Author: Jason Zingale

M. Night Shyamalan is a talented filmmaker, but you wouldn’t know it from watching his new movie, the latest in the writer/director’s recent string of unmitigated disasters. Based on the wildly popular Nickelodeon series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (they had to drop the first part due a certain record-setting blockbuster of the same name), the film certainly had the potential to become the next “Harry Potter,” but Shyamalan fails to make any of it interesting. Just like Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood,” it’s all set-up and no payoff, and while Shyamalan may already be busy planning the next two installments in…

Much has been made of Tom Cruise’s media antics over the last few years, but no matter how much we might hate him in his private life, Cruise continues to dazzle us in his professional life. He’s one of the most magnetic movie stars on the planet, and after showing audiences that he could still have a little fun with his scene-stealing cameo in “Tropic Thunder,” Cruise has continued his crusade to reclaim his spot atop the Hollywood A-list with “Knight and Day,” a lighthearted spin on Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” that reteams him with his “Vanilla Sky” co-star,…

As perhaps the most recognizable names behind the mumblecore movement, directors Mark and Jay Duplass have earned a small following over the years with festival favorites like “The Puffy Chair” and “Baghead.” Their newest film is a minor departure from the genre that put them on the map, but even though it has the backing of a major studio and features an A-list cast, “Cyrus” retains the low-budget, independent spirit of their other movies. Mostly unscripted but not quite mumblecore, “Cyrus” may drive some longtime fans away, but this darkly comical look at the human condition is guaranteed to earn…

Unlike its competitor, Activision, which has flooded the marketplace with “Guitar Hero” games to the point of overexposure, Harmonix has been a lot smarter about the number of titles being released under the “Rock Band” banner. Instead of a third installment last year, the company put out a game dedicated to the greatest band in the history of music, all while introducing a new gameplay mechanic (three-part harmonies) that has become a staple in every game since. Of course, “Rock Band 3” was always inevitable, and although it marks the second time that Harmonix has released two games in the…

When it was announced that Will Smith was producing a remake of the 1984 film, “The Karate Kid,” as a star vehicle for son Jaden, you could practically hear the collective moans and groans coming from the nostalgia police. The original isn’t as great as some people remember it, but it’s a real crowd-pleaser that stands as one of the definitive underdog sports dramas in cinematic history. Still, the movie isn’t so untouchable that it’s not worth remaking, and though director Harold Zwart’s update probably won’t endure the same kind of legacy, it’s a mostly beat-for-beat remake that actually lives…

Green Day isn’t the first band you’d think of to follow The Beatles with a “Rock Band” title of their own. While the punk rock trio has only gotten better with age, they don’t exactly have a catalog comparable to the Fab Four’s. Then again, neither does any band, but at least Green Day has a storied career that translates well to Harmonix’s band-specific format. Look a little closer and you’ll discover that the similarities don’t end there – like the fact that both bands matured their sound over the years from short pop tunes to sweeping musical epics and…

Best known for the 1997 cult film, “Cube,” Canadian director Vincenzo Natali has spent the better part of the last decade trying to break into Hollywood as the next great sci-fi maestro. He took a big step forward this year at Sundance when he premiered his new film, “Splice,” but even though it ignited a bidding war among major studios, the genre flick is going to have a hard time finding an audience. One part morality tale and one part creature feature, “Splice” starts strong, only to gradually devolve into the very thing that Natali tries to avoid it becoming:…

After sitting through all 88 painfully dull minutes of “Marmaduke,” the big screen adaptation of Brad Anderson’s long-running comic strip, I couldn’t tell if the filmmakers were actually trying to make a good movie or if this was some crazy bet between a couple of studio execs to prove that any film with talking animals is guaranteed to make a killing at the box office. If it’s the former, then director Tom Dey needs to be stripped of his DGA card immediately, because this is one of the worst family movies ever made. And if it’s the latter, well, at…

Directors can be a pretty serious bunch, so it’s refreshing to see guys like Jean-Pierre Jeunet having so much fun making their movies that it’s evident just from watching it. The French filmmaker has been surprisingly absent from the world cinema scene since 2004’s “A Very Long Engagement,” but his return was definitely worth the wait. Jeunet’s latest film, “Micmacs,” may just be his best yet – a whimsical crime caper that boasts his trademark visual style, a classic Max Steiner score, and an ensemble cast filled with familiar faces. Though it likely won’t have the crossover appeal of “Amelie,”…

As we say goodbye to yet another TV classic with this week’s series finale of “Lost,” it’s important to remember that no matter how attractive a feature film may seem, it usually ends up just tarnishing the show’s legacy. Take for instance, “Sex and the City,” a show beloved by both critics and fans during its six-season run on HBO, but whose much-anticipated jump to the big screen was drained of all the wit and charm that made it worthy of the Hollywood treatment in the first place. I guess no one learned their lesson, because “Sex and the City…