|
3.5/4
|
88%
|
Rush (2013) |
"
Howard pulls off a dramatic switcheroo in "Rush." He presents characters in competition, one a golden god, the other a repellent Ratso - and by the end, we root for Ratso. "
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Sep 27, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
72%
|
Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour (2008) |
"
Miley might not become another Britney, if she keeps away from those way-cute Jonas boys. They look like trouble. I think they've actually experienced hormones."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Aug 29, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
98%
|
Blackfish (2013) |
"
In many ways, "Blackfish" is a horror film in which we discover that we have met the monster, and the monster is us."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Aug 23, 2013
|
|
3
|
27%
|
Planes (2013) |
"
Visually, "Planes" aircraft characters owe a huge debt to cartoonist Hank Caruso, who's been doing this stuff for decades ... As a movie, "Planes" is pretty meh."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Aug 22, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
25%
|
Pearl Harbor (2001) |
"
There's a certain symbolic symmetry here. The Navy and Walt Disney have teamed up on the production, and both view history as something to be managed and exploited. "
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Dec 20, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
59%
|
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) |
"
Prior to "Tora!" movies showing the attack were jingoistic propaganda; afterwards, the attack was an excuse to indulge in Hollywood's fascination with American self-loathing."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Dec 20, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
——
|
The Land Of Eb () |
"
A rare, extraordinary film that celebrates the dignity of hard work, as well as the tenuous connections of cultural legacy in a fragmented community."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Oct 19, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
67%
|
The Road (2012) |
"
... Enough rattling thrills for the date-night crowd, and enough story and character for older film buffs to chew on. The ride home afterwards might require your high beams."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted May 11, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
95%
|
Marley (2012) |
"
The film never shows us Marley in a complete performance. It's hard to understand the magic of a man whose most awesome moments are reduced to edited snippets."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Apr 20, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
88%
|
Titanic (2012) |
"
It is, simply, a great film, a throwback to classic filmmaking, and more than that, an experience with unusual resonance to the world of today."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Apr 12, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
——
|
Dancing Queen (2012) |
"
Rom-com fantasy that dips precariously into real feeling late in the reels, and because leads Hwang Jung-Min and Um Jung-Hwa have real talent for empathy, we're carried along."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Mar 30, 2012
|
|
1/4
|
22%
|
October Baby (2012) |
"
Heavily vested in its peculiarly glossy agitprop that, like Saint Sebastian, it invites the arrows of kneejerk derision. Too bad, as the film has really lovely performances."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Mar 22, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
51%
|
John Carter (2012) |
"
Great fun as we endure scrape after scrape in this wild, near-hallucinatory landscape, and director Stanton finds the right balance of cheerful solemnity and cheeky humor."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Mar 12, 2012
|
|
1.5/4
|
64%
|
Tomorrow, When the War Began (2012) |
"
"Tomorrow" is less realistic than "Red Dawn," if you can wrap your head around that without making it pop off."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Feb 23, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
42%
|
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) |
"
Hey, it moves right along. It rockets on a certain goofy bliss. Never mind the filmmakers have clearly never read the original Verne/Stevenson/Swift books beyond cover blurbs"
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Feb 9, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
——
|
All's Well Ends Well 2012 (2012) |
"
Nothing subtle about the production, which operates as a Cantonese Three Stooges on a neon-colored bender. Which means you often laugh out loud, and then wonder why you did."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Feb 6, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
——
|
Big in Bollywood () |
"
A funny, insightful meditation on the trappings of fame, and the key word there is "trap." Also helps explain the foreign excitement of Bollywood to American audiences."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Jan 26, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
40%
|
Red Tails (2012) |
"
A canny homage to a certain genre of film, the aerial adventure story, a type that was popular when airplanes were considered marvelous machines and not merely flying buses."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Jan 25, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
56%
|
The Viral Factor (2012) |
"
A monster rush of muscular action sequences, tepidly glued together with rapidly evaporating logic. Secret agent Man's brain turns to mush, and it spreads to the audience."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Jan 24, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
41%
|
The Flowers of War (2011) |
"
What we have here is a movie that believes it is a massive and glorious heroic epic, when it's really a backlot melodrama."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Jan 19, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
——
|
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) |
"
This is defiantly old-fashioned, high-value entertainment with a glamorous, talented cast. You used to see this sort of thing all the time from Hollywood."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Jan 12, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
77%
|
War Horse (2011) |
"
A tearjerker finale suggests that Joey has the power of restoring sight to the blind. Oh, the noble creatures that make us see ourselves as we really are!"
