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Once in a blue moon, a G-rated animation comes along that appeals more to adults than to kids. Pixar’s WALL-E could be one of those exceptions to the rule. True, it features silent-film-inspired slapstick, which knows no target age, and a really cute robot. But to feel the sadness at the core of the movie, it helps to be old enough to remember the heroine of sex, lies and videotape telling her therapist that she obsesses over the fate of the world’s garbage.... Read more

Imagination, patience and an appreciation of the unfamiliar will come in handy for American audiences fortunate enough to find themselves confronted with the latest creation from Taiwan-based filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Imagine, first of all, a world in which motion pictures are commissioned by great museums rather than green-lighted by studio bean counters. It sounds like something that could happen only on another planet or in a work of utopian fantasy, but this is, in fact, how Flight of the Red Balloon came to be made.... Read more

If buzz were really a measure of a movie’s merits, The Fall would be unwatchable. Seldom has a less heralded film limped its way into theaters. From its premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, it took director Tarsem Singh’s film nearly two years to get a limited release in the U.S. Reviews have been mixed, and understandably so: The Fall has flaws. But it’s also a true spectacle, the type of movie that rewards a trip to watch it on the big screen.... Read more

Turning old TV shows into movies is often less a matter of paying tribute than of conceding creative desperation. My mother used to caution me, “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” I would offer similar advice to Hollywood filmmakers: If you don’t have something funny to say, don’t make any big-screen comedies.... Read more

The new version of The Incredible Hulk has a few questions to answer. First, when you jettison everything that was turgid, arty or downright bizarre about Hulk, Ang Lee’s 2003 take on the same character, do you also lose everything that was interesting? Second, how does Bruce Banner manage to find pants that still fit after he transforms into a 9-foot-tall muscle-bound colossus?... Read more

What a bad rap this picture has gotten. Reviewers have positively pounced on it. Many seem to relish the opportunity to pronounce the career of M. Night Shyamalan officially dead on its arrival. I’m not certain I understand the phenomenon. Are we so overloaded with truly innovative and talented directors that we feel the population needs to be brought under control, the way hunting season thins the deer herd? Even if this were a disappointing work, it wouldn’t merit the critical laceration it has already undergone.... Read more

Smart silliness is — or should be — the Holy Grail of kids’ movies. Slapstick involving animated critters with squeaky voices stops being inherently hilarious once you hit the age of 8 or so. But topical satire, parodies of Mike Ovitz and the like sail right over the heads of rugrats. One popular solution is to offer something for everyone wrapped in one shiny, computer-generated package: Bee Movie had plenty of physical comedy, but also jokes about Jewish identity and blow jobs.... Read more

Remember the bit toward the beginning of Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up when Seth Rogen and his mostly Jewish buds are at a bar talking about what a great film Munich is? “In every movie with Jews, we’re the ones getting killed. Munich flips it on its ear,” Rogen’s character rhapsodizes. “We’re capping motherfuckers. If any of us gets laid tonight, it’s because of Eric Bana.”... Read more

There’s a telling moment in Sex and the City when Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) reaches into a heap of magazines to retrieve a Vogue that depicts her in a glossy spread as “The Last Single Girl.” On the way, she shoves aside a copy of New York magazine whose cover asks in ominous black letters, “When Will the Real Estate Bubble Burst?”... Read more

With a swiftness I find fascinating, the notion of nutjobs violating the sanctity of a family home to commit random acts of violence has evolved from a vague, almost unimaginable horror into a highly profitable Hollywood staple. Audiences were first freaked out by the film version of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood a mere four decades and change ago. Today, the home-invasion thriller is a full-blown movie genre.... Read more