Phoenix Movie Reviews - Phoenix Movies Guide

Public Enemies: Michael Mann and Johnny Depp Take Us Through the Life and Crimes of John Dillinger

"They're all about where people come from. Nobody seems to wonder where somebody's going." So says the Depression-era bank-robber-cum-folk-hero... More>>

By Scott Foundas

Published: July 02, 2009

Larry David Can’t Salvage Woody Allen’s Whatever Works

Character is destiny — at least for Woody Allen's Whatever Works. Allen's exercise in Woody Allen nostalgia opens with a snatch of Groucho... More>>

By J. Hoberman

Published: July 02, 2009

My Sister’s Keeper Is Honest About Illness and False About All Else

Eleven-year-old Anna Fitzgerald's parents didn't just plan for her — they customized her in utero, with the specific end of providing spare... More>>

By Nick Pinkerton

Published: June 25, 2009

Transformers 2: Michael Bay Can’t Live Up to Michael Bay

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a bewildering, noisy, sloppy, cynical piece of work, a movie that sneers at the audience for 147 minutes... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: June 25, 2009

Rudo Y Cursi is Not the Kind of Sports Movie Where Everyone Wins

Not quite The Further Adventures of Cain & Abel, the second coming of Beavis & Butt-Head, King Kong vs. Godzilla Redux, or Peyton Meets Eli, but... More>>

By J. Hoberman

Published: June 25, 2009

The Proposal: Once More Down the Aisle

Fifteen minutes after seeing The Proposal, I'd forgotten I'd seen The Proposal. Well, that's not entirely true: By then, it had simply merged in... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: June 18, 2009

Away We Go: Writers Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida Give Birth to a Beautiful Screenplay

In the new romantic road-movie dramedy Away We Go, SNL alum Maya Rudolph and The Office's John Krasinski play an unexpectedly expectant couple... More>>

By Jonathan Kiefer

Published: June 18, 2009

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3: In This Subway Series, the Original Pelham Wins

Want to know how a city works? Start by watching 1974's The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, a primer in which subway hijackers test how long it'll take a... More>>

By Jim Ridley

Published: June 11, 2009

Away We Go: Dave Eggers Makes His Screenwriting Debut

Midway through A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers' solipsistic, terminally-apologetic-for-being-solipsistic... More>>

By Scott Foundas

Published: June 11, 2009

Peter Pans Head for the Strip in Todd Phillips’ The Hangover

What Fletch was to plaid-checked water-cooler wits in the '80s, what National Lampoon's Van Wilder was to college-bound douches at the dawn of... More>>

By Jim Ridley

Published: June 04, 2009

Harvard Beats Yale 29-29: Legendary Ivy League Football Game Documentary Wraps Up the Boomer Era

Pundits agree: The 2008 election has finally and forever rung down the curtain on America's longest-running psychodrama, namely the... More>>

By J. Hoberman

Published: June 04, 2009

Cannes Film Festival 2009: This Time, It’s Visceral

CANNES, France — Memorable for its in-your-face sensationalism, the 62nd Cannes Film Festival opened with the 3-D computer animation Up,... More>>

By J. Hoberman

Published: May 28, 2009

Up Soars In Entirely Unexpected Ways

First of all, Up is not a movie about a cranky old coot who, with the help of a roly-poly Boy Scout, finds his inner child during a series of... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: May 28, 2009

Drag Me To Hell: Sam Raimi Makes One Hell of a Comeback

Sam Raimi wants to go home again. Often a drifting virtuoso in the years before finding his Spider-Man gig, with Drag Me to Hell Raimi defaults... More>>

By Nick Pinkerton

Published: May 28, 2009

Ramin Bahrani’s Quietly Profound Goodbye Solo

At 73, the Memphis-born actor, stuntman, former U.S. Marine, and Golden Gloves boxer Red West has the stoic, leathery repose of a barfly on a... More>>

By Scott Foundas

Published: May 28, 2009

Terminator Salvation: Don’t See This Film if You Want to Live

Both warning and advertisement, the Terminator films are technophobic teases, selling tickets by promising this decade's model of killing... More>>

By Nick Pinkerton

Published: May 21, 2009

The Brothers Bloom Is No Joke, Despite Its Stylish Trappings

Writer-director Rian Johnson fashions a universe in which time is a fluid thing — where everything takes place in a familiar today and an... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: May 21, 2009

Angels & Demons Has a Need for Speed

Angels & Demons is still no more than another treat for wacked-out male conspiracy theorists, mind you, and at 138 minutes, it's a scant 10... More>>

By Ella Taylor

Published: May 14, 2009

Limits of Control: Wandering Spain with Jim Jarmusch’s "Lone Man"

Jim Jarmusch's anonymous antihero hitman (French-Ivorian actor Isaach De Bankolé), identified in the credits of The Limits of Control as... More>>

By J. Hoberman

Published: May 14, 2009

J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek is Proof That a Franchise Can Live Long and Prosper

It's difficult for this longtime Trekkie to review J.J. Abrams' relaunching of the U.S.S. Enterprise. It's difficult to dispassionately dole out... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: May 07, 2009

Examined Life: Astra Taylor Asks Cornel West and Crew to Take on the Big Question

"Things," as Dwight D. Eisenhower once observed, "are more like they are now than they have ever been before." But why? Is something better... More>>

By J. Hoberman

Published: May 07, 2009

Compared with Last Summer’s Comic Book Flicks, Wolverine's Blades Are Disposable

Following closely behind a film that perfects a concept isn't easy. Try to imagine a moviemaker sinking a big boat in the wake of Titanic, or... More>>

By Martin Cizmar

Published: April 30, 2009

Sidestepping Sports Movie Clichés, Sugar Hits the Sweet Spot

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have transformed some of the saggiest, most clichéd genres with smarts, non-screechy politics, superb acting,... More>>

By Melissa Anderson

Published: April 30, 2009

Matthew McConaughey Is Scary Bad in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Two weeks after jowly Matthew Perry transformed into pretty Zac Efron to relive his adolescence in 17 Again, Warner Bros. releases Ghosts of... More>>

By Melissa Anderson

Published: April 30, 2009

The Soloist: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr., and Joe Wright Turn a Beloved Newspaper Series into Schlock

The Soloist opens with newspapers thudding onto lawns, a quaint sight that makes the movie practically a period piece, even though the events... More>>

By Ella Taylor

Published: April 23, 2009