Articles by Diana Beechener

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

The only mystery is who approved this script

Young adventurer Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson: The Kids Are Alright) intercepts a mysterious message referencing Jules Verne. Sure he had to break into a satellite station to get the signal, but what’s a little arrest in the quest for adventure? Stepfather Hank (Dwayne Johnson: Fast Five) talks the cops out of pressing charges, so Sean confesses what’s going on: His grandfather, Alexander, (Michael Caine: Cars 2) is a Vernian, believing that the works of Jules...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener; 2/16/12

Chronicle

A trio of teens get the gift of a lifetime in this fun sci-fi take on superpowers

Spiderman’s beloved Uncle Ben once said With great power comes great responsibility. Sure Voltaire said it first, but the three teens at the center of Chronicle are more likely to be reading philosophy penned by Stan Lee than some old French guy. Our heroes are three high school archetypes: Popular suave Steve (Michael B. Jordan: Red Tails), Stoner Matt (Alex Russell: Almost Kings) and bullied dweeb Andrew (Dane DeHaan: True Blood). Weird and quiet, Andrew has started...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener; 2/9/12

This Week’s Creature Feature ... A Terrific Year for...

In 2011, the terrier was king of the box office

If you want to stand out in movies, never work with dogs or children. This Oscar season, however, films featuring terriers are racking up the nominations. First popular in screwball films of the 1930s, such as The Thin Man and Bringing Up Baby, terriers dropped back to the relative obscurity of television shows such as Fraiser and Wishbone. Now, the breed seems to be making a comeback, appearing in three of the biggest award-season films of 2011. In...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener; 2/2/12

The Grey

Liam Neeson proves old dogs can learn new tricks

There are movies like The Artist in which every shot is an exquisitely composed tableau. And then there are movies like The Grey, where Liam Neeson (Unknown) bare-knuckle boxes a giant Alaskan timber wolf. My job as a reviewer is convincing you that both sorts can be enjoyable and worth your hard-earned money. Neeson plays Ottway, who has the manliest job since gladiators went out of style: He is a professional wolf killer. Before I get a letter from PETA...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener; 2/2/12

Red Tails

A story this important deserves better than this second rate film

In the times before Martin Luther King put momentum behind his dream, African Americans had to be twice as good to get half as much as their white counterparts. Racism was justified and equality denied by spurious science. Black soldiers were thought to be lazy, stupid and cowardly, so the government didn’t want to give them the opportunity to fight for their country — just cook for it in galleys and mess halls while white soldiers earned accolades. ...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener; 1/26/12

The Iron Lady

Meryl Streep is all teeth, no bite, in this boring biopic

What do you do when you’re making a movie about a political figure whose politics you don’t agree with? Avoid the subject, cast Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher and give her an immense set of dentures. The formula worked. Streep and her dentures just took home a Golden Globe. The teeth are right. But the rest of the film is all wrong. The Iron Lady shows a feeble Thatcher pottering around her house. She’s still got some of her feisty...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener; 1/19/12

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

There’s more to espionage than car chases, explosions and bikinis

In the cinematic world of James Bond and Jason Bourne, spies are men with hard abs, steel fists and fast cars. Theirs is a world of high-octane excitement: car chases, shoot outs and loads of hand-to-hand combat. Usually there’s a pretty lady or two to dote upon them when the action slows. So when we see pudgy, gray-haired, bespectacled George Smiley (Gary Oldman: Harry Potter) meekly enter a room, we don’t think spy. That’s precisely what Smiley is hoping...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener; 1/12/12

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

How many dysfunctions can you cram into two hours?

To say that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a dark film is like saying Ted Bundy was a bad date. Rape. Beatings. Sexual sadism. And that doesn’t even cover the murder mystery at the heart of the film. A close adaptation of author Stieg Larsson’s equally graphic and disturbing mystery novel, director David Fincher’s (The Social Network) Girl shows you the bowels of humanity in every one of its darkly beautiful frames. Fincher’s...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener; 1/5/12

The Artist

C’est magnifique

In 1927 a new fad was sweeping the film industry: Talking Pictures. You may have seen one or two if you’ve been to a movie in the past 84 years. With the advent of the new technology, an entire industry fell to the wayside. Silent film actors and actresses became the cassette tapes of their times, cast into obscurity seemingly overnight. In French film The Artist, director Michel Hazanavicius (OSS 117) chronicles the rise of talkies in a black-and-...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener; 12/29/11

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

An entertaining investigation heavier on brawn than brains

The master of deduction Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.: Due Date) has been dealing with a lot of loss of late. His romance with Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams: Midnight in Paris) is untenable. He’s at a stalemate trying to foil the plans of arch nemesis Dr. Moriarty (Jared Harris: Mad Men). Worst of all, his best mate and sleuthing sidekick Dr. Watson (Jude Law: Hugo) is getting married. Holmes isn’t taking it well. In response to his...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener; 12/22/11