all 131 minutes of it. The film is extremely action-packed, loaded with lots of quick wit, and at no time will you find yourself anxious for it to end. The ever so gorgeous Channing Tatum plays John Cale, a former military man trying to get into the Secret Service. ...[Read More]

As one of the seemingly few people who unabashedly enjoyed G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and thought it should have been more successful than it was, I doubted that a sequel would ever happen. So it was a pleasant surprise when I heard that a sequel was actually on the way. When the first trailer for G.I. Joe: Retaliation came out, it was way more impressive-looking than I had expected, and I...[Read More]

A suspenseful thriller with political undertones would best describe Steven Soderbergh’s film, Side Effects. The film centers on psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) and his moral and legal dilemma after his patient Emily (Rooney Mara) has a severe and life changing reaction to a new anti-depressant that he prescribed for her. Dr. Banks finds himself in quite a predicament that costs h...[Read More]

I’m sure everyone has heard, or has seen trailers for the film Magic Mike. I’m also confident that everyone has calculated an opinion based on what they’ve seen or heard. For those of you still in the dark (though I don’t know how that is possible), let me break it down for you – Magic Mike is basically Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey performing nearly naked on stage...[Read More]

I grew up on a steady diet of 21 Jump Street, so when this remake was announced, I was pissed. Visions of Starsky & Hutch with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson went through my head. It seems like the juices at the old Hollywood creative well have been dried up for a few years now, since they’ve been shoving subpar remake after subpar remake down our throats lately. I honestly thought 21 Jump Street...[Read More]

The Eagle is a conundrum. As a film, it is solid, with a decent cast, a distinct and deliberate lack of CG trickery, and leans more towards character than brainless action. In fact, other than a slow pace, there’s very little to dislike about it. Where it falters is that there is too little to like…with little violence to appeal to the adults, and too much talking to appeal to a younger audience, ...[Read More]