Author: Jason Zingale

Steven Soderbergh is one of those directors whose reputation is stronger than his filmography might suggest, and a big part of that is because he takes a lot of risks. Most of them don’t work out in his favor, but with his new film, “The Informant!,” he manages to take a subject matter that normally wouldn’t be considered funny and turns it into one of the best dark comedies of the last few years. Based on the true story of Mark Whitacre, a bipolar genius and the highest-ranking executive to turn snitch in U.S. history, “The Informant!” may sound like…

Just like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s 2007 homage to grindhouse films, Bethesda’s third-person shooter, “WET,” is an unabashed love letter to some of the best in the genre. It’s a fitting comparison, because along with drawing inspiration from games like “Max Payne” and “Tomb Raider,” “WET” is also heavily influenced by the careers of both Tarantino and Rodriguez. The game’s main character is a mix between The Bride and El Mariachi, while the game itself is designed like an old drive-in movie – complete with film scratches, reel burns and intermissions. They say that even the best artists steal,…

Morbid curiosity seems to be one of the most common side effects of sexual jealousy and can be extremely hazardous to your mental and physical health. It definitely threatens to work out that way for the middle-aged, and all too aware of it, protagonist of “Chloe,” Catherine Stewart, M.D. (Julianne Moore). David, her successful professor husband (Liam Neeson), fails to appear one night at the ultra-chic surprise birthday soiree she’s planned; then she finds a suspicious text message from a pretty student. Rather than simply confronting her husband, the very busy gynecologist (what other specialty should she have?) instead turns…

Mike Judge may be a bit of a cult figure in the animation world, but despite creating two of the most popular cartoons of the ’90s with “Beavis and Butt-head” and “King of the Hill,” his name remains synonymous with the 1999 comedy, “Office Space.” After failing to replicate that success with “Idiocracy” (which is so terrible that it didn’t even deserve to see the light of day), Judge has returned to the workplace comedy with varying results. “Extract” is neither good nor bad, but rather a wildly uneven film that is deftly funny at some points, and just plain…

Ever since the music rhythm genre was monopolized by Activision and Harmonix, the two companies have been locked in an ongoing game of Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better. Harmonix was the first to introduce multi-instrument gameplay, while Activision fired back with band-specific titles featuring the likes of Aerosmith and Metallica. Those will probably be kicked to the curb (and the used game stores) the minute “The Beatles: Rock Band” is released, however, because everyone has been clamoring for that game since the day it was announced. Even Activision knows it can’t compete with the greatest band that…

“Taking Woodstock” wants to have it both ways, trumpeting the central character’s efforts to save Woodstock while serving as a coming-of-age movie at the same time. The problem is that the former works a lot better than the latter, and director Ang Lee has trouble pushing both story lines along at the same time, resulting in a rather limp finish. The story begins in the summer of 1969, and Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) has left his job in New York City to move back to upstate White Lake in order to help his parents manage their struggling hotel. Elliot is…

After failing to win over the mainstream audience (or any audience, for that matter) with the hugely underrated and under seen cinematic experiment known as “Grindhouse,” it seemed like Quentin Tarantino might return into hiding to obsess over his next project. Instead, he did the complete opposite, rushing into production on his long-delayed World War II epic, “Inglourious Basterds,” in time for it to premiere at Cannes this year. As the favorite son of the French film festival, Tarantino’s new movie was supposed to be bulletproof, but all it managed to muster was a mixed response from critics and moviegoers…

The “Madden” football series has gone through its share of peaks and valleys, but lately, Electronic Arts has really been on a roll. Last year’s 20th anniversary edition can certainly be looked at as a pinnacle in the history of the franchise, not only for its achievement as the number one football sim, but also as one of the best installments the series has ever seen. Nevertheless, it’s only a matter of time before fans start worrying about what might come next, because although “Madden NFL 10” is a solid entry with plenty of great new features, there’s not a…

Movies like “Post Grad” are a dime a dozen these days, so it really takes something special if you hope to distinguish yourself from the pack. Usually, indie super studio Fox Searchlight delivers that something special (see “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Juno”), but in the case of their latest effort (which they’ve actually inherited from former sister studio Fox Atomic), it’s just another safe and predictable comedy. It isn’t for a lack of trying, because director Vicky Jenson has nabbed some pretty big names to round out her cast, but even with screen vets like Michael Keaton and Carol Burnett…

“The Beatles: Rock Band” is one of those games that seemed destined to be stuck in development hell for eternity. We know now that isn’t the case, but after sitting through the ridiculously long end credits, it’s difficult to imagine how it didn’t all go terribly wrong. Not only was this a lawsuit just waiting to happen (with practically everyone even remotely connected to The Beatles sticking their grubby little hands into the creative pot), but it required Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono getting along for it to even be a possibility. In the end, however, everyone put their differences…