Author: Jason Zingale

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (“ Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation”) lives in a world of his own. Just when you think his latest idea has completely blown your mind, he delivers another intricate mess of complicated genius. In his latest offering, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Kaufman takes the most basic love story ever told and entangles it in a complex web of doubt and deceit. Facing another dreaded Valentine’s Day, Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) decides to duck out of work and jump on the next subway train to the beach. Joel isn’t the only person crazy enough to visit…

Apparently, Ashley Judd was too busy playing her customary FBI chick in “Twisted” to fill in for the trashy “Taking Lives,” a lukewarm cop thriller that crosses no boundaries and offers fewer surprises. Angelina Jolie takes the role instead as Agent Illeana Scott, a criminal profiler called in by the French-Canadian police to help track down a serial killer responsible for 20 years of murders, which he’s covered up by assuming his victims’ identities. When the latest body is discovered at a local construction site, a witness (Ethan Hawke) comes forward to help identify the man he saw commit the…

Johnny Depp simply is one of the best actors today, with his magical ability to change any film from rust to gold. The latest display of his talents is “Secret Window,” a mediocre thriller taken from the pages of a Stephen King story, spiced up by Depp’s low-key humor and modest down-with-Hollywood attitude. Depp stars in King’s latest cash machine as Mort Rainey, a sour writer who has been struggling with a divorce from his wife Amy (Maria Bello) after her hotel affair with new beau Ted (Timothy Hutton) had been exposed six months earlier. Mort is awakened one morning…

As far as adaptating 1970s television classics for the big screen goes, “Starsky & Hutch” isn’t as bad as some of the more recent entries to come out of the remake machine. It’s a pretty basic concept to stretch into a feature-length film, so it’s no surprise that director Todd Phillips strikes nostalgic gold, squeezing just enough comedy out of the buddy cop formula to keep it afloat during its brisk 95-minute runtime. Dave Starsky (Ben Stiller) and Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson (Owen Wilson) have just been assigned as partners working in the Bay City Police Department. By-the-books Starsky has issues…

Every young man dreams of meeting the gorgeous girl next door, especially if that girl is Elisha Cuthbert, the blossoming young hottie from Fox’s hit TV drama “24” who struts her stuff in a red lace bra throughout Luke Greenfield’s latest addition to the teen comedy genre. Unlike most of its kind, though, “The Girl Next Door” succeeds by taking an overdone story and making it fresh with interesting characters and a genuinely funny script. Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) is a nerdy, down-to-business high school senior on track to earn a full scholarship to Georgetown when his neighbor’s niece Danielle…

Now that the kids of “American Pie” are all grown up, it’s time to bring in the new blood of the teen-comedy generation. The cast of “Eurotrip” jumps to the frontline with a comedy that’s better than expected and enhanced by hilarious cameos from Matt Damon as a punk rocker and Vinnie Jones as a fierce soccer hooligan. It’s the summer before college and Scotty (Scott Mechlowicz) has just been dumped by his girlfriend the same day his German pen pal “Mike” suggests they hook-up. After discovering that “Mike” is actually the drop-dead gorgeous Mieke (Jessica Boehrs), Scotty and his…

Much like its predecessors, “The Fast and the Furious” and “2 Fast 2 Furious,” the appeal of “Torque” isn’t driven by the story or the actors, but by the motorcycles that dominate the majority of the movie. The film does a sensational job of flaunting its two-wheeled thrill machines, but its lack of plot and painful dialogue result in a last-place finish. Back from a six-month hiatus, Cary Ford (Martin Henderson, “The Ring”) returns to the States to visit his old girlfriend Shane (Monet Mazur) and clear up a false accusation with FBI agent McPherson (Adam Scott) regarding motorcycle gang…

Big waves are the perfect catalyst for 87 minutes of explosive eye-candy in Philip Boston’s IMAX look-a-like “Billabong Odyssey,” a riveting documentary focusing on big-wave surfing across six continents that outlines the history behind the sport and boasts plenty of crazy footage that will blow your mind. The appeal of extreme sports has hit an all-time high and a group of crazy pro surfers have formed a team that will seek out the biggest and baddest waves to complete a cross-country expedition around the world they’ve called the Billabong Odyssey. Big-time surfing rivals Mike Parsons and Brad Gerlach team up…

It wouldn’t be a typical dead-of-winter season without the typical teen comedy full of stereotypes and weak jokes, but “The Perfect Score” still manages to shine in some moments before inevitably falling into an ugly rendition of “The Breakfast Club” by its final frame. Regardless of what you do in high school, all colleges seem to care about are your SAT scores, one simple number that can define the rest of your life. Two best friends, Kyle (Chris Evans) and Matty (Bryan Greenberg), soon realize the only way they’ll conquer the SAT and get into the schools they want is…

“The Butterfly Effect,” Ashton Kutcher’s latest Hollywood project and breakthrough hopeful, is built upon a single basis of chaos theory which states that “the breeze generated by a butterfly wing can trigger a cyclone halfway around the world.” Ultimately, though, the film suffers through various plot holes and a weak second half. Evan Treborn (John Patrick Amedori) has endured blackouts and memory lapses throughout his painful childhood and was advised to keep a journal of his life to help recall in their entirety tragic events like the burning of his dog, watching a woman and her baby being blown up…