Magic Mike (Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey) in Theatres on July 11, 2012

Magic Mike (2012)

Audience
Rating: 3.7/5
Liked the Movie: 69% (n=48,120)

Critics
Rating: 3.5/5
Liked the Movie: 77% (n=132)


Reviews

"If you're looking for a romance with 100 percent prime beefcake? Get your singles out and ready, ladies. "Magic Mike" is in the house." - Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

"Soderbergh has created a spicy yet lucid, surgingly high-energy yet smartly modernistic musical." - Richard Brody, New Yorker

"It's one of the year's best surprises, and so is its frequently underrated star." Rafer Guzman, Newsday

"At the very least, it is exceptional and one of the best and most original pictures to come along in 2012." - Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

"A weirdly guilty pleasure." - Stephen Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Magic Mike has a conventional structure, yet a teasing question percolates beneath: If selling yourself is as much fun as this movie makes it look, what could be wrong with it?" - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

"The dance numbers, choreographed by Allison Faulk, are inventive and athletic, but not really erotic; Soderbergh never lets you forget that, for these men, dancing is above all a job." - Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader

"If filmmaker Soderbergh had paid as much attention to relationship dynamics as he does to dance number mechanics, this film would have gotten closer to living up to the magic in its name." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times


Movie Info

Set in the world of male strippers, Magic Mike is directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars Channing Tatum in a story inspired by his real life. The film follows Mike (Tatum) as he takes a young dancer called The Kid (Pettyfer) under his wing and schools him in the fine arts of partying, picking up women, and making easy money. -- (C) Warner Bros.

Rated: R

Running Time: 1 hr. 50 min.

Genre: Drama, Comedy

Directed By: Steven Soderbergh

Written By: Reid Carolin

Distributed By: Warner Bros. Pictures

Cast
Channing Tatum (Magic Mike)
Alex Pettyfer (Adam, The Kid)
Matt Bomer (Ken)
Joe Manganiello (Big Dick Richie)
Matthew McConaughey (Dallas)
Cody Horn (Brooke, Paige)
Olivia Munn (Joanna)

Source: rottentomatoes.com

Dark Shadows (Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloe Moretz) in Theatres on May 10, 2012

Dark Shadows (2012)

Hazel's
Rating: 2.5/5
Review: It's the first time I watched a movie with Eva Green (the witch) and I'm impressed with her acting. Of course, being impressed with Johnny Depp is a given. However, I had some questions after watching the movie like a) how come the cops and townspeople left the manor when they know a witch and a vampire are killing each other? and b) when your daughter's a werewolf, wouldn't you have noticed it while she was growing up?
Aside from the incoherent script, I'm boggled if the movie wants to scare you or make you laugh. Ultimately, it brings you nowhere.
Recommendation: You can miss watching the film unless you're a Johnny Depp or Tim Burton fan who wants to check out their 8th collaboration. For me, a movie that belongs in the dark shadows.

Audience
Rating: 3.2/5
Liked the Movie: 48% (n=165,555)

Critics
Rating: 2.7/5
Liked the Movie: 40% (n=209)


Reviews

"How bad is "Dark Shadows"? It makes you long for a "Twilight" movie. That's bad." - Tom Long, Detroit News

"An uncertain combination of elements that unsuccessfully tries to be half-scary, half-funny and all strange..." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"The visuals are top notch but Tim Burton never finds a consistent rhythm, mixing campy jokes and gothic spookiness with less success than other Johnny Depp collaborations." - rottentomatoes.com

"Dark Shadows' only meaningful relationship is between Depp and his audience. He's a persona now, no longer an actor." - Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail

"The film's biggest disappointment is the utter lack of chemistry between Depp and either Green or Heathcote." - Joy Tipping, Dallas Morning News

""Dark Shadows" doesn't add anything new to the genre, but it's a surprisingly high-spirited and genuinely black-humored comedy." - Rafer Guzman

"All dressed up and no place to go." - Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic


Movie Info

Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet-or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy... until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. -- (C) Warner Bros.

Rated: PG-13

Running Time: 1 hr. 53 min.

