Middling Earth: 'The Hobbit'

OK, I know - "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" was a decent-enough film and didn't deserve that snarky headline, but I just couldn't help myself.

That being said, the film does not compare to Peter Jackson's original "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. While it bears an epic length in common, this latest adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien does not include lingering shots of blue eyes and panoramic sweeping shots of New Zealand landscapes, which took up much of the original trilogy's running time. Rather, it's one action scene after the next after the next after the next.

It's still good enough, at least, on the terms of being a major Hollywood blockbuster. I prefer it to most of last summer's fare, let's say. But it's still just a pretty good movie, rather than a great one.

I also caught Stephen Frears's "Lay the Favorite," which was, perhaps, the weakest entry in the usually solid director's oeuvre. The problem is that picture is mostly tone deaf.

Here are my Patch reviews.

My moviegoing schedule for the rest of the year is:

This Week: Zero Dark Thirty, Amour and This is 40

Next Week: Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Promised Land, The Impossible, Not Fade Away and On the Road. And, of course, my best and worst of the year list.

Sometime Soon: Jack Reacher

Ho Ho Hum: 'Hyde Park on Hudson' and 'Playing for Keeps'

It was a fairly blah week at the movies. Despite the presence of the great Bill Murray and Laura Linney, "Hyde Park on Hudson" was a curiously flat affair.

The picture tells both the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's alleged affair with his cousin, Daisy, and the weekend visit from the king and queen of England to drum up support for World War II.

Neither story is handled particularly well. It's a shame because the casting is so good. But, unfortunately, the picture fails to really justify its existence.

And then, there's "Playing for Keeps," a completely by-the-book romantic sports comedy with Gerard Butler and a whole gang of women - binders of them, you might say - throwing themselves at the star. It's a tad creepy, especially considering that the film's only other woman (Jessica Biel) comes off as a grump.

Here are my Patch reviews.

This coming weekend, I'll obviously see "The Hobbit" and something else to be decided later.

It's the Economy, Stupid: 'Killing Them Softly'

Andrew Dominik's "Killing Them Softly" is the latest crime film to have rankled the American public, so it would seem. Remember last year when some lady sued the makers of "Drive" because it did not live up to her "Fast and the Furious" expectations?

So, Dominik's film has received an 'F' grade on Cinemascore, which I believe says more about Cinemascore's users than it does the film.

Regardless, while I liked "Killing Them Softly" - quite a bit, actually - I don't think it's as good as Dominik's previous film, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."

"Killing" is a pretty grim and cynical crime film that doubles as an allegory for the 2008 financial meltdown and the U.S.'s economic system as a whole. While I don't think it's in the same category as "Drive," it's still quite good.

But I can't say the same for Marialy Rivas's randy "Young and Wild," which tells the tale of a young Chilean Evangelical whose hormones run wild, prompting her to start a blog and take up relations, as it were, with a young man and woman simultaneously.

The film has its moments, but it's a case of a filmmaker trying too hard to shock so-called bourgeois values and, in the process, losing control of the narrative. In essence, it's just OK.

Here are my Patch reviews.

This coming weekend, I'll catch Mike Newell's "Hyde Park on Hudson" as well as at least one other of these three: "Lay the Favorite," "Playing the Field" or "Only the Young."

Lee Brings Life to 'Pi,' 'Rust and Bone' and 'Hitchcock' Have Their Merits, but 'Red Dawn' is a Disaster

I caught three good films and one turkey this Thanksgiving weekend.

Lee's "Life of Pi" was the best of the bunch. I'll admit I'd read Yann Martel's Booker-winning novel and thought it impossible to adapt the story to the big screen. So, I'm pleased to say that Lee was up to the challenge.

Not only is the picture a visual marvel, but it's also a triumph of storytelling. And similar to last year's "The Tree of Life," it's a movie that deftly weaves themes of spirituality into its narrative without being overtly religious. It's one of the year's better pictures.

Jacques Audiard's "Rust and Bone" is not on par with "A Prophet," his previous film, but it still has its share of riches - namely, the lead performance by Marion Cotillard as a whale trainer who is disfigured and enters into a romance, of sorts, with a brutish boxer (Matthias Schoenaerts).

Sacha Gervasi's "Hitchcock" may not be a great bio film and it may occasionally take a gossip magazine tone towards its 1960s Hollywood setting, but it's at least enjoyable. And Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren are always watchable as Hitch and Alma, his wife.

As far the remake of "Red Dawn": Imagine John Milius's absurd 1984 film, but without any of the unintentional humor. The plot in this update is still ludicrous, but it's played with a completely straight face and dead seriousness. Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend it - not by a mile.

Here are my Patch reviews.

This coming weekend, I'll catch up with "Killing Them Softly" and "Young and Wild."

From Paper to Screen: 'Silver Linings Playbook,' 'Anna Karenina' and 'Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2'

It's going to be another short one this week, I'm afraid, as I'm working on about two hours of sleep.

This week's films were all adaptations of novels, but only one of them got it right. David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" is another idiosyncratic blend of comedy and drama. The performances are all solid and the script manages to be funny, intense and occasionally a bit moving. Needless to say, this was my pick of the week.

Joe Wright's "Anna Karenina" is, alas, less successful. And it shouldn't have been. Tolstoy's masterpiece offers up plenty of drama, tragedy and fantastic characters, but they are all overshadowed by the picture's emphasis on style over substance. Why exactly does the entire film appear to have been shot on a stage, albeit a very lavish one? And why does everyone freeze when the lead characters enter a room? It's not a bad film, but just a miscalculation.

"Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2" is, on the one hand, very likely the best of the series. That being said, I still can't wholeheartedly recommend it. Its first half is pretty similar to the past four films, but the second half lightens up a bit and has a fairly clever ending.

Here are my Patch reviews.

This coming weekend's selections include "Life of Pi," "Rust and Bone," "Hitchcock" and "Red Dawn."

Two Iconic Figures: 'Lincoln' and 'Skyfall'

This week's films centered around two iconic figures: Abraham Lincoln and James Bond.

In Steven Spielberg's picture about the 16th president, Daniel Day Lewis gives another tour de force performance, disappearing completely into the role. But this is no ordinary biopic. Instead, the film completely centers around Lincoln's pushing the House of Representatives to enact the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.

The picture is more of a behind-the-scenes look at how politics work, rather than the story of Lincoln's life. It's one of Spielberg's better films in a while - at least, his finest since "Munich."

And "Skyfall" marked a solid return for James Bond after the middling "Quantum of Solace." It's a little long, but Sam Mendes's entry into the popular series has some strong elements: a great performance by Javier Bardem as the villain, a visually lush sequence on the Shanghai skyline and some exciting action sequences.

"Skyfall" is one of the better Bond films in a long time.

Here are my Patch reviews.

This coming weekend, I'll catch David O. Russell's "The Silver Linings Playbook" as well as Joe Wright's adaptation of "Anna Karenina" and, of course, "Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part II."

Denzel Soars in 'Flight'

It's gonna be super short this week as I sit here sweating out the results of the presidential election.

Caught up with Robert Zemeckis's "Flight" and RZA's "The Man with the Iron Fists." I thought the first was solid and the second just average. Here are my Patch reviews.

This coming weekend, I'll catch up with Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" and "Skyfall."