In his new documentary film, Revolution, Rob Stewart takes us on a deep-water dive into the Coral Sea surrounding Australia and Papua New Guinea and on a trek through the jungles of Madagascar to demonstrate the effects of Earth’s changing ecosystems. While he succeeds in capturing the vulnerability and beauty of our oceans and forests, he fails to delve deeper into the challenges of environmental preservation that face our quickly growing human population.


The Croods is an immensely funny, very charming animated film from DreamWorks Animation and co-directors Kirk DeMicco (Space Chimps) and Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon). The film takes a while to get going — following one very entertaining chase sequence — but once it finds its comfort zone, The Croods winds up being one of the most enjoyable films released this year.


It’s difficult to see Oz the Great and Powerful as anything other than a corporate film — a movie that was created simply because the studio behind it, Disney, knew it would make a ton of money at the box office. That’s how the trailers made it out to look and, after seeing it, those suspicions are confirmed. 


The 2012 film Laurence Anyways introduces the raw directing and producing talent of Xavier Dolan. For his third feature film, 23-year-old Dolan has produced a beautifully cast, shot and designed film that sensitively and compassionately portrays a love story unique to our time.

Imagine languishing in a Pennsylvania prison cell on death row for 31 years. Now imagine doing that while being innocent. For those who do not accept their fate at the hands of a terminally flawed justice system, their battle would unquestionably be for personal freedom, doing whatever they could to prove their innocence. Mumia Abu Jamal chose neither acceptance nor the pursuit of individual vindication.

Parker was a much better concept for a film before Jack Reacher underperformed at the box office — both films are adaptations of popular novels made into generic action movies that serve primarily as vanity pieces for their lead actors. However, instead of megastar Tom Cruise playing the lead role, Parker stars Jason Statham, perhaps the most reliable and most typecast action hero currently working in Hollywood. Audiences know pretty much exactly what they’re getting into when they see a 
Statham-led production.

Helmed by the promising up-and-coming director Ruber Fleicher and featuring an all-star cast, including Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, Gangster Squad looked to be one of the most promising movies of the year. Yet instead of being the impressive gangster film it could have been, it turned out to be an inconsequential and generally awful movie.


A part of me really wants to love Django Unchained, the newest film by director Quentin Tarantino. It is a film that serves as a harsh reminder of the horror that was slavery in America in the 19th century, and absolutely no punches are pulled — the depiction of how slaves were treated is brutal, yet accurate, and the film is as violent as violent gets. It has a clear message, it is overwhelmingly powerful and it contains a few very strong performances. Yet it isn’t entirely successful.


In the days leading up to the release of Peter Jackson’s newest epic fantasy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the big question fans were asking was how he was going to stretch such a short story into three movies. The answer: with bullshit and melodrama. 


When it became public knowledge that there was going to be another film adaptation of Les Miserables, many were pessimistic about the task of putting one of the world’s most beloved musicals properly onto the silver screen. However, director Tom Hooper — who recently won an Academy Award for The King’s Speech in 2011 — fundamentally understands and communicates the tragedy and beauty of the stage musical while grounding the film in the gritty realism of the 19th century setting of Victor Hugo’s novel.