Movie reviews

Brother John sweet and lovable – to a fault

by Roger Ebert
“I’m not human,” little Dennis says at one point in “Martian Child.”
So he believes. The lonely orphan has convinced himself that he was not abandoned by his parents, but arrived here from Mars. To protect himself against the sun, he walks around inside a cardboard box with a slit cut for his eyes, and wears a weight belt around his waist to keep himself from

by Roger Ebert
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” – Karl Marx
Applied with strict rigor, that’s how bee society works in Jerry Seinfeld’s “Bee Movie,” and apparently in real life. Doesn’t seem like much fun. You are born, grow a little, attend school for three days, and then go to work for the rest of your life. “Are you going to work us to death?” a young bee asks during a

by Roger Ebert
When “Sleuth” premiered last month at the Toronto Film Festival, a great many critics (including me), writing in advance about it sight unseen, described it as a “remake” of the 1972 film based on Anthony Shaffer’s stage play.
The festival program was more accurate, describing it as “a fascinating transformation.”
So it is. Do not make the mistake of thinking that if you’ve seen the earlier play or film, you’ve got this one

by Roger Ebert
Three brothers in crisis meet in India, and in desperation, in “The Darjeeling Limited,” a movie that meanders so persuasively it gets us meandering right along. It’s the new film by Wes Anderson, who after “Rushmore” and “The Royal Tenenbaums” made “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.” Of that peculiar film I wrote: “My rational mind informs me that this movie doesn’t work. Yet I hear a subversive whisper: Since it does so many other things,

by Roger Ebert

We think of the Apollo voyages to the moon more in terms of the achievement than the ordeal. On the night of July 20, 1969, we looked up at the sky and realized that men, who had been gazing at the moon since they were boys, had somehow managed to venture there and were walking on its surface.

But consider the journey.

Three men were packed like sardines in a tiny space capsule (“Spam in a