Author: Jason Zingale

Leave it to Activision to release a “Spider-Man” movie tie-in when a new movie isn’t coming out in theaters. It seems like they’re going to milk that license for all it’s worth. Although it’s not so much a tie-in as it is an independent Spidey game using the likeness of the movie characters, the fact that it opens with the Columbia logo (not to mention featuring third-rate impressions of the actors’ voices) is pretty shady in its own right. Still, it’s certainly a property that is worth getting a ton of mileage out of, and while the previous movie games…

Peter Berg’s “The Kingdom” is a lot like a caramel apple. The sugary outside is the reason everyone takes a bite of the teeth-decaying snack, but the inside offers a healthy balance that, while not entirely necessary, is good for the consumer. In the case of the political thriller “The Kingdom,” Berg has delivered an action-packed film that also serves as a History 101 lesson plan on the 70-year-old relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States. It’s a method that commands serious concentration in the first act of the film – with as many characters introduced per minute –…

You’ve gotta give credit to Amanda Bynes for keeping it real. While other young actresses are out there trying to prove their worth in several different mediums (getting coked up and arrested along the way), Amanda’s perfectly content with doing what she does best. Whether you’re a fan of teen comedies or not, the former Nickelodeon child star has managed to carve a respectable career in the genre by starring in films that, with any other female lead, would most likely feel just as stale as the hundreds of others before it. Bynes, on the other hand, not only makes…

The term “overrated” has become a word used far too commonly when discussing film these days, but director David Cronenberg’s follow-up to his 2005 masterpiece, “A History of Violence,” is exactly that. A slow-going gangster tale that rarely takes advantage of a golden opportunity, “Eastern Promises” feels more like the first half of a character-driven epic than a film capable of standing on its own. Whether it’s a product of the high expectations we now have after witnessing Cronenberg’s ability to tap into the mainstream, or the simple fact that the two films have nothing in common, one thing’s for…

Director Neil Jordan has come a long way since his glory days on films like “The Crying Game” and “Interview with a Vampire,” and I say that in the least flattering way possible. His latest film, “The Brave One,” feels more like a product of an inexperienced filmmaker than a proven Oscar winner, and though it’s mostly the fault of the screenwriters (Roderick Taylor and Bruce A. Taylor) for compiling such a disorganized story, Jordan should be held equally responsible for failing to pull it together into a more cohesive piece of fiction. Instead, the movie just sort of floats…

You’ve really got to hand it to Electronic Arts. After a disastrous first year of stale and uninspired next-gen titles, the company best known for catapulting John Madden beyond the ranks of football history has quickly turned things around and delivered some of the most exciting games of 2007. Sure, the latest “Madden” is also on that list, but so is the Tony Hawk franchise-killer, “Skate,” the company’s first (and most realistic) skateboarding title that reinvents the genre with the simple flick of your thumb. We should have known it was coming – after all, EA is the king of…

The fact that movies like “The Brothers Solomon” are still being made is kind of depressing, but what’s even more depressing is that there are people out there who are not only willing to pay to see them, but actually enjoy them as well. I’ve always said that writer/director Bob Odenkirk needs to seriously rethink his idea of what’s funny, and if this is his attempt at ignoring my suggestion, well, then, mission accomplished. Not only is his latest directing gig actually worse than “Let’s Go to Prison” (which also co-starred Will Arnett), but it confirms my suspicions that –…

Westerns have never had much mainstream appeal – even when Clint Eastwood was directing them – but if there was ever a chance one might experience commercial success, it will likely be “3:10 to Yuma,” a loose remake of the 1957 Glenn Ford classic starring two of the best actors in the business and helmed by the director of “Walk the Line.” If that doesn’t get people in to seats, I don’t know what will, but consider Lionsgate lucky for adding such an impressive project to their very unimpressive roster. Clearly taking advantage of the stigma that Westerns don’t perform…

Writer/director Richard Shepard’s “The Matador” was one the more criminally overlooked films of 2006, so it’s not surprising that his new movie, “The Hunting Party,” would suffer the same fate. Inspired by veteran war correspondent Scott Anderson’s Esquire article, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation,” the film is about a group of journalists who were able to do in a matter of days what the CIA, United Nations, NATO, and every other international agency failed to do over the course of several years. It’s a hard pill to swallow, for sure, but as the opening title card states, the…

When it was announced that heavy metal rocker turned filmmaker Rob Zombie would be helming the next “Halloween,” the horror community was abuzz with speculation as to where exactly it would fall within the timeline of the previous eight films. Would it be yet another uninspired sequel, or was Zombie eyeing a complete reboot of the franchise á la “Casino Royale”? Of course, now that we know that the latest “Halloween” is indeed a remake of the classic John Carpenter film, the question on everyone’s mind is if it’s any good? Let me begin by saying that while I’m not…