Reimagining A Christmas Carol as a rom-com about a caddish lothario (Matthew McConaughey) who, after visitations from the ghosts of girlfriends past, present, and future, sees the error of his womanizing ways and commits to his one true love (Jennifer Garner), may’ve seemed like an ingenious concept. After all, Dickens’ classic has seen countless incarnations—as a comedy, as a musical—but as far as I know, this is its first stint as a chick flick.
But there's an inherent flaw in the concept (and execution) of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and it reveals itself pretty quickly.
You see, by the end of A Christmas Carol, nasty ol' Ebenezer does become something of a cuddly grandfather figure to the Cratchits and Tiny Tim, but he’s not—you know—boyfriend material. And while McConaughey is certainly convincing as the sleazy, self-adoring, unrepentent lady’s man, he may be a little too convincing. We hope for much better for Garner’s witty and with-it Jenny.
Of course...

As State of Play began, I had an unexpected surge of wistfulness. After all, this film is about an intrepid newspaper reporter (Russell Crowe) investigating the suspicious death of a pretty young Capitol Hill staffer. But in this world of blogs and Twitter, aren’t movies where the hero is a reporter about to go the way of the dodo bird?
Happily, State of Play rather ingeniously sidesteps this reality by making sure that Crowe’s Cal McAffrey is constantly being reminded that he’s an endangered species. He’s forced to work with a rising star young blogger (Rachel McAdams), his tough publisher (Helen Mirren) is bemoaning a gimmicky corporate-fueled redesign, and he has to fend off accusations of irrelevance from his subjects.
“When it’s real news, it breaks through the gossip,” Cal insists (or something to that effect)—and I was surprised my colleagues at the screening didn’t give him a standing ovation.
Of course, State of Play isn’t really about the state of newspapers today, but it’s a nice little addition to...

Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) is the tween girl’s answer to Batman. For those who don’t know, during the day she is normal high school kid Miley Stewart (also Cyrus), then at night she dons a blonde wig, changes into micro minis and Lycra, and becomes international pop sensation Hannah Montana! No one ever seems to notice the resemblance.

Having never watched the Disney Channel show on which this movie is based, it didn’t occur to me that the mere thought of unmasking the real Hannah would be a cause for tween panic. I actually figured that a happy ending to the Hannah Montana series would be if the two sides of Hannah could somehow reconcile. (I mean, the show can’t go on much longer, right? Cyrus is already 16 going on 35.) Wouldn’t it be great—less stress for character and viewers alike—if she could be, I dunno, Miley Montana? Hannah Stewart?

Well, apparently not. Because at one point towards the end of Hannah Montana: The Movie, our plucky heroine runs the risk of being exposed—a tenacious British tabloid reporter has...

More than 10 years ago, Greg Mottola made a near-perfect indie gem, The Daytrippers, about a woman who suspects her husband of cheating and embarks on a car ride from hell to Manhattan in a wood-paneled station wagon with her squabbling parents, her kid sister, and her kid sister’s pretentious boyfriend. It was funny, it was wise, it was drolly hip. Then Mottola kind of disappeared for several years, mostly directing TV shows. Finally, he resurfaced in 2007 with the hilarious blockbuster Superbad—a film I actually loved, but that didn’t share the intimate indie sensibility of his first feature.
It’s no surprise that the ads for Adventureland trumpet: “From the Director of Superbad!” (I mean, what are they supposed to say: “From the guy who directed a few really good episodes of Arrested Development?). But that’s slightly misleading. In fact, if you split the difference between The Daytrippers and Superbad, you pretty much haveAdventureland, which has...