Jack Reacher is an above-average crime thriller with an effortlessly beguiling performance from Tom Cruise. At times it lacks compelling motivation, or sophisticated action, but for what it lacks it aims to replace with a good helping of drama, mystery, and a high body count.

“Jack Reacher has the distinction of being little more than it initially appears to be: a clumsily condensed mystery/thriller novel made into a movie that offers little more than every other clumsily condensed mystery/thriller novel made into a movie.” —James Berardinelli

Storyline

An innocent-looking brute…

Les Misérables is bound to take the box office by storm, but it’s a musical. Are musicals allowed to do that? Under the right circumstances, such as in Tom Hooper’s film, they stand the chance to. I’m really looking forward to Hugh Jackman’s performance as Jean Valjean. Hugh describes the working relationship with Tom Hooper and more in this interview.

“He’s so bold. He just takes so many risks,“ Jackman says. ”You don’t win the Oscar and take on a movie musical. Movie musicals are the riskiest things in the world. Are you kidding me? So, singing live. Making it fully sung through.…

The most definitive opinion piece I’ve read comparing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in these formats: HFR 3D, Standard 3D, and 2D:

So with all of this here’s the “Master Class” that I took away, and that Peter Jackson shared with every filmmaker out there that is willing to study these 3 versions of the same film:

1. Film is just as much about what you DON’T show the audience as with what you DO. Shallow depth of field, motion blur, lack of sharpness, and movement all help to create movie magic. If images are too sharp and you see too much detail…that’s not always a good thing. The…

Witless, unfocused, and arguably misogynistic as well as misandristic, Playing for Keeps is a dispiriting, lowest-common-denominator Hollywood rom-com.

It’s a wonder why decent actors get paired with fatuous productions, such as this one. If you care to know more about how poorly the film sells itself, then partake in the rest of my review.

“Dear Hollywood, Please make better movies. Thanks.” -Ron Kraus

I saw Ron’s comment on YouTube for the official release of Playing for Keeps’ trailer. And I want to parrot Ron. Hollywood, what were you thinking? Get it together.

Playing for…

Rise of the Guardians is a 2012 American 3D computer animated fantasy adventure film based on William Joyce’s The Guardians of Childhood book series. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it was released on November 21, 2012 and received mixed to positive critical reception.

Set about 200 years after the book series, the film tells a story about the Guardians who enlist Jack Frost to stop Pitch, the Bogeyman, from engulfing the world in fear and darkness. This film features the voices of Chris Pine (Jack Frost), Alec Baldwin (North [aka Santa Claus]),

A film adaptation of a supposedly “unfilmable” novel, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi achieves the supposed impossible — it’s an astonishing technical work that’s also emotionally inciting.

Life of Pi is a 2012 American adventure drama film based on Yann Martel’s 2001 novel of the same name. Directed by Ang Lee, the film is based on an adapted screenplay by David Magee, and stars Irrfan Khan, Gérard Depardieu, Tabu, Suraj Sharma, and Adil Hussain. Visual effects are by Rhythm & Hues Studios.

Critics and the public are loving Pi, and this comes at no surprise. The characterization of the zoo…

Reed Hastings says that, one day, Amazon will provide real competition for Netflix.

But the Netflix CEO says Jeff Bezos will have to spend a lot of money before that happens: Hastings says Amazon is losing between $500 million and a $1 billion a year as it acquires streaming video content rights.

Hastings says he generated those numbers based on the value of the content deals that Amazon won when the two companies competed head to head. He says he thinks Amazon’s costs are split evenly between its U.S. operations and Europe, where it operates the Lovefilm streaming service.

Last…

When was the last time you heard anything positive about Blockbuster Video? Last we (the general public) heard, their business was floundering, as physical stores were shuttered and customers were moving to Netflix.

Well, Blockbuster isn’t giving up without a fight. The latest development is their iOS based Newstand magazine. Here’s Mike Schramm’s thoughts over at TUAW:

They must be pretty far down the idea list over at Blockbuster Video, because this one suddenly appeared out of left field. The video rental chain has released, of all things, an iPad-based digital…

Did you know that from the time of the Founding Fathers until the time of President Lincoln, the date Thanksgiving was observed varied from state to state? The final Thursday in November had become the customary date in most of the states by the beginning of the nineteenth century, but Thanksgiving was first celebrated on the same date by all states in 1863 by a presidential proclamation of Lincoln.

Influenced by the campaigning of author Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote letters to politicians for around 40 years trying to make it an official holiday, Lincoln proclaimed the date to be the…