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We smartphone users are obsessed with our devices, so it seemed inevitable for someone like writer-director Spike Jonze to bring us a movie about a man who literally falls in love with his. It seems like a comedic concept, but Her is a love story, with all the ups, downs, and melodrama that implies. Too bad its signal strength is weak, despite some interesting ideas.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

Among his more interesting challenges in the past few years, actor Chris Pine has successfully filled the boots of William Shatner in the re-imagined Star Trek franchise. Can he now do the same as Jack Ryan, previously played by such heavyweights as Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin, and Ben Affleck? The short answer is yes, though Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit may not give you much to cheer about.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

In 1939, The New Yorker magazine published The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a short story by James Thurber. In the story, Mitty passes through a day of errands in the city with his wife, while random events send him on wild daydream fantasies. (You can still find it on their website.) There’s no real plot to it, but that didn’t stop filmmakers from adapting it into a jewel caper comedy starring Danny Kaye in 1947. Now, director/star Ben Stiller has taken the same story in a different direction, a schmaltzy, product-placement-filled encouragement to “Stop Dreaming. Start Living.” But darned if it doesn’t stir something in you, at least some of the time.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

2004′s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy has become such a comedy cult classic that it’s now hard to remember it didn’t play well at the box office when it first opened. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues likely won’t have that problem, but even if it does I don’t think it will fare as well over time. It’s just too flat.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

At first, American Hustle seems like a no-brainer: a period piece about con-artists, written, directed and starring a powerhouse group of Oscar-nominated (and Oscar-winning) filmmakers, with high-profile positive buzz and award nominations before it even arrived in theatres. On seeing it, however, you can be forgiven for thinking you are the one being grifted.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

Director Martin Scorsese is arguably best known for his Mafia films, where often penniless youths become made men, get rich, and then try to escape the law. The Wolf of Wall Street, Scorsese’s fifth film collaboration with star Leonardo DiCaprio, is not a Mafia film, but it sure feels like one, and it’s as good as or better than most of the others.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

It’s almost a shame that human nature finds comfort in threes. The modern trend toward telling stories in trilogies seems to ignore the fact that some of them benefit from simplicity and compression. Director and co-writer Peter Jackson’s film version of The Hobbit is a case in point. This second episode, The Desolation of Smaug, has all the elements of a good action movie, but as the middle peg in a trilogy, it just isn’t a superlative one.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

I’ve long been of the opinion that Matthew McConaughey is one of Hollywood’s most underrated actors. Variously dismissed as a dim-witted pretty-boy or a shirtless, bongo-playing surfer – images that haven’t been helped by a string of poor romantic comedies – he has recently built an impressive array of performances in smaller dramas. With Dallas Buyers Club, he gives one of the best of the year, coupled with another by the equally underrated Jared Leto.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

We think of “holiday movies” as tales of families coming together. Philomena is most definitely not a holiday movie, but its portrayal of a family torn apart and a search for answers warms the heart nonetheless. It’s worth your time this Christmas.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

As we’ve seen with so-called “Reality TV” competitions like Survivor and The Amazing Race, producers often have to re-jig the rules of their own games in order to maintain the interest of their audience. In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the fascist overlords of Panem do the same to their gladiatorial exhibition, in an attempt to quell a resistance movement. The film itself, however, doesn’t change things up too much from its previous instalment. But in this case, that’s a good thing.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.