John J. Bennett

BATTLESHIP. I put a lot of energy into trying to hate Battleship, even before the first trailer premiered. I railed against the absurdity of a board game adaptation, demanding Hollywood explain this flimsy, gratuitous attempt to capitalize on the childhoods of all Americans. Have they run out of books to adapt? Dreck to sequelize? Is […]

Reviews DARK SHADOWS. I walked into this movie with my guard down and my hopes up. Bad move. Whether it was due to my recent good fortune at the theater or my nostalgia for Tim Burton’s early movies — which I love dearly — I ignored the fact that his more recent work has consistently […]

Reviews THE AVENGERS. Judging by its $200 million opening weekend, I’m not the only one who finds The Avengers deeply satisfying. Looks like just about everybody is on the same page (save New York Times critic A.O. Scott, whose lukewarm review brought down the great vengeance and furious anger of star Sam Jackson over the […]

THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT. Writer/actor Jason Segel has been collaborating with writer/director Nicholas Stoller for some time now. Often backed by Judd Apatow’s production company, they’ve achieved pretty significant financial success with their efforts. Their first major movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, was something of a breakthrough for the young filmmakers, even if I found its tone […]

Reviews MARLEY. Once, in college, a professor took our class outside on a particularly sunny day and broke us up into small groups. We were loosely assembled on the central grassy expanse of the campus. In a telling, embarrassingly typical snapshot: Frisbees flew around us, and someone had tipped speakers out of a dorm-room window, […]

Reviews AMERICAN REUNION. As we left the theater, my wife turned to me and said, “Well, that wasn’t very funny.” She’s right; there are a handful of successful jokes in the latest American Pie sequel, but the whole thing is generally flat and pointless. I was never much of a fan of this franchise. When […]

THE HUNGER GAMES. The juggernaut is upon us! Based on its gargantuan opening-weekend box office, The Hunger Games seems poised to knock the Twilight “saga” off the top of the money mountain. I’m glad because The Hunger Games is actually a good movie. Not great, but very good. The titular games serve as a kind […]

Reviews RAMPART reunites writer/director Oren Moverman and star Woody Harrelson, who collaborated on 2009’s The Messenger. This time out, Moverman enlisted crime-fiction titan James Ellroy to co-write the screenplay. I’d argue that nobody writing today has a deeper fascination with corruption and the male ego than Ellroy, so he seems like a perfect fit to […]

JOHN CARTER. With John Carter, writer-director Andrew Stanton (Wall E, Finding Nemo) hitches his wagon to Disney’s star, following Pixar counterpart Brad Bird into huge-budget live action. Bird stepped into the fourth installment of a well-established franchise, complete with mega-star (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol). Stanton adapted an early 20th century sci-fi adventure by Edgar Rice […]

THE LORAX is one of Dr. Seuss’ best. Like everything he published, it’s clever and fun to look at, but it stands apart for the strength and resonance of its themes. It’s a fable about conservation, the risks inherent in the profit motive, and the importance of each of us sticking up for what’s right. […]

NEW: Humboldt Movie Times and Openings THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY. This adaptation of Mary Norton’s 1952 book The Borrowers comes from Hiromasa Yonebayashi, a protégé of Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Ponyo). It tells the tale of young Arrietty (voiced by Bridgit Mendler) and her parents, Lilliputian scavengers who live under a […]

Reviews THE VOW. There is a moment, midway through The Vow, when Rachel McAdams flubs a line, spits chocolate into her own hair and falls apart laughing. The scene is obviously an outtake, and we cut away before she or costar Channing Tatum fully break character. It’s a completely organic moment, and it happens to […]