Email Author Robert Wilonsky

2008 Stories by Robert Wilonsky

• Best Films of 2008

  published December 25, 2008

  Is it a sign of the apocalypse? Something in the water? Or is it just the way the wind is blowing? Whatever the case, when our... More >>

• Risky Business for Valkyrie

  published December 25, 2008

  Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg — a lot of name for a lot of guy. Born into aristocracy in 1907, he was a soldier by the... More >>

• Yes Man Repackages Jim Carrey's Greatest Hits, Which Maybe Weren't So Great to Start With

  published December 18, 2008

  For so major a movie star — at least, once upon a time — Jim Carrey seems to make a lot of awfully minor films, several of them over... More >>

• Cadillac Records Can't Handle the Truth

  published December 4, 2008

  First, a key spoiler: Cadillac Records is not the story of Chess Records, the blues label started in Chicago in 1950 by brothers... More >>

• Witherspoon and Vaughn's Yuletide Carol is Four Christmases Too Many

  published November 27, 2008

  To brand, then dismiss, Four Christmases as a disappointment would be giving it too much credit — never, for a second, did... More >>

• Quantum of Solace Is Neither Shaken Nor Stirred

  published November 13, 2008

  Those of us who adored Casino Royale, the 2006 reboot of the haggard, self-parodic James Bond franchise, had some trouble trying to decide... More >>

• Big Daddies in Role Models

  published November 6, 2008

  Paul Rudd wears the constant look of glazed-eye amusement; everything seems to tickle him, even that which annoys or frustrates or disappoints... More >>

• Kevin Smith Blows His Wad with Zack and Miri Make a Porno

  published October 30, 2008

  Ostensibly, Zack and Miri Make a Porno should be money-shot Kevin Smith: Pals make a porn to pay the bills and, in the process of... More >>

• We Rent the Night: Pride and Glory

  published October 23, 2008

  Pride and Glory doesn't make any effort to disguise precisely what it is: a barely-held-together string of vignettes lifted from... More >>

• Two Mediocre Adaptations: How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

  published October 2, 2008

  There are copious ways to link How to Lose Friends & Alienate People and Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. Both are... More >>

• Sex Crime: Choke

  published September 25, 2008

  There's a whole lotta fucking going on in Choke, Clark Gregg's adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's first-person novel about a sex addict... More >>

• A Dentist's Job: Ghost Town

  published September 18, 2008

  It takes a good while for Ricky Gervais to warm up; it takes even longer for the audience to warm to Ricky Gervais. During the opening minutes of... More >>

• Not to Be: Hamlet 2

  published August 21, 2008

  In its final ten minutes, Hamlet 2 is little more than chaos, noise and nonsense, and those are ten perfectly enjoyable minutes.... More >>

• Schoolhouse: The Rocker

  published August 21, 2008

  The Rocker bears the decidedly unmistakable odor of something made in 1983 and left on the shelf a good 25 years. Which isn't to... More >>

• Apocalypse Whatever: Tropic Thunder

  published August 14, 2008

  Early buzz out of Hollywood pegged Tropic Thunder, directed and co-written by star Ben Stiller, as the end-all and be-all of... More >>

• Rogen and Franco, on the Run and Madly in Love in Pineapple Express

  published August 7, 2008

  On the surface, Pineapple Express offers precisely what it advertises: a roll-'em-up, smoke-'em-up, blow-'em-up bromantic comedy... More >>

• Send It Back: Bottle Shock's Corked

  published August 7, 2008

  Bottle Shock, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January, is a great concept populated by great actors that works... More >>

• Going Down to the Center of the Earth

  published July 10, 2008

  At the top, let's be clear about one thing: Journey to the Center of the Earth is more a demo reel than a narrative feature. It's... More >>

• Hancock Is A Superzero

  published July 3, 2008

  The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis as a dead man, was writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's breakthrough, but its ­follow-up,... More >>

• The Not Terrible Hulk

  published June 12, 2008

  In recent days, Universal's been running a TV spot for The Incredible Hulk that gives away what should come as no surprise to any fanboy... More >>

• Kick Ass: The Foot Fist Way

  published June 12, 2008

  The Foot Fist Way has been trying to break into theaters since clawing its way down film-fest row, beginning at Sundance in '06. It took... More >>

• Disney Channel fits Texan Demi Lovato for a glass slipper

  published May 29, 2008

  Demi Lovato was eight when she knew. Or in kindergarten. Hard to recall, precisely. That was a long time ago. Years ago. Demi's old now, all of... More >>

• Indiana Jones and the Fortress of Sad Decline

  published May 22, 2008

  Here's your hat, Indy, but, really, what's your hurry? Because 19 years after the Last Crusade that clearly wasn't, and 15 years after... More >>

• McDreamy tries to win over his engaged gal pal in My Best Friend's Made of Honor Wedding

  published May 1, 2008

  In Made of Honor, Patrick Dempsey plays a conveniently rich and willfully single serial "fornicator" slowly but surely... More >>

• No Drama for Baby Mama

  published April 24, 2008

  Could have sworn I've seen this episode of Baby Mama before — like sometime in January 2007, when it was originally titled... More >>