2 Fast 2 Furious

When screenwriter William Goldman said, “nobody knows anything” in Hollywood, he wasn’t kidding. Take 2001′s The Fast and the Furious, a $39 million-budgeted B-movie that mystified Hollywood pundits when it bolted out of the starting gate with $40 million in its opening weekend. By the time the Vin Diesel-fueled street racing flick made its final lap...

The Hulk

Faster than a speeding film projector! More powerful than a major Hollywood studio! Able to leap box office records in a single weekend! Look…up on the big screen! It’s a drama…it’s a comedy…no, it’s another comic book movie! That’s right, folks, not even two months after the pulp heroes of X2: X-Men United kick-started the summer with a phenomenal opening...

Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle

Once upon a time there were three beautiful actresses who went to Hollywood, and they were assigned the hazardous task of turning an extremely popular television series from the 70′s into a fun, sexy and exciting movie. Little did they realize that production delays, budget over-runs and reports of on-set bickering would turn this into the toughest mission of their...

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde

Far be it for me to argue with a movie’s success, but if you had told me two years ago that “Legally Blonde” would gross almost $100 million at the box office, I never would have believed it. Though Reese Witherspoon was simply irresistible as the naïve, idealistic, fashion-savvy Elle Woods, the rest of the film was a clunky, contrived “Clueless” wannabe that never...

Dirty Pretty Things

It isn’t easy to make a living these days, but if you think you’ve got it bad, think again. There are people who have it worse…much worse. In Dirty Pretty Things, the latest film from prolific director Stephen Frears, illegal immigrants are forced to work menial service jobs in order to stay in the country, and it isn’t a pretty sight. What is pretty is the film...

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

For more than a decade, the prospect of seeing another “Terminator” movie was about as likely as hearing a new song by The Beatles. After the first two films grossed more than $550 million worldwide, writer-director James Cameron had a major falling out with “T2” producers Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna and swore that he would never work with them again. Since Kassar...