Author: Jason Zingale

Midway through Ben Stiller’s new comedy, “Tropic Thunder,” Robert Downey Jr. launches into a hilarious monologue detailing how to win an Oscar by playing someone that’s mentally challenged. As he scrolls through past winners like Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks and Peter Sellers, he’s careful to note that none of them ever went “full retard” in their roles. Apparently, doing so diminishes your chances of walking away with a golden statue, à la Sean Penn in “I Am Sam.” Satires, however, are the complete opposite. The more outrageous and ridiculous you are, the better chance you have of pulling things off,…

To steal a page out of the “Saw” marketing team’s playbook… if it’s August, it must be “Madden.” This year, however, is a little different, as the popular video game franchise celebrates its 20th anniversary. To commemorate the event, Electronic Arts has released a snazzy special edition of the game which includes an advanced copy of “Head Coach 09,” a retro playbook, a DVD of classic NFL footage, and a full version of “Madden 93.” Of course, that’s just the icing on top of an already sweet cake. Piggybacking off the success of last year’s installment, “Madden 09” may not…

There was a time when a new “Star Wars” movie meant something, but ever since the release of the prequel films, the fandom surrounding George Lucas’ sci-fi franchise has cooled down considerably. That doesn’t mean there still aren’t diehard fans who would gladly welcome any “Star Wars”-related project with open arms, but over the course of the last ten years, the series has gradually become geared more towards a younger audience. “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” is the culmination of that devolvement – a proposed 100-episode animated TV series that fills in the three-year gap between “Attack of the Clones”…

If there’s one thing that I learned from watching “Pineapple Express,” it’s that you shouldn’t get too hyped about a movie that has the potential to disappoint. “The Dark Knight” is one thing – that film was practically guaranteed to deliver on every level – but a stoner comedy is something entirely different. For starters, the “Harold and Kumar” films have already tread similar ground twice in the last few years, and though “Pineapple Express” is far more ambitious, it runs into the same exact problems – namely bad pacing and a lack of consistent laughs. That doesn’t mean the…

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to market a movie like “Swing Vote.” In fact, with political interest at an all-time high thanks to the upcoming presidential election, the idea of releasing a political comedy only months before the American public enters the voting booth is something a monkey could plan. What isn’t so simple is convincing moviegoers that a film driven by such an implausible premise can be taken seriously. Thankfully, it doesn’t need to be. No doubt inspired by the too-close-to-call elections of 2000 and 2004, “Swing Vote” doesn’t pretend to be historical fact or biting social commentary.…

It’s not very often that you see a film so incredibly average that you find yourself with nothing to say, but that’s exactly the case with “Sixty Six,” a vanilla period drama that is neither good nor bad, but just okay. Continuing the British cinema tradition of basing a coming-of-age tale around a singular ethnicity or religion, “Sixty Six” is essentially a Jewish film that hopes to win over a larger audience by sugarcoating its story with a little nostalgia. It works for the most part, but while the film never gets so dull that you’ll lose interest, it never…

The verdict is still out on whether or not the Nintendo Wii is just another device for churning out family-friendly gimmick titles, but with the release of “Wii Music,” it’s one step closer to being true. Though past games (like “Wii Sports” and “Wii Fit”) have made great use of the console’s innovation, “Wii Music” is nothing more than a shallow attempt at cashing in on the current rhythm game phenomenon. It’s one of the most gimmicky titles in the Wii catalog, and though it sports all of the ingenuity you’d expect from a company like Nintendo, it has none…

Over the last few years, Warner Bros. has botched just about every opportunity of bringing DC’s stable of superheroes to the big screen, but the one thing they did get right was hiring Christopher Nolan to reboot the Batman franchise. The British-born director has never made a bad film, and though he didn’t seem like the wisest choice to be handed the keys to the Batcave at the time, Nolan quickly proved everyone wrong. “Batman Begins” wasn’t only one of the best films of 2005, but is now widely considered the best comic book movie ever made. It should come…

Before Guillermo del Toro was a household name, he directed perhaps the most underrated superhero movie ever made. Based on Mike Mignola’s mid-1990s comic book series “Hellboy,” the 2004 film featured the perfect mix of action and comedy, and proved to the industry that you didn’t need an A-list hero (or star) to make a good film. It also introduced the fanboy crowd to Ron Perlman – even if he was covered in red paint and prosthetics the whole time – but despite the actor’s charismatic turn and the positive reception from critics and fans, “Hellboy” fizzled at the box…

Over the past decade, comic book geeks have had the best of both worlds with big-budget Hollywood adaptations of their favorite superheroes and graphic novels, but a line has always separated the two. Sure, Robert Rodriguez made a giant leap in blurring that line with the release of “Sin City,” but director Timur Bekmambetov takes it to a whole new level with “Wanted,” a fast-paced, in-your-face cartoon come to life. It’s a welcome shot of adrenaline that would stir even the most high-strung candidate, and when it’s all said and done, you’ll probably be itching for more. James McAvoy stars…