Rating: 3.5 stars

I have a vague early memory of a blurry picture in my parents’ New York Times of some nutjob who strung a wire from one Twin Tower to the other and walked across it.
That nutjob was Philippe Petit and he was an acrobat, provocateur, performance artist, and utterly magnetic life force. In Man on Wire, filmmaker James Marsh chronicles Petit’s death-defying adventure—and his devoted band of accomplices (some in love with Philippe, some in love with adventure, others simply bored), who helped make this high-wire feat possible.
Filmed almost like a heist film—the Twin Towers were still being built at the time (1974) and, while construction crews came and went, security was high—the film uses a remarkable mix of historic footage (much shot by Petit and his crew), sly re-enactments (not distracting, I promise), and present-day interviews (virtually the entire crew is alive today, including Philippe, who tells a story almost as deftly as he crosses a wire) to recreate the events. When Petit finally does his mid-air dance, you experience a cathartic mixture of...

Rating: 1.5 stars

A few questions will perplex you as you watch The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Here, I will attempt to answer them.
Q: Where is Rachel Weisz?
A. She got her Oscar and got the hell out. She has been replaced by Maria Bello, who is sporting a dark wig and a British accent. Perhaps the filmmakers thought we wouldn’t notice?
Q. How did Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello end up with a 20-year-old son?
A: Apparently, many years have passed since the last film. The fact that Fraser’s Rick O’Connell looks exactly the same as he did before he had a 20-year-old son should not distract you.

Q: Who’s the charmless actor who plays the son and why does his voice sound so funny?
A: His name is Luke Ford and he’s Australian.
Q: Why does this whole plot about raising a dead army led by an evil king (Jet Li) feel so familiar?
A. Because it was done, much better, a few weeks ago in Hellboy 2.
Q: Why do people keep saying things like, “You’re a mummy magnet!” and “I hate mummies, they never play by the rules...

Rating: 3 stars

There is a great scene in The Wackness, a coming-of-age film about a teen pot dealer in New York named Luke (Josh Peck) who sells drugs to his depressed shrink Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsley) in exchange for free therapy. In it, Squires, feeling estranged from his cold wife (Famke Janssen), takes Luke to his favorite old dive bar and is dismayed to discover that the bar is no longer a happening scene, but actually kind of desolate and depressing. Both Luke and Dr. Squires talk about their need to get laid—Luke for the first time, and Dr. Squires because he feels that sometimes it’s okay to cheat, but only when completely necessary. While the two are drinking beer and commiserating, hippie chick Union (Mary-Kate Olsen), who is one of Luke’s customers, floats into the bar. As Luke looks on incredulously, Dr. Squires begins to flirt with her. A few minutes later, it’s Squires, not him, who’s hooking up with Union in the bar’s vintage phone booth. Luke shakes his head in misery. He clearly can’t decide what’s more disgusting...

Rating: 2 stars

This is going to hurt you more than it hurts me: The new X-Files movie kind of stinks.
I was never a big fan of the show (I mean, I wasn’t a detractor or anything, I just never got into it), so the fact The X-Files: I Want to Believe plays like a pretty standard horror/thriller with uninteresting characters (unless, I suppose, you are predisposed to find them interesting) and tired scenarios that wouldn’t look out of place on an episode of Medium (or, uh, The X-Files) doesn’t bother me much.
But I know that the cultish fans of the show were expecting big things from this movie. They wanted to believe, you could say.
And show creator Chris Carter has really let them down.
For starters, of all the paranormal phenomenon that Mulder and Scully could’ve been investigating, they choose psychic ability? Yup, in this film true believer Mulder (David Duchovny) and skeptic Scully (Gillian Andserson) are sussing out an accused pedophile priest (Billy Connolly) who has visions of a missing FBI agent....