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Dec 28, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
——
|
Living In Seduced Circumstances () |
"
OK, it's a low-budget Misery. It's made with technical panache and an interesting palette, however, and the actors are up to the challenge."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Dec 21, 2011
|
|
1/4
|
33%
|
Arirang () |
"
Arirang is insufferable, and it's approaching torture to sit through it. Although we do wish Ki-Duk would climb out of his hole and get on with his life."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Dec 21, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
86%
|
The Forgiveness of Blood (2012) |
"
We start out hoping that new freedoms will start to cancel out age-old blood feuds, and wind up simply wishing that a cease-fire can be maintained."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Dec 21, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
50%
|
The Journals Of Musan (2011) |
"
A journey through a world of moral and ethical conundrums makes a sobering couple of hours, and also a lively discussion afterwards for amateur Christian theologians. "
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Dec 21, 2011
|
|
2.5/4
|
92%
|
Senna (2011) |
"
While this documentary is unreeling, we're definitely along for the ride. But there's no aftertaste, except for that of burnt metal."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Nov 25, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
100%
|
Semper Fi: Always Faithful (2012) |
"
Semper Fi: Always Faithful carefully follows the conduct of this case, which is largely unknown by the general public. It is superbly constructed without being preachy."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Nov 25, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
——
|
With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story (2012) |
"
A hagiographic valentine constructed by overly excited fanboys. Lee's imprint on popular culture deserves better and deeper than this."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Nov 25, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
89%
|
The Descendants (2011) |
"
A large patch of the movie's social contract are the Hawaiian notions of 'aina, malama and pono. It joins the short list we aren't embarrassed to screen for malahini."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Nov 25, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
80%
|
Littlerock (2011) |
"
A neatly plotted, observational film about being on the outside looking in, and on the inside looking out."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Nov 11, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
81%
|
Red Dog (2012) |
"
Miners are telling Red Dog stories, and so it's essentially a series of personal flashbacks that grow larger with the retelling, exactly the way mythology gets kickstarted."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Oct 28, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
75%
|
Leave it on the Floor (2013) |
"
Clearly not aimed at a mass audience, who, even if they're open to gay issues, may be turned off by on-the-cheap production values and self-conscious "acting" by principals. "
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Oct 28, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
——
|
Sector 7 IMAX (2011) |
"
She rides motorcycles, handles gigantic drills, punches out monsters and gets just the right amount of grime and sweat rubbed into her tightly stretched tanktop. Yeah, baby."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Oct 28, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
——
|
Sector 7 (2011) |
"
Eventually the creature is vanquished by the last person standing. If this sounds like every monster movie cliche ever invented, "Sector 7" manages to drag in them all."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Oct 28, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
84%
|
Tucker & Dale vs Evil (2011) |
"
Beginning psychologists take note - hillbillies and college kids may kill each other, but the greatest assets in maintaining the peace, on both sides, are hot coeds."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Oct 27, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
9%
|
1911 (2011) |
"
Students of revolutionary Chinese history can have fun checking them off. Look, there's Li Yuanhong! And over there, Feng Guozhang!"
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Oct 7, 2011
|
|
1.5/4
|
——
|
The Legend Is Born: Ip Man (Yip Man chinchyun) (2010) |
"
There is nothing in this bubbling soap opera of a plot that can't be solved with drawn-out fight scenes. And so they jump and kick, poke, slap and twirl for half the film."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Oct 6, 2011
|
|
1/4
|
——
|
Quick (2011) |
"
It's heartening to discover that the Koreans can make stunt movies as dim-witted and as attention-deficited as Hollywood. "
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Sep 16, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
100%
|
The Interrupters (2011) |
"
If this were a fiction movie out of Hollywood, we'd be hooting at the preposterousness of it all. I mean, really. "
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Sep 13, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
84%
|
Contagion (2011) |
"
It proves the creepiest movies are also the quietest. Although "Contagion" is a horror movie, it's also a response about a viral apocalypse. The end arrives with tiny coughs ..."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Sep 9, 2011
|
|
2.5/4
|
74%
|
Shaolin (2011) |
"
This is not a subtle film, and certainly not a great one, but it's made with bubbling brio and it's spectacular to look at. It's action filmmaking of the highest order."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Sep 8, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
27%
|
Colombiana (2011) |
"
The movie delivers slam-bang action, so much so that we're reminded that movies have to MOVE to carry us along, and with 'Columbiana,' we're along for the ride, baby."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Sep 7, 2011
|
|
1/4
|
24%
|
Conan the Barbarian (2011) |
"
Absolutely spastic in the way it pretends to tell a story, the work of someone who doesn't understand choreography, coherent storytelling and basic structural editing."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Sep 7, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
33%
|
Flyboys (2006) |
"
Each air battle has been scripted as a set piece that not only shows off the capabilities of the pilots and their machines, but also advances the plot. Bring your Dramamine!"
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Sep 7, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
62%
|
Amigo (2011) |
"
"Amigo" is probably too didactic and period-bound to find a wide audience, and the Americans who would benefit most from it are likely to be confused by it."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Aug 25, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
——
|
Sunny (Sseo-ni) (2011) |
"
Writer-director Kang Hyeong-Cheoi has a keen grasp of what motivates teenagers, which is mostly a desire to be an individual while also being exactly like everyone else."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Aug 24, 2011
|
|
2.5/4
|
72%
|
Fright Night (2011) |
"
Finally - after a long dry spell - here's a vampire movie that doesn't suck. This makes it seem better than it is, as long as you don't squeeze your eyeballs in a 3D theater."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Aug 19, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
76%
|
The Help (2011) |
"
A Southern gothic comedy-drama with wickedly observed performances and a story arc that feels absolutely epic, despite the modest, domestic setting."
—
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Posted Aug 16, 2011
|
