The Help sneaks in just before our summer concludes, as one of the most poignant films of the year. A rare jewel in the midst of the blockbuster season. The casting is spot-on, hoisting Viola Davis back in the spotlight after her Oscar-nominated performance in Doubt and palling her with recent Crazy Stupid Love actress Emma Stone. Earlier: "Planet Of The Apes" Debuts At $54 Million, Only Beginning To Rise At Box Office The story – an adaptation from author Kathryn Stockett’s book of the same name – set during Jim Crow days in Jackson, Miss., highlights the experience of black maids working …

With an opening weekend of $54 million, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, has proved to be an even bigger hit than anticipated. The film builds with just the right amount of tension, packs with in-your-face action, and even briefly warms the viewer into imagining the possibility of a world where man and ape walk upright and wear one another's pants.  Related: Crazy, Stupid, Love  James Franco plays Will, a scientist and the brain-child behind a potential Alzheimer’s cure being experimented on primates. While testing, one of the subject apes goes ballistic, forcing the scientists to abort …

Forgoing the movie involving alien fighting cowboys, I fed my romantic comedy fix instead and saw Crazy, Stupid, Love. And it was crazy, stupid, funny - in a good way. The romantic element of this comedy is also fresh in a way that the relationships of the characters seem realistic because the characters are genuine in their expectations pertaining to love. At the heart of this film is the idea that we all have a soulmate – our one true love. And the film is successful in presenting that idea without the cheesiness that most of its predecessors have. Earlier: Friends With Benefits Cal (Steve …

In Friends with Benefits, Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis explore whether relations between friends can be enjoyed without the complications of relationships, feelings, and all things mushy. This is the second time this year a film has proposed this objective, No Strings Attached being the first. Dylan (Justin Timberlake) is a hot-shot CEO at a popular multimedia website. After being sought after by executive head hunter, Jamie (Mila Kunis), he considers a position as art director for GQ. But he informs her it’s going to take more than bad traffic to convince him to relocate from New York …

Back from the eight month intermission from Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – cue the dramatic music – Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (which broke box office records all across the world) will be Harry’s final dance. It's been a decade of Harry Potter ruling the silver screen and literary charts. In this last film, the heroic wizard finally faces the noseless Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) in an epic battle. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), never short on friends, will have help from Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) as well as old classmates and professors …

Far from the hero he was in the first two Transformers installments, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), is now a mailroom clerk who mooches of off his new hot girlfriend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). I’d be hard pressed to call him a hero in this film, simply because Witwicky’s role almost serves as useless as the need for his girlfriend to be played by a Victoria Secret model. In their defense however, all the human beings could be stand-ins. The plot revolves around bringing the elder bot Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy) back, which ultimately results in a battle royale between the …

After being dumped by her wealthy fiancé, Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) returns to her teaching job at a Chicago junior high school. Loathing her job, fellow teachers, and kids; Elizabeth is nothing short of a self-centered, money grubbing, drunk. She shows movies to her class while passed out, sleeping off her hangover and/or high. She doesn’t know any of her students’ names and doesn’t care to know. There’s not a whole lot to like about Ms. Halsey – other than her blonde hair, blue eyes, and bikini-ready figure. Playing opposite Diaz is Lucy Punch as the chipper “across the hall-mate” …

Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is an overzealous test pilot, (dealing with a recent string of bad luck) who witnesses the death of an other-worldly, alien-like creature sporting a green unitard.  Before dying, the alien recites an oath, and tells Hal that he has been chosen to don a glowing green ring and join an intergalactic crime fighting regime - the Green Lantern Corps. (Guardians of the Universe). Hal's Green Lantern brethren consist of creatures that resemble the likes of Yoda and a purple Count Chocula (Mark Strong as Sinestro). Hal is the only human in the Corps. and proudly wears his …

When I first thought about this film - kids on bicycles with a mysterious element - a 2011 version of ET came to mind. But, eh not really. These kids curse.  Super 8 is more like The Goonies, where children - smarter than their parents give them credit for - find themselves in the middle of a situation that not only impacts their world, but affects others. This time it's the late 70's in Lillian, Ohio. The film's star, Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), is a shy 12-year-old, who's personally vested in helping his friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) finish a zombie film they want to enter in a local …

X-Men returns, but with a prequel audiences can deem as cake icing to the already successful franchise. First Class sets up another trilogy and focuses on the Professor X/Magneto friendship gone awry. At the start of the film, we witness a young Erik Lehnsherr (Bill Milner) – later known as Magneto (Michael Fassbender) – bend a metal gate when taken captive at a concentration camp and separated from his parents. Fans of the original X-Men film may find this opening a little familiar. After killing Erik’s mother, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) eggs (no pun intended) him on as Erik destroys his …

