Critic's Notebook

MOVIE REVIEW
Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)

By ROBERT LEVIN

DreamWorks Animation

The DreamWorks Animation product “Monsters vs. Aliens” occasionally flirts with Pixar levels of brilliance before resigning itself to more tempered goals. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The unquestioned brand leader’s knack for melding technical excellence with complex, literate storytelling cannot be easily replicated. A movie like this one, which ably disguises its conventional kids’ fare premise in a clever satiric shell, deserves admiration even if it never reaches comparably artful heights.

Continue reading “Close Encounters in the Third Dimension” »

MOVIE REVIEW
The Rocker (2008)

By ROBERT LEVIN

George Kraychyk/
Twentieth Century Fox

It is possible to have a good time watching "The Rocker" and still wish certain things had been done differently. For example, one can’t help but wonder how much better a movie it would be had director Peter Cattaneo been authorized to fully unleash Rainn Wilson’s talents. For that to happen, 20th Century Fox would need to be aware of the predominant philosophical conceit in recent comic filmmaking: R-rated is the way to go.

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