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery & Suspense

Directed By: Tim Burton

Written By: Dan Curtis

Distributed By: Warner Bros. Pictures

Cast
Johnny Depp (Barnabas Collins)
Michelle Pfeiffer (Elizabeth Collins Stoddard)
Bella Heathcote (Victoria Winters)
Eva Green (Angelique Bouchard)
Chloe Moretz (Carolyn Stoddard)
Helena Bonham Carter (Dr. Julia Hoffman)
Alice Cooper as Himself

Source: rottentomatoes.com

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law) in Theatres on January 8, 2012

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

Audience
Rating: 3.9/5
Like the Movie: 80% (n=73,771)

Critics
Rating: 3.1/5
Like the Movie: 59% (n=181)


Reviews

"As Johnny Depp has done so brilliantly with his devilish Jack Sparrow, Downey has made this sly sardonic Sherlock stylistically all his own. Case closed." - Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a good yarn thanks to its well-matched leading men but overall stumbles duplicating the well-oiled thrills of the original." - rottentomatoes.com

"In an act of criminal negligence, Ritchie has wasted Robert Downey Jr. in a sequel that eliminates smarts in favor of relentless headbanging." - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"I was let down by this loud and flashy but utterly empty sequel." -Richard Roeper, richardroeper.com

""What do you see?'' the gypsy girl asks him. "Everything,'' Holmes replies. "That is my curse.'' If Downey has a curse, it'll be called "Sherlock Holmes 3."" Ty Burr, Boston Globe
"The skill level in the script is elementary school, my dear Watson." - Kyle Smith, New York Post


Movie Info

Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) has always been the smartest man in the room... until now. There is a new criminal mastermind at large - Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris) - and not only is he Holmes' intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may actually give him an advantage over the renowned detective. When the Crown Prince of Austria is found dead, the evidence, as construed by Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan), points to suicide. But Sherlock Holmes deduces that the prince has been the victim of murder - a murder that is only one piece of a larger and much more portentous puzzle, designed by Professor Moriarty. The cunning Moriarty is always one step ahead of Holmes as he spins a web of death and destruction - all part of a greater plan that, if he succeeds, will change the course of history. -- (C) Warner Bros

Rated: PG-13

Running Time: 2 hr. 8 min.

Genre: Mystery & Suspense, Action & Adventure

Directed By: Guy Ritchie

Written By: Michele Mulroney, Kieran Mulroney

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures

Cast
Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes)
Jude Law (Dr. John Watson)
Noomi Rapace (Madam Simza Heron)
Rachel McAdams (Irene Adler)
Jared Harris (Professor James Moriarty)
Stephen Fry (Mycroft Holmes)

Source: rottentomatoes.com

Happy Feet Two (Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brad Pitt) in Theatres Since November 23, 2011

Happy Feet Two (2011)

Audience
Rating: 3.6/5
Like the Movie: 62% (n=14,667)

Critics
Rating: 2.8/5
Like the Movie: 42% (n=83)


Reviews

"97 minutes of nonstop joy." - Richard Corliss, Time Magazine

"The animation remains impressive, and there are some very funny moments, courtesy of the talented cast. But fans of the original will want to lower their expectations." - Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

"The animation is as eye-popping as ever, but Happy Feet Two's narrative is too noisily incoherent to recapture the Oscar-winning charm of its predecessor." - rottentomatoes.com

"Happy Feet was one of the greatest and most original animated films, but the sequel can't even decide what it's about for the first 40 minutes." - Kyle Smith, New York Post

"The gotta-move protagonist of the first animated, Antarctica-set feature -- a misfit young Emperor penguin named Mumble -- returns for the sequel. Only this time he's all grown up... and a lot less fun." - Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

"For all the noise and flapping, the movie, like its heroes, remains flightless." - Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

"If it weren't for the comic relief provided by Will and Bill, tiny shrimplike crustaceans known as krill and voiced by Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, this would be a forbidding return to Antarctica indeed." - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune


Movie Info

Happy Feet Two returns audiences to the magnificent landscape of Antarctica in superb 3D. Mumble, The Master of Tap, has a problem because his tiny son, Erik, is choreo-phobic. Reluctant to dance, Erik runs away and encounters The Mighty Sven-a penguin who can fly! Mumble has no hope of competing with this charismatic new role model. But things get worse when the world is shaken by powerful forces. Erik learns of his father's "guts and grit" as Mumble brings together the penguin nations and all manner of fabulous creatures-from tiny Krill to giant Elephant Seals-to put things right. -- (C) Warner Bros

Rated: PG

Running Time: 1 hr. 39 min.

Genre: Animation, Kids & Family, Art House & International

Directed By: George Miller

Written By: George Miller

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures

Cast
Elijah Wood (Mumble)
Robin Williams (Lovelace, Ramon)
Hank Azaria (The Mighty Sven)
Brad Pitt (Will the Krill)
Matt Damon (Bill the Krill)
Hugo Weaving (Noah the Elder)
Pink (Gloria)

Source: rottentomatoes.com