The Wolfpack is back. Disclaimer: If you’ve seen the first Hangover film (which you probably have), the second’s really no different. In most cases this would be an exaggeration but Todd Phillips and crew layout the same format that proved to be successful for the original. Stu (Ed Helms) has picked a seaside city in Thailand as the wedding destination for he and his bride-to-be. It boasts beautiful scenery on a beach side resort – a far cry from Bangkok.   Deciding to forgo a bachelor party to avoid their Vegas fiasco, Stu reluctantly agrees to have one beer with the guys two nights before …

The film industry has loaded up the theater cue with sequels for the summer. Some of which were forecast, some unexpected (read: unnecessary). Pirates sits somewhere vaguely in the middle of this. With Rob Marshall (best known for Chicago) taking the helm of directorial duties in place of Gore Verbinski (director of the previous three), we get a sense that this franchise is running low on creativity. I should’ve known once I learned it was showing in 3D. With his sights set on the fountain of youth and forced to hop aboard Blackbeard’s ship, Jack (Johnny Depp) has to tightrope his way through…

At 30-something, Annie (Kristen Wiig) hasn’t had much luck. Her pastry shop went under when the economy crashed and her boyfriend dumped her. Short on money, she works in a jewelry store, (which she loathes) and shares an apartment with an odd British brother and sister. In the dating department she’s a bit of a jerk-magnet. To be fair, she allows the latter, being reduced to a 3rd string hookup option by her attractive interest Ted (Jon Hamm).   When her childhood friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) gets engaged, she accepts the role as her maid of honor. Competition ensues when Lillian chooses …

Thor seems like the millionth Marvel comic book turned movie over the last two decades. With that said, I found the first 30 minutes of this film completely uninteresting and yawn-worthy. The beginning had all the symptoms of a box-office bomb: another chest beating, rah-rah superhero I couldn't care less about, slow beginning, boring dialogue, choppy editing. But once the molasses cleared, it got a little more interesting. Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who is expected to be crowned as the next king, jeopardizes his chances for trying to organize a war against the evil Frost Giants. For being …

Fast Five, the latest installment of the The Fast and the Furious, stars a who’s who mash-up of numerous cast members from its previous films. The variety in in the cast draws some appeal because star power sells. This go-round they're in Rio de Janeiro, a paradise decorated by breath-taking scenery and eye-candy alike. But our crew isn’t there for any of that.    After a scene of unlikely stunts involving car thievery from a moving train which contains DEA seized evidence and a death-defying jump from a car into an ocean, partners-in-crime, Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and Dom Toretto (Vin …

Edward Cullen, I mean, Robert Pattinson takes some time off from battling werewolves in the Twilight series and joins the circus, starring as Jacob in Water for Elephants. After an unfortunate car accident leaves both of his parents dead, Jacob leaves Cornell University's School of Veterinary Medicine, skips town and jumps aboard a Benzini Bros. Circus train. The hired hands threaten to throw him off immediately but once acknowledging he’s adorned in a business suit and therefore doesn’t appear to be a bum, they give him work. In awe of the animals, Jacob longs to become a part of the …

In Wes Craven’s Scream 4, the characters are again obsessed with the horror film genre, and their dialogue is a laundry list of possibilities and clichés – perhaps in an attempt to keep the film unpredictable. The beginning is inventive and humorous but tires quickly, becoming an annoyance of character commentary. The movie opens with the predictable two girl scene at home and a mysterious phone call. The Ghostface killer, the knife, the massacre – we’ve seen it. But then it cleverly reveals itself to be a series of movies within the movie. Murder-target Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) …

For anyone in the business of attacking adolescent girls; do not cross paths with Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) unless you are ready to die. The film opens with her hunting down a deer in the snow, wounding it with a bow and arrow. As she guts the deer, she’s suddenly attacked by a man from behind. Hanna holds her own as the two engage in hand on hand combat. We find later that the man, Erik (Eric Bana), is actually her father and is preparing her for what’s to come. Hanna and her father are in hiding and confined to an isolated cabin without electricity or any of the luxuries we’re accustomed to. …

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), an army helicopter pilot, awakes abrubtly on a Chicago bound commuter train but Christina (Michelle Monoghan), whose sitting across from him, keeps calling him Sean. Captain Stevens denies being this 'Sean guy' and frantically moves about the train, attempting to find clues to where he's at and what's happening. He goes to the bathroom, looks in the mirror and sees another man's face. He checks his ID to see that it says Sean Fentress. But before he can piece the mystery together, the train blows up, killing everyone onboard. Captain Stevens awakes …

While the majority will flock to see Limitless starring Bradley Cooper of The Hangover fame, I chose to review the “dark horse” of the major releases this past weekend – The Lincoln Lawyer. However, both are getting favorable reviews, so the popularity is not just based on which blonde-haired dude your girlfriend thinks is hotter. Los Angeles has never seen a lawyer like Mickey Haller (Matthew McConaughey). Haller, an unconventional defense lawyer whose office is the backseat of a Lincoln town car and “secretary” is a street-savvy driver and former client named Earl (Laurence Mason), …