Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Reviews

Review: Megamind

Let’s hear it for celebrity voices and an excess of licensed pop music!

By BRETT MICHEL | November 3, 2010

2.5 Stars

Did you like Universal's Despicable Me and its computer-animated 3D tale of a misunderstood criminal mastermind? Well, then, you're in luck: DreamWorks' latest computer-animated 3D release — which deals with the exploits of a misunderstood supervillain named Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell) — is basically the same film, with a twisted take on the Superman/Lex Luthor dynamic. Keep in mind, Pixar mined the superhero genre far better six years ago with The Incredibles, and DreamWorks itself is capable of superior fare like this past summer's How To Train Your Dragon. Still, if celebrity voices (there's also Brad Pitt as vain hero Metro Man, Tina Fey as the Lois Lane–like Roxanne Ritchi, and Jonah Hill as the Jimmy Olsen-like dork Hal Stewart) and an excess of licensed pop music are your thing, you might forgive the lack of ambition here as director Tom McGrath (Madagascar) treads familiar territory.

Review: The Cartel
First-time documentarian and TV journalist Bob Bowdon’s broad primer on what’s rotting American education runs like a 90-minute 20/20 segment.
Review: Happy Feet Two
Lovely to look at despite the 3D, and sometimes bordering on the psychedelic, this crack-brained morality tale blends the sublimely weird and the cloyingly awful as it preaches once again the paradox that you should be true to yourself as long as you are in step with everyone else.
Review: Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
It's standard sitcom stuff, and if homeopathic remedies by way of coprophilia aren't your idea of comedy, you'd best steer clear of this shit.
Review: Red Cliff
Hong Kong auteur John Woo hit commercial and artistic pay dirt in the US with Face/Off , his loopy Nicolas Cage/John Travolta neo-noir, but once he’d directed Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible II , was there anywhere left to go?
Review: Ninja Assassin
So much blood splashes across the screen in James McTeigue’s martial-arts madness, you’d think the human body consisted of nothing but.
Review: Up In the Air
No director pulls off the bait-and-switch as craftily as Jason Reitman. He gets you thinking that you're watching a hip, caustic comedy subverting the status quo, but by the end, he's vindicated all the platitudes he seemed to scorn.
Review: Z (1969)
John F. Kennedy wasn't the only political leader murdered in 1963. On May 22 of that year, Gregoris Lambrakis, a left-leaning, pacifist member of the Greek parliament and an aspiring presidential candidate seeking to replace the reigning right-wing government, was assaulted after a peace rally in Thessaloniki. He died five days later.
Review: Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
In this soupy 1951 romantic melodrama, Ava Gardner plays Pandora, a self-loathing vixen who toys with the affections of sundry panting males while waiting without hope for her real love to appear.
Review: Defamation
Yoav Shamir, a young Israeli documentarian, goes off to America and Eastern Europe with a camera and a question: is anti-Semitism an important concern today for Jews, or are those anxious about it being unduly paranoid?
Review: The Strip
In lieu of Steve Carell’s hopelessly inept and earnest manager, we have his creepier duplicate, Glenn. Instead of the boorish brown-noser played by Rainn Wilson, there’s the more obnoxious Rick.
Review: Brothers
Operation Enduring Freedom seems to have replaced Vietnam as Hollywood's go-to military quagmire from which to dredge gut-wrenching meditations on the psychological carnage of war.
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Topics: Reviews , Movies, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, More

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ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL

REVIEW: FOR GREATER GLORY | May 29, 2012
Bring coffee, because director Dean Wright's dramatization of the 3-year-long Cristero War (1926-9) seems to last longer than the Mexican conflict itself.

REVIEW: GIRL IN PROGRESS | May 15, 2012
As rites of passage go, Girl in Progress is a step backward for the genre.

REVIEW: FIRST POSITION | May 10, 2012
While not the most probing look at rising stars, Bess Kargman's documentary focuses on six aspiring contestants preparing for the prestigious Youth America Grand Prix competition (a proven entry point into the world of professional ballet) who demonstrate dazzling talent.

REVIEW: THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL | May 03, 2012
Filled with Indian (and British) clichés, it is nonetheless a pleasant diversion that doesn't involve special effects or 3D glasses.

REVIEW: BLUE LIKE JAZZ | April 12, 2012
A faith-based film directed by Christian recording artist Steve Taylor, adapted by Taylor and Donald Miller from the latter's 2003 memoir, this micro-budgeted indie tries to appeal to everyone by not offending anyone . . . except those who like movies.