Author: Jason Zingale

Unless you’re a member of the urban community, it’s very easy to get turned off by films specifically targeted toward that crowd. Tyler Perry’s movies, for example, are an all-or-nothing proposition. Like one of them, and odds are you’ll like his many others, but the opposite is also true, and movies like “Next Day Air” suffer because of that bias. It’s clearly intended to act as a small slice of counter-programming for the select few not looking forward to J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek,” but “Next Day Air” is actually a fun crime caper that even those not interested in urban…

These days, if you want an inside look at teenagers in America, you’re pretty much stuck watching the exploits of spoiled West Coast brats on shows like “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills.” It’s refreshing, then, to see that director Nanette Burstein has opted to ground “American Teen” in a much more realistic location: the Midwest. By doing so, Burstein has allowed herself access to a more diverse group of subjects (or at least as diverse as you’re bound to find in middle-class, white America), and while that may not make her film any more realistic than MTV’s stable of reality…

Andrew Stanton received quite a bit of flack for his heavy-handed environmental message at the end of “WALL•E,” so it will be interesting to see how director Aristomenis Tsirbas’ feature-length debut fares. After all, “Battle for Terra” is one big cautionary tale about the environment (among other things) that is disguised as a sci-fi adventure film. The eco-friendly message is downplayed for the most part, but it plays such a big role in the story that it remains in the back of your mind throughout. Of course, teaching kids about the environment shouldn’t be viewed negatively and is far from…

Joe Wright’s “The Soloist” isn’t quite the feel-good movie that the trailers made it out to be. Then again, it isn’t quite like any of Wright’s other films, either. The British director best known for taking bland novels (“Pride and Prejudice,” “Atonement”) and turning them into movies you’d actually want to watch is the wrong guy for the job. This is a story that demands the kind of straight-laced approach you’d never want to see Wright waste his talents on, and it’s a shame that he has. Plagued by a script that never knows what it wants, “The Soloist” may…

When it comes to movies about underground fighting, there are only a handful of really good ones, and about half of those were made with Jean-Claude Van Damme in the lead role. The recent mainstream exposure of UFC has changed all that, however, with Hollywood now trying to capitalize on the mixed martial arts crowd by putting out a slew of films centered on the brutal sport. Last year’s “Never Back Down” was a flawed but entertaining reimagining of “The Karate Kid,” and David Mamet’s “Redbelt” delivered a more realistic take on the world of MMA, but if there was…

It’s tempting to just ignore the “Excitebike” franchise when discussing Nintendo’s latest arcade racer, because with the exception of its title, “Excitebots: Trick Racing” is so vastly different from the original game that it’s almost impossible to see a connection. Of course, after the somewhat unexpected failure of “Excite Truck,” that’s exactly what the franchise needed. Most racing titles make slight tweaks between installments, but the “Excite” series has gone from dirt bikes to trucks to animal robots over the course of only three games, and while that may sound like one of the craziest things you’ve ever heard, well,…

There’s a fine line between movies that are so bad they’re good and movies that are simply bad. Just like its predecessor, “Crank 2: High Voltage” desperately wants to be the former. But in trying to do so, it ends up more like the latter instead. A modern day grindhouse flick that is too unhinged and over the top for its own good, “Crank 2” is one of those movies that you really want to like for its fierce originality, but constantly reminds you why you shouldn’t throughout. It’s a classic Catch-22. Do you ignore the fact that it’s little…

Watching Universal’s big screen adaptation of “State of Play” after having already seen the original BBC miniseries is kind of like watching “The Usual Suspects” a second time. While the story and the characters remain just as intriguing, the film’s climactic ending doesn’t feel quite so, well, climactic. That’s more a product of the feature-length format than the filmmaking, however, as director Kevin Macdonald was assigned the seemingly impossible task of cramming six very tense and complex hours into a two-hour movie. The end result is better than you might expect, but while “State of Play” succeeds both as a…

It’s easy to see why Warner Bros. is marketing “17 Again” exclusively for the tween crowd. The movie stars Zac Efron of “High School Musical” fame and, well, the studio would be silly not to try and cash in on that series’ monumental success. While the film will almost certainly please fans of the young up-and-comer, however, it might surprise you to discover that those over the age of 17 will enjoy it just as much. The movie might sound a lot like Penny Marshall’s “Big” in reverse, but thanks to some great performances from its cast, “17 Again” manages…

Metallica is the last band I ever imagined would make the jump to video games. But after their well-publicized court battle with a certain music sharing program in 2000 (who doesn’t remember those hilarious “Napster Bad” videos?), the heavy metal rockers have since transformed into one of the music industry’s most active supporters of the digital age. They were the first band to offer downloadable content day and date with the release of their new album, Death Magnetic, and only the second to receive an exclusive game of their own. Unlike Aerosmith, Metallica actually deserves the “Guitar Hero” treatment, and…