Phoenix Movie Reviews - Phoenix Movies Guide

Reviews

Without a Paddle

A farcical take on Deliverance

By Bill Gallo, August 19, 2004

Summer movies don't get much sillier or more empty-headed than Without a Paddle, and that includes Catwoman and King Arthur. What we have here is... More>>

Alien vs. Predator

Evil space critters get ready to rumble in AVP

By Luke Y. Thompson, August 19, 2004

Although most people in the moviegoing universe by now know the differences between an "Alien" and a "Predator," putting the two critters... More>>

Garden State

Braff pulls triple duty on his new project

By Robert Wilonsky, August 12, 2004

A good friend likes to say that there's only one kind of great pop song -- the song that someone had to create, as though the writer and... More>>

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Sequel anything but engaging

By Melissa Levine, August 12, 2004

Garry Marshall is at it again. The director of Pretty Woman, Beaches and the original Princess Diaries has returned to peddle his particular... More>>

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie

The card game Yu-Gi-Oh! becomes a wild and crazy movie

By Gregory Weinkauf, August 12, 2004

Most boys seem to tumble down the assembly line with their main switch factory-preset to Aggression. Toys are for throwing, army men are for... More>>

Collateral

Cruise's hit-man flick misses target

By Bill Gallo, August 05, 2004

Sheathed in a custom-tailored gray suit and sporting expensively barbered silver hair, Tom Cruise looks like an older, harder version of the... More>>

Open Water

Blair Witch meets Jaws

By Luke Y. Thompson, August 05, 2004

As a reviewer, it can be very tempting to want in on the ground floor of a phenomenon, to say you were there first when some low-budget feature... More>>

The Village

M. Night's latest

By Gregory Weinkauf, August 05, 2004

Deep in the dangerous wasteland of America, far removed from civilization, there exists a community driven by fear, sworn to isolationism. They... More>>

Little Black Book

In this Little Black Book you'll find a lot of mean people

By Robert Wilonsky, August 05, 2004

Little Black Book, with its Carly Simon soundtrack all but daring you to tune it out before it begins, is being marketed as a daffy romantic... More>>

A Home at the End of the World

Everybody loves Colin in A Home at the End of the World

By Luke Y. Thompson, August 05, 2004

You may have already heard the stories about A Home at the End of the World. In what many viewers have deemed a big loss, Colin Farrell's penis... More>>

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

Between hard rock and a safe place, Metallica finds itself

By Robert Wilonsky, August 05, 2004

Perhaps the most unlikely thing to capture on film is the creative process -- the spinning of gears, the tripping of wires, the breaking of... More>>

The Manchurian Candidate

Demme's Manchurian Candidate remake makes good

By Robert Wilonsky, July 29, 2004

Jonathan Demme's gutsy The Manchurian Candidate, which dares to rear its head just after the Democratic National Convention in Boston, is the... More>>

Carandiru

A cross between Oz and The Shawshank Redemption

By Bill Gallo, July 29, 2004

Moviegoers who know the tides of recent Brazilian history likely will get more from Hector Babenco's new prison movie, Carandiru, than the rest... More>>

Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds ups the action in this big-screen version of the '60s TV series.

By Bill Gallo, July 29, 2004

If you're, oh, 11 years old and you've had it up to here with Spider-Man's current case of existential angst, it's time to blow your weekly... More>>

Catwoman

Batman's feline nemesis stretches out with her own film

By Gregory Weinkauf, July 22, 2004

Without risking much critical credibility, it can be said that Catwoman succeeds on its own feline terms. Much like a cat, the movie is a... More>>

The Door in the Floor

The Door in the Floor was adapted from John Irving's A Widow for One Year

By Melissa Levine, July 22, 2004

The opening moments of The Door in the Floor are not promising. A little girl stands on a chair in a hallway of photos, pointing at the images... More>>

Before Sunset

Delpy and Hawke meet up again in Europe

By Gregory Weinkauf, July 15, 2004

"Memory is a wonderful thing, if you don't have to deal with the past," declares the French Celine (Julie Delpy) to her erstwhile American... More>>

The Story of the Weeping Camel

Nature is the star of The Story of the Weeping Camel

By Bill Gallo, July 15, 2004

Fair warning: If the behavior of camels in the Gobi Desert during the spring birthing season is not high on your things-to-learn-about list, and... More>>

King Arthur

So much eye candy, so little substance

By Gregory Weinkauf, July 08, 2004

Behold what is, in theory, the thinking person's ideal summer blockbuster. King Arthur features some of the planet's most beautiful people,... More>>

The Clearing

Veteran actors breathe life into an old storyline

By Luke Y. Thompson, July 08, 2004

It's one of the oldest stories in cinema, and possibly the history of storytelling: A man is kidnapped by a baddie wielding a deadly weapon. His... More>>

Spider-Man 2

Spiderman 2 spins a superior sequel

By Robert Wilonsky, July 01, 2004

All you need to know about Spider-Man 2 is revealed in the opening credits, in which comic-book artist Alex Ross recaps the 2002 original in... More>>

Napoleon Dynamite

Dorks rock in Napoleon Dynamite

By Melissa Levine, July 01, 2004

It's charming. It's hilarious. It is perhaps the most beautifully crafted, lovingly rendered portrait of extreme geekitude ever to grace the... More>>

Americas Heart & Soul

Louis Schwartzberg aims for America's Heart, but mostly sticks to the surface

By Luke Y. Thompson, July 01, 2004

America's Heart & Soul, the debut feature from commercial director Louis Schwartzberg, is being depicted in some quarters as the antidote to... More>>

Fahrenheit 9/11

Moore's controversial documentary paints a portrait of incompetence

By Gregory Weinkauf, June 24, 2004

A strong toxin requires a strong antidote. In the case of the Bush administration, the cure is being served in significant part by Michael Moore,... More>>

The Notebook

Chick flick spins love yarn

By Luke Y. Thompson, June 24, 2004

It's often a challenge to fairly assess a film that, by its very conception, is simply targeted to an entirely different demographic from one's... More>>