Film

The Damned United is the well-told true story of the rapid rise and crashing fall of Brian Clough, English soccer manager, whose disastrous 44-day stint with top team Leeds United was mythologized by novelist David Peace in his 2006 book of the same title. For many, this one man's life may at first seem a rather small slice of 1970s history, but director Tom Hooper and actor Michael Sheen combine forces to present an expertly executed and involving tale of ambition, ego and self-destruction that has far-reaching appeal. This was a time before David Beckham, when footballers were idolized but a long way from becoming brands, when a player commanded a salary of only $500 a week.

There is a void in the world of children's film, a land cluttered with CGI squirrels, superheroes and flyaway houses that leaves today's kids missing something. That void comes from a lack of hand-drawn animated Disney musicals. Sure, most kids have seen The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast on DVD, if their parents were lucky enough to buy copies before they went back into the fabled Disney Vault, but it's not the same on the small screen. Now, a decade since their last dance with a princess comes the story of The Princess and the Frog.
Taking place in New Orleans, The Princess and the Frog features Disney's first African-American princess, Tiana, who has worked around the clock her whole life to open her own restaurant. After a small disaster at a masquerade ball, she dons a princess gown (tiara included) and while wishing on a star meets Prince Naveen in his mucus-y reptile form.

Here is a good idea for a movie: After serving his stint on the Iraq frontline, an American soldier is assigned to work in casualty notification and alongside a struggling alcoholic partner he appears on the doorstep of the mothers, fathers and spouses of the dead to offer the apologies of the Secretary of the Army. The relatives react, but the soldiers are supposed to keep to the script and then walk away.
The Messenger must have looked great on paper, good enough to attract an impressive cast including Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton and Steve Buscemi who saw the potential of this previously untold story. The film, however, never gets off that paper, remaining as a series of annotations on this good idea. The scenes are held together sketchily with far too much in the margins. It could be a New Yorker article, but it never quite makes it on celluloid.

Judging from the previews, Armored looked destined to deliver high-octane thrills. Instead, we're handed a weakly written and simple-minded heist movie that wants us to believe it's a character study. The intro begins with sad tremolo guitar that attempts to induce despair and sincerity, trying to resemble “indie cool” and something heavier than it is. It's nothing short of boring. I needed a thick shell of armor to protect me from the banality.

In a world of Jessica Rabbits and Disney princesses, a world in which female audiences are largely ignored in the attractive animated characters department, Wes Anderson has not only provided a charming, roguish and sharply dressed fox voiced by George Clooney but in creating this creature the director overtly references the first cartoon crush of many, the handsome fox of 1973 Disney movie, Robin Hood. An adaptation of the short story by Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr. Fox incorporates the love theme music from the Disney film, along with the rambunctious, playful attitude of the Merry Men.

According to the notorious ninja website (realultimatepower.net), “Ninjas are awesome; they cut off heads – they flip out and kill people.” In the case of Ninja Assassin, they also sever main arteries, hack off limbs and entire mid sections causing torsos to spurt towering fountains of blood. There is enough blood pumping out of veins in this movie to fill an aquarium tank at SeaWorld.
Brought to you by the same team as V for Vendetta (produced by the Wachowski bros and directed by James McTiegue), the plot is simple with the opening delivering the best scene. The Yakuza gang delinquents suffer a collective blood-spewing, decapitation death at the hands of an invisible knife-wielding foe. Later, Interpol agents in Berlin learn that demon ninjas are to blame, and the biggest, baddest-ass of them all is Raizo (played by Korean pop star Rain).

There were two movies at the theater this weekend portraying the experiences of teenage girls as they navigate the territory between girlishness and womanhood. One of these films claimed teenage girls to be the powerless victims of men's will and lust. That would be the other film reviewed on this page, the latest installment of the Twilight saga, New Moon.
The other film is one of the best of the year and gives teenage girls a space and respect they're rarely allowed. An Education is encouraging and supportive, centering on Jenny – a strong, rounded, complex character who makes decisions that have realistic consequences. It's a refreshing and heartening film, and by its mere existence questions the usually harsh treatment of young women in film. It also makes the bold claim that their minds are more important than their bodies, but if they want to have a bit of fun they don't have to be ruined. Jenny is not the mere facilitator of some man's fulfilled destiny, but the architect of her own.

Hello, my name is Anne Pick and I am a Twilight-aholic. I didn't use to have this obsession, in fact, this time last year I was making fun of my best friend for buying into the teenage vampire pandemonium. Despite my previous disdain for the series, I read all four books (twice) and I have seen the light; and that light sparkled off of Edward Cullen's abs. Last night, I along with what seemed to be more than 2,000 other vampire-loving fans (only one of which was dressed as a Edward Cullen), crowded into 15 different sold-out auditoriums to see the next installment at a few minutes past midnight.
One of the things I liked best about the adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's second book in the Twilight Saga was it is definitely a film made for the fans. This movie wasn't made for critics or to win awards, it was made to please the series' millions (maybe billions) of fans. New Moon blows the first Twilight film out of the water and one factor that contributes to that is it follows the book much more closely than its predecessor. Speaking as, and for the fans, what we've all been hoping for over the last year is that the future films don't ruin what Meyer has established in the books. No more of this “Hold on tight spider monkey,” bull crap.

Somehow, the filmmaking duo that brought us Fargo, No Country For Old Men and The Big Lebowski managed to sneak a movie under the radar that has the feel of an instant art house classic. Simply put, A Serious Man is the best movie I've seen this year. Stemming from all things Jewish, Leave it to Beaver and Middle America circa 1967, the Coen brothers have executed a comic masterpiece.
While opening credits snap to the drumbeat of Jefferson Airplane's “Somebody to Love,” we zoom through an ear cavity of a kid listening to a transistor radio during Hebrew school. And you might guess that this is going to be another bizarre ride on the Coen Bros Express. But it's not as weird as it is simplistic, a meticulous tale that's taken to every inch of its breaking point.

The theory behind Roland Emmerich's latest disaster movie is vaguely interesting. According to the Mayan calendar (gee, that looks so stupid in writing) the world will end in the year 2012. A frighteningly large number of people actually believe this and are busy preparing for the fire, flood and all. An equally vast contingent of people of the New Age variety believe 2012 will bring a shift in consciousness, and we will all get along together in a more friendly way forever after.
In a few years time something will happen because people believe it will – be that mass suicides, or mass yoga practices. The level of intrigue for most of us is probably on a par with our interest in who wins American Idol. 2012, however, is such a nothing nothingness of a film that it should be consigned to a pile marked “unreviewable,” so there's little to say in the face of all its tired old silliness.