The Brothers Bloom concerns two of the greatest con artists in the world and their various cons, and it is engaging and funny and, in the end, quite suspenseful. It also plays with time in ways that intrigue. Set in the now, it nevertheless features a telegram being read, stop, and replied to, stop...

I am so firmly in the demographic for The Boat That Rocked that it would have had to be truly dreadful to be disappointing. You know: predictable plotline, one-dimensional characters; forced drama; loathsome villains. It had all those, and more, and was an utter delight, not least because of the...

I wasn't sure whether to blog Quantum of Solace, which I saw on Wednesday night, but late-breaking news of a James Blog-a-Thon tipped the scales, needy-blogger that I am.

QoS is a mess of a movie, with an even more meaningless than usual title, but WTF. I'm no Bondie (or whatever they call the...

Redbelt is a strange movie. “Written and directed by David Mamet” is the only reason I would watch a film about martial arts, and may also be the only reason I am actually thinking a bit about the film. The “simple” idea is that the martial arts instructor -- Mike Terry, beautifully played by the E...

Do actors make good directors? I’m blowed if I know. Some can certainly do it. So when I was looking up Tom McCarthy, the director of The Visitor, I was pleasantly surprised to see he had lots of acting credits, including several for The Wire. He was also in Syriana. And he wrote and directed The...