Action and Adventure Movies

What Is a Movie Critic's Job in the Summer of Comic Books? A Discussion

Pain & Gain: American Idiots

Michael Bay injects potent absurdity into the unbelievable true story of Pain & Gain.

A Real American Miracle

Could a G.I. Joe movie actually almost be good?

Old Habits Die Hard

Breaking new ground in incoherence and stupidity.

Die Hard, Die Alone

When John McClane lost his family, the movieslost much of John McClane

Ass Kicking, Plato-Style

The great director Walter Hill brings a Bullet (and ideas) to your head.

The Selling of Schwarzenegger, 2013

Arnold returns - but do we still need him?

The Punishers

To see the fights, Universal Soldier 4 demands you suffer.

The Way We Die Now

Movie violence has never been better — or more reckless.

James Bond, Out of Time

Fifty years in, the spy is ever less relevant - and still beloved. Why?

James Bond's License to Feel

Skyfall is basically Downton Abby with cyber crime and shower sex.

Is Adele's "Skyfall" the Worst Bond Theme of All Time?

Fifty years after the release of the very first Hollywood adaptation of Ian Fleming's superspy, James Bond returns to make his 23rd appearance on the silver screen this month in Skyfall, Daniel Craig's third crack at the character. The media blitz for the film's premiere is already in full effect, l ... More >>

Your Ultimate Batman Batsoundtrack Batplaylist

No doubt some of you are sitting bleary and bloodshot from seeing an overnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, and I am jealous of you. I didn't think to buy tickets early so now I will have to wait until like, next week to see it. First World Problems, dude. The ending of the Christopher Nolan ... More >>

Why So Serious?

Self-important and overstuffed, The Dark Knight Rises feels like Batman forever.

Amazing Spider-Man

The spider becomes a man and a joy.

The Amazing Spider-Man

The spider becomes a man - and a joy.

Lady Terminator

Bond and Beyond

Star Wars Invades War’Hous!

Avengers Assemble Soundtrack Butt-Rocks into the Future

Time was in the '90s that every big summer action movie came prepackaged with a great hard-rock soundtrack. As the industry went through growing pains it died off a bit, reducing a soundtrack to maybe one or two free downloads from a middling band close to the project. The heady days of hard-rock d ... More >>

Pop Rocks: George, We'll Always Have The Star Wars Holiday Special

After much soul searching and agonizing (and in no way an attempt to drum up publicity in advance of his new movie), George Lucas has decided to retire from big budget movies: George Lucas's cinematic tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails, opens in theaters on Friday, and it might be the last ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Your KIds Probably Hate The Muppets

Don't even bother.​We had some friends over Saturday night, those with children brought theirs, because when you're my age and you want to interact with your age cohort, it's easier to just throw all the rugrats into a room filled with toys and books and let them Battle Royale it out rather th ... More >>

Pop Rocks: And Now, Your Least Anticipated Movies of 2012

The end of the year is always a nice time for going to the theater. Studios are desperate to cram anything they want for "awards consideration" into the final two weeks of December, leading to a larger than usual number of thoughtful, well-made films available for your holiday viewing pleasure. Yea ... More >>

Pop Rocks: The Least Anticipated Movies of 2012

The end of the year is always a nice time for going to the theater. Studios are desperate to cram anything they want for "awards consideration" into the final two weeks of December, leading to a larger than usual number of thoughtful, well-made films available for your holiday viewing pleasure. Yea ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Who Else Would Make A Good Bond Villain?

Jeez, when are they going to stop casting ugly actors in these Bond movies?​So it turns out Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men, Vicky Cristy Barcelona) is going up against 007 in Bond 23: After months of speculation about who would play the villain in the next James Bond installment, we fi ... More >>

Drive: No Talk, All Action

Ryan Gosling at the wheel in this glossy, retro, heist-gone-bad.

