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Review: The Hangover Part II

Darker and more desperate
Amnesia might be the key to enjoying Todd Phillips's reprise of his 2009 hit comedy, since it follows by rote the formula set up in the original.

By: PETER KEOUGH | May 26, 2011

Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

A total bore
It's been four years since the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy ended, and Jerry Bruckheimer hasn't produced a hit in that time — which is the sole reason On Stranger Tides is beaching itself in theaters now.

By: BRETT MICHEL | May 26, 2011

Review: Kung Fu Panda 2

The unlikely Dragon Warrior returns
The original cast is back, but is there anything left to the story?

By: BRETT MICHEL | May 26, 2011

Blank City movie review by Boston Phoenix movie critic

Review: Blank City

A new documentary looks at the downtown NYC No Wave film scene
When you romanticize, everything awful is awesome and inspiring. And so it is with the nostalgic, now-middle-aged, indie filmmakers interviewed in Céline Danhier's Blank City, reflecting on the late '70s and early '80s on New York's Lower East Side.

By: GERALD PEARY | May 26, 2011

Review: Dream Home

Edmond Pang Ho-Cheung's erratic thriller
You can't really blame Cheng Lai-sheung (Josie Ho) for killing people in her effort to obtain the title dwelling of Edmond Pang Ho-Cheung's erratic thriller, a flat in a high-rise in Hong Kong's posh Victoria Harbor.

By: PETER KEOUGH | May 19, 2011

Review: The Princess of Montpensier

Bertrand Tavernier's opulent period piece
Like all religious wars, the conflict between Catholics and Huguenots in 16th-century France made a mockery of spiritual values.

By: PETER KEOUGH | May 19, 2011

Review: A Beautiful Life

Chance encounters
Talk about a literal movie title.

By: MICHAEL C. WALSH | May 19, 2011

Review: Legends of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

A pastiche of genres
Fight sequences and jingoism propel Andrew Lau's period martial-arts melodrama, a formula that can be irresistible despite one's better judgment.

By: PETER KEOUGH | May 19, 2011

Review: Priest

Priests vs. vampires
Director Scott Stewart ( Legion ) helms this futuristic tale of a barren world under siege.

By: PEG ALOI | May 19, 2011

Review: These Amazing Shadows

Addictive movie-centric documentary
If movies are our kiss-kiss-bang-bang arenas of desire, then this addictive movie-centric documentary from Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton makes the Library of Congress sound like the Playboy Mansion.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | May 19, 2011

Review: Bridesmaids

Wedding crasher
A scene in which a couple screw their hearts out might not raise an eyebrow in a European art film, but as the opening of a romantic comedy from a Hollywood studio, it gets your attention.

By: PETER KEOUGH | May 12, 2011

Review: Hesher

A promise of things to come
There's plenty to admire in Spencer Susser's feature debut, like the impressive cast — Rainn Wilson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Natalie Portman, Piper Laurie — and the heartfelt intentions of Susser's dark coming-of-age tale.

By: TOM MEEK | May 12, 2011

Review: Incendies

Thrillingly philosophical art movie
Of the five pictures nominated by the Academy for Best Foreign Language Film this year, Denis Villeneuve's Incendies is the one that should have taken the Oscar.

By: GERALD PEARY | May 12, 2011

Review: Jumping the Broom

The film tries to balance an improbable barrage of plotlines with crude ethnic jokes
Six months after they first meet, Sabrina Watson (Paula Patton) and Jason Taylor (Laz Alonso) arrive on Martha's Vineyard to wed on Sabrina's upper-crust family estate.

By: ZAK JASON | May 12, 2011

Review: Saviors in the Night

A worthy entry in the Holocaust genre
Ludi Boeken's earnest adaptation of Marga Spiegel's memoir sheds new light on that much-filmed topic, the Holocaust, largely because it takes place in a small German town over the course of the war, providing a microcosm of a society in the throes of a historical catastrophe.

By: TOM MEEK | May 12, 2011