MOVIES
Review | From Paris With Love (R) **½
Travolta gets his groove back and saves Paris
MOVIE CRITIC
Rene Rodriguez has been The Herald's movie critic since 1995. He studied film criticism and filmmaking at the University of Miami. Before being named movie critic, he was an arts writer for The Herald and also worked on the city desk.
Top Story
RON BATZDORFF/WARNER BROS.
SCREEN GEMS
Coming this week at the movies and on TV
BIG SCREEN
Valentine's Day (PG-13) -- You say you like your movies studded with stars? You can't handle this many stars! Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Jessica Biel, Ashton Kutcher, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner and Jennifer Garner are some -- but not all -- of the famous faces director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) managed to round up for this comedy about the overlapping fates of several couples on that all-important day of demonstrating your love for your significant other.-
SCREEN GEMS
A look ahead in the movies and on TV
The White Ribbon (R) -- The highly acclaimed new drama from Austrian director Michael Haneke (Hidden, Funny Games), guaranteed to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar on Tuesday, was shot in black and white and tells of the strange events in a small German village shortly before the start of World War I.
-
MIAMI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Miami Film Festival unveils a lineup of delights
The 27th annual Miami International Film Festival, to be held March 5-14, will screen 115 feature-length and short films from 45 countries.
-
MOVIES
Bridges stretches again in 'Crazy Heart'
At the start of Crazy Heart, washed-up country singer Bad Blake is already hurtling toward the lowest point in his life. A 57-year-old alcoholic with $10 to his name, Bad appears to have given up: He spends his days drinking and smoking in cheap motel rooms, as if he were waiting to die; at night he shifts to bowling alleys and grimy bars, where he plays old hits to old fans and earns enough money to pay for the next day's booze.
-
SCREEN GEMS
A look at the week ahead in the movies and on TV
Edge of Darkness (R) -- Mel Gibson returns with his first starring role since 2002's Signs, playing a detective investigating the death of his daughter. Ray Winstone took over for Robert DeNiro (who left the project days after shooting began) as a CIA agent who becomes part of the investigation.
-
SCREEN GEMS
A look at the week ahead in the movies and on TV
BIG SCREEN The Book of Eli (R) -- Brothers Allen and Albert Hughes (From Hell, Menace II Society) return with a post-apocalyptic adventure starring Denzel Washington as a man wandering a bombed-out planet and carrying the possible key to mankind's future. Don't go thinking The Road, though: This is more Mad Max territory than anything else. Co-starring Gary Oldman, Jennifer Beals and Mila Kunis as fellow survivors.
-
MOVIES
Review | The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (PG-13) **
Imagination bedeviled by lack of focus
-
MOVIES
A critic's Top 20 of the decade
This was my first decade reviewing movies fulltime, which means I saw a lot of them. Here, in descending order, are my favorites.
-
SCREEN GEMS
Coming this week at the movies and on TV
BIG SCREEN Daybreakers (R) -- In the near future, a scientist (Ethan Hawke) tries to find a cure for a plague that has turned the bulk of the human population into vampires, making the remaining few people priceless sources of nourishment for the bloodsuckers.
-
DVD SCANS
Alien movie plays even better on TV
The sleeper summer hit District 9, a modestly budgeted sci-fi thriller about aliens stranded in Johannesburg that marked the debut of writer-director Neill Blomkamp, outdid most Hollywood big-budget entertainments in terms of sheer excitement, ingenuity and craft, and the film's Blu-ray edition (Sony, $40; also on DVD, $37), charts a similar path, tricked out with the sort of thoughtful extras and supplements that deepen your enjoyment of the movie.
-
MOVIES
2009 Movie Yearbook
Miami Herald critic Rene Rodriguez offers a look back at the best (and worst) in film
-
MOVIES
Florida critics choose 'Up in the Air' as best picture
Up in the Air won Best Picture, Best Actor (George Clooney) and Best Director (Jason Reitman) honors from the Florida Film Critics Circle, which is comprised of 17 film writers and critics throughout the state including The Miami Herald's Rene Rodriguez and Connie Ogle.
-
SCREEN GEMS
A look ahead at the week in TV and movies
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel (PG) -- The most annoying computer-animated film ever made now has a sequel with the most annoying title ever conceived.
-
Year in Review | Movies
Two '80s icons died, James Cameron came out of retirement and Quentin Tarantino proved he was more than a junk-movie repository. 2009 wasn't a great year for movies, but the good ones had an air of timelessness. They will endure long after the Twilight and Transformers sequels, two of the highest-grossing films of the year.
-
DVD SCANS
A stroke of genius: think inside the box
Only the geniuses at the Criterion Collection really know how to make the term ``DVD box set'' more than just a marketing tool. The company's hefty AK 100: 25 Films of Akira Kurosawa (which retails for $400 but can be had for about half that online) collects all but five of the 30 films directed by the Japanese master, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday next year.
-
SCREEN GEMS
A look ahead at the week in movies and on TV
BIG SCREEN Avatar (PG-13) -- The only problem with setting expectations sky high is that then you have to -- you know -- deliver. Titanic director James Cameron has spent the last four years telling anyone who will listen that he is changing the face of cinema forever with this live-action/animation 3-D hybrid centering on a war between blue-skinned aliens on a distant planet. We'll just see about that, Mr. Cameron.
-
SCREEN GEMS
A look at the week ahead in the movies and on TV
BIG SCREEN Invictus (PG-13) -- Director Clint Eastwood reteams with his Million Dollar Baby / Unforgiven co-star Morgan Freeman to recount the true story of how the newly elected Nelson Mandela used the 1995 Rugby World Cup as a vehicle to unite his country. Matt Damon co-stars as the captain of South Africa's team.
-
FORT LAUDERDALE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Review | Trucker (R) ***
Truck driver role is a star-maker for Monaghan
RSS|
My Yahoo|
Newsletters|
Widgets|
Mobile|
Alerts|
Twitter
Terms of Service| Privacy Policy| About our ads| Copyright| About The Miami Herald| About the McClatchy Company| Corrections| Contact Us| Advertise
Partners: El Nuevo Herald| Newspaper in Education| WLRN | Miami Herald News| CBS4 WFOR-TV| More
Copyright 2010 Miami Herald Media Co. All rights reserved