Pop Rocks: We Must Avenge Patrick Swayze

​Assholes: Surf thriller "Point Break" will get a modern update by Alcon and Warner Bros., much to fans' chagrin. According to Deadline.com, the new version will be set in the world of extreme sports. Kurt Wimmer ("Salt," the upcoming "Total Recall" remake) has written the script for the ne ... More >>

7 Reasons Transformers 3 Made Me Want to Kill Myself

It stinks!​Yes, I try and keep it sports-related in this space as much as I possibly can. That's what I've been asked to bring to the table on Hair Balls and that's where my area of expertise lies. However, sometimes there is confluence of circumstance so powerful that I must stray from sports ... More >>

The Michael Bay Movie Generator: 5 Easy Steps To Mega-Box Office Success

Insert as needed.​Some controversy, if you want to call it that, popped up this weekend over Michael Bay's apparent use of old footage from The Island in his latest release, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which grossed a staggering $400 million over the July 4th weekend. We can infer two ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Non-Transformers Robot Movies We'd Like to See

​I have nothing against robots, per se. Some of the greatest antagonists in sci-fi have been fearsome automatons like those found in Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series, or the Terminator, or the...Battle Android Troopers (B.A.T.s) from G.I. Joe. I guess. And although robot offerings in recent ... More >>

Pop Rocks: For This Comic Book Summer, Five Superheroes Who Won't Be Getting Their Own Movies

Dream on, fish boy.​We're well into summer blockbuster season, and even if you couldn't tell by the sweltering temperatures outside, you'd only need to look at the number of superhero movies -- both in theaters and about to be released -- to realize it. Thor started us off in May, and X-Men: ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Pocket Full Of Kryptonite

Lindsay Lohan's in my next movie? Just leave the bottle.​I'd done a decent job putting the fact they're rebooting the Superman franchise *again* next year out of my mind, that is until a flurry of recent Man of Steel-related news items popped up in the last week or so. "Wait," you're saying, ... More >>

Pop Rocks: "Getting Too Old For This Shit" - A Cinematic History

The first?​Time marches on. There comes a point in all of our lives when the inevitability of our eventual demise goes from esoteric concept to concrete fact. There's no set schedule for when awareness will strike; maybe it's the first time your back gives out, or when you find yourself squint ... More >>

Local Musicians Choose Their Favorite Super Powers

Lee Alexander, pictured with his band of invisible skulking perverts​It wasn't that long ago that a few brave filmmakers realized that it was in fact possible to make a superhero movie that didn't suck IQ points from an audience and might even, surprise surprise, be somewhat faithful to their ... More >>

Raymond Benson: Choice of Weapons

10 Sequels That Don't Need To Happen

Please god, no...​For those who've been pining for the return of the "Blue Steel" and the "Magnum," your patience is about to be rewarded: Ben Stiller is dead in the middle of promoting "Little Fockers," out Dec. 22, but he's already got his eye on yet another sequel: "Zoolander 2." Stiller ... More >>

Riddle Me This: Who Will Be The Next Batman Villain?

And now we'll never know...​Forget all that talk about natural disasters and midterm elections, yesterday we finally got some really important news: The Dark Knight Rises. That's the title director Christopher Nolan is running with for his third go-round with the Batman franchise he successf ... More >>

2 Everything 2 Terrible 2: Tokyo Drift

The Alamo Drafthouse screens a feature-length mix tape of videos

Pop Rocks: Finally, Some Important Movie News

​Now that the dust has cleared (and the blood has been spilled, thanks to a stabbing before the...Cowboys and Aliens panel) at Comic-Con, we can finally move forward, away from the overwrought announcements about the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Green Lantern (Ryan Reynolds is better ... More >>

Pop Rocks: It's All Michael Bay's Fault

​Most of my life has been spent seeking out a unifying theory of suckitude in the entertainment universe, "entertainment" in this sense meaning movies, music, and television. Originally, I'd hoped to find someone whose utter horribleness spanned the entire artistic firmament (including literat ... More >>

To Get You In The Mood For Summer Movie Season, The Worst Blockbusters Of The '00s

​For better or worse, the summer movie season kicks off this weekend with the release of Iron Man 2 (which I believe is a Black Sabbath documentary).It's the time of year when temperatures rise and IQs drop as folks looking for relief from the sweltering heat seek shelter in air-conditioned theate ... More >>

Fifth Element

Web exclusive!

The Terminator

Web exclusive!

Houston Film Critics Society 2008 Awards Presentation

Web exclusive!

“Star Wars: The Clone Wars”

See artifacts and props from the new animated SWTCW film

Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation

A former kid genius who re-created the Spielberg classic comes to the Aurora Picture Show

Michael Chabon

Pulitzer-prize winner reads from The Yiddish Policemen’s Union

Indy Film Night

Kat Not Included

Vroom with a View