Love Happens Is Manipulative Tripe

Movie reviews: Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum can't save amnesia romance

(NEWSER) - In The Vow, Rachel McAdams plays a woman who must learn to love her husband again after amnesia wipes her memory. It's no surprise it was released ahead of Valentine's Day: It's pure mushiness, critics say.

• In the New York Daily News , Elizabeth Weitzman calls the film a "down-the-middle, by-the-numbers fantasy, in which no one is too quirky or interesting or challenging in any way." Still, "there’s no shortage of viewers ready to embrace an old-fashioned, guilty-pleasure romance."

Daniel Radcliffe makes post-Hogwarts debut

(NEWSER) - The boy wizard is back—but this time, he's a 19th-century gentleman. Daniel Radcliffe is generally successful playing a spooked lawyer in The Woman in Black, a throwback haunted house thriller. What the critics are saying:

• The film "makes the most of its old-fashioned virtues," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times . It "isn’t especially scary, but it keeps you on edge, and without the usual vivisectionist imagery." For his part, Radcliffe "has the haunted eyes of the eternal mourner."

Liam Neeson stars in survival thriller

(NEWSER) - The Grey, a survival-in-the-wilderness thriller starring Liam Neeson, is earning a wealth of literary comparisons. The film tells the story of a group of men stranded in the snow after a plane crash, and critics are mostly impressed.

• In the New York Times , AO Scott applauds the "fine, tough little movie, technically assured and brutally efficient, with a simple story that ventures into some profound existential territory without making a big fuss about it." The film is "as blunt and effective—and also, at times, as lyrical—as a tale by Jack London or Ernest Hemingway."

And it has its own vineyard, because why not?

(NEWSER) - The latest relationship milestone for Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux: The couple is buying a house together. A source tells the Wall Street Journal the $22 million, 8,500-square-foot home is in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles and includes four bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and floor-to-ceiling glass windows. The 3-acre property also features a guest house, pool, vineyard, and of course, ocean views. TMZ has pictures. More»

Critics split on emotional 9/11 movie

(NEWSER) - Critics are split right down the center on Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, an emotional movie about a young boy's quest to deal with his father's death on 9/11. It's currently at an even 50% on Rotten Tomatoes , drawing reviews like these:

• "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close might have also added and Fairly Obnoxious," writes Tom Long of the Detroit News . "Mixing the horror of 9/11 with a cutesy story about a boy's unlikely quest just comes off as crass," making this "the kind of movie you want to punch in the nose."
• "No movie has ever been able to provide a catharsis for the Holocaust, and I suspect none will ever be able to provide one for 9/11," writes Roger Ebert . Certainly this one doesn't. "This plot is contrivance and folderol." Oskar's on-foot journey through New York "is so preposterous, we're constantly aware of it as a storytelling contrivance."