Author: Jason Zingale

“Win a Date with Tad Hamilton” is 1950s at heart but 2004 in look and style, placing the goody-goody antics of a Doris Day/Rock Hudson relationship in the middle of everyone’s ideal romantic setting, West Virginia. Mega-blockbuster screen hunk Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel) isn’t the perfect “boy next door” that his film roles portray him to be. After a tabloid catches him red-handed drinking and driving around Hollywood, his manager (Nathan Lane) and his agent (Sean Hayes), hoping to repair Tad’s damaged rep, plan a gimmicky contest that sends one lucky girl on a dream date with the popular star.…

It’s really difficult to imagine a film like “The Machinist” not receiving the kind of attention you would expect when its leading actor goes the extra mile for a specific role. “Raging Bull” was much-hyped for Robert De Niro’s dedication to gain the necessary weight, as was “Bridget Jones’ Diary” when word got around of Renee Zellweger’s 5000 plus calorie diet of fast food and ice cream. Even “Copland” got a few nods for Sly Stone’s sudden weight gain, so where’s Christian Bale in the mix? As far as the moviegoer should be concerned, Christian made the biggest commitment by…

“Along Came Polly” is the epitome of mediocre January films: a tedious comedy filled with toilet jokes that detract from the stars’ individual talents. With very little to offer in terms of comedy or plot, there isn’t much about “Along Came Polly” to look forward to except for a handful of humorous scenes and a solid saving performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller) is a top-notch risk analyst for a popular insurance agency. Unfortunately, his cautious career has transformed him into a complete stiff away from the office, calculating the chances for trouble in nearly every situation…

Tim Burton is notorious for his strange and imaginative films, driven by his tall-tale stories and uncomfortably eerie and eccentric characters. This successful formula remains largely unchanged with “Big Fish,” only this time around Burton offers us a much more optimistic tale of one man’s ambitious adventures and travels in a world that’s just not big enough for him. Known and adored for his unlikely but exhilarating stories, Ed Bloom (Albert Finney) sits on his deathbed shortly after the marriage and abandonment of his only son Will (Billy Crudup), whose own love for his father is challenged by the truth…

Peter Jackson’s third and final installment in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy brings the epic to a somewhat disappointing end, but not before it manages to thrill viewers once again with mind-blowing action sequences that redefine the phrase “attention to detail” while adding even more depth to the story’s already captivating characters. Continuing the events from the previous film, the original Fellowship begins to regroup as they all approach Mordor from separate paths. Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) leave their triumph at Helm’s Deep and turn their sights toward Isengard, where…

In an Academy Award-winning and spellbinding performance, Charlize Theron practically disappears into the role of Aileen Wuornos, the serial-killing monster of the film’s title. Hiding behind an army of freckles and a set of yellow dental prosthetics, Theron, who put on an extra 30 pounds for this role, sparkles as the prostitute convicted in 1992 of killing seven men. Wuornos (Theron) serves as the story’s narrator, first describing how her sexually abusive adolescence led to prostitution at the age of 13 and spawned the rage of her future murders. Later, we watch as her friendship with Selby (Christina Ricci), a…

The Farrelly Brothers have made some outrageously funny movies (“Dumb and Dumber,” “There’s Something About Mary”) as well as some outrageously bad movies (“Shallow Hal,” “Me, Myself and Irene”). Their latest offering, “Stuck on You,” manages to fall in between the two extremes as a largely hilarious film that nonetheless loses much of its comedic edge as soon as its gimmick wears thin. Bob (Matt Damon) and Walt Tenor (Greg Kinnear) are twin brothers conjoined at the hip, a strange sight for most people but not to those who have grown up with them and witnessed their many talents. Bob…

What happens when a romantic comedy gets rubbed down with a tube of Bengay? You get Nancy Myers’ new film, “Something’s Gotta Give,” a sophisticated comedy that revels in the over-30 dating scene and comes out looking pretty good for its age, even in the eyes of the younger crowd. Harry Langer (Jack Nicholson) is a 63-year-old business mogul who makes it a point not to date anyone under 30, a brave standard for a man his age, yet he seems to make a profession of it. On a getaway trip with his latest girlfriend, Marin (Amanda Peet), to her…

“The Last Samurai” is classic Kurosawa through and through, integrating pure adrenaline action sequences with a stunningly stylistic environment that celebrates the beauty of Japan. While the film certainly pays tribute to the old Samurai films, director Edward Zwick also generates a new look for the genre with the help of stars Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. Capt. Nathan Algren (Cruise) is a legendary Civil War hero well known for his brave combat engagements and studies of primitive groups like the Native Americans, but his dreams are currently haunted by the time he spent under the command of Colonel Tagley…

William H. Macy’s career streak of playing the loser has finally hit the jackpot. In his latest film, Macy once again shows the audience what it is that he’s so good at. Bernie Lootz (Macy) is a valuable employee of The Golden Shangri La, the last of the throwback casinos, where he is the official cooler a man with luck so bad that when a client is on a hot winning streak, Bernie is sent over to cool them down, passing along his own bad luck like a cold and quickly turning any winner into a loser. As Bernie mopes…