Pic of the Week

It’s not as endearing as Tim Burton’s tribute to Ed Wood, but The Disaster Artist is an entertaining — and affectionate — look at the making of a really bad movie by one Tommy Wiseau.

It takes time, but Luc Besson manages to find a new soul for his version of Dracula.

Nothing like going to the ol’ vault to promote a studio’s new movie like Disney has with Tim Allen’s new Shaggy Dog vehicle. But such a move could backfire when viewers see how dated some of the old special effects are compared to Mr. Allen’s canine-inspired CGI antics.

Q: What’s more fun than watching paint dry? A: A documentary about reading.

Actually, if the documentary is Stone Reader, it’s a lot more fun. It has the pace of a good mystery and edge-of-your-seat suspense, which help it overcome most of its flaws.

While Cold Mountain fell short of the grandeur and sweep of director Anthony Minghella’s adaptations of The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley on the big screen, the Civil War epic makes for an excellent DVD experience.

Aaron Eckhart opens Nurse Betty with a bang. You might have seen him in Erin Brockovich as Erin’s blue-collar boyfriend, or as the woman-hating yuppie in In the Company of Men.

Combine the ugliest elements of those two characters and you get Dale, a Kansas used car salesman with a mullet hairdo, tinted steel-framed classes, and gray polyester pants a size too small. Dale is the kind of guy who forgets his wife’s birthday, even after eating some of her birthday cake.

Yes, Nurse Betty is a comedy. Granted, much of the humor is dark and bleak, like Dale’s insensitivity or his wife’s dissociative schizophrenia, but it sure is funny.

Rental Family offers legitimate emotions and thought-provoking ideas.

Guy Ritchie slims down the style in this straight-on action caper.

At its core, Wrath of Man is a revenge flick. Saying it’s a Jason Statham revenge flick sounds almost oxymoronic, but there’s a back story that drives his character’s actions — and he’s a character who’s not entirely what he presents himself to be. This isn’t “stretch” material for Statham, but he is good at his game.

Director Paul Greengrass put tragic and terrifying historical incidents to film in both Bloody Sunday, about the Irish massacre in the 1970s, and United 93, a telling of the hijacked 9/11 flight that crashed into a field. This time, Greengrass shows us a hijacking that happened at sea. The story is ripped from 2009’s headlines, but the movie simplifies actual events.

Check it out and let it sink in. This Dumbo is smart.

While Tim Burton’s live-action version of Dumbo doesn’t quite soar, it actually might be too smart for its own good. Give this one some time to be fully appreciated; it’s one of those rare movies that gets better as it lingers in the memory.

Deadpool & Wolverine is a nerdgasm that gloriously redefines over-the-top filmmaking.

I give up. Why resist director Peter Jackson’s final installment of The Hobbit; a.k.a., The Battle of the Five Armies?