Mac Gives Soul to Uneven Film

Joss Whedon directs Robert Downey Jr. in superhero blowout

(NEWSER) - Sure, it's an effective moneymaking scheme: release movies about individual superheroes, then one about all of them. But with Joss Whedon at the helm, The Avengers really works. What critics are saying:

• "Even if you don't particularly like comic-book adaptations, this film just might make a believer of you," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times . "Whedon is the key reason why this $220 million behemoth of a movie is smartly thought out and executed with verve and precision."

Jackson can't save formulaic flick

(NEWSER) - Lakeview Terrace labors mightily to turn its B-movie cop/neighbor-from-hell premise into “deep social commentary about race, or real estate, or something,” writes Chris Farnsworth of E!, “but the result is an inexplicable mess.” The tensions between Samuel L. Jackson’s loose cannon cop and the interracial couple next door build nicely, but the end is “loud, dumb, generic, and over-the-top,” says James Berardinelli of Reelviews. More»

Animated Star Wars feature doesn't quite replicate the feel of the real thing

(NEWSER) - Star Wars: The Clone Wars fills a gap in the saga's chronology, and although the animated feature may give devoted Lucasfilm fans their fix before the TV series launches this fall, the oddly lifeless movie "isn't the Star Wars we've known and loved, Todd McCarthy writes in Variety. More»

Dull plotting, acting undermine high-concept thriller

(NEWSER) - The concept for Jumper seems promising: An awkward teenage boy who discovers he has the power to instantly teleport himself to anywhere on the globe is targeted for elimination by religious fanatics. And in some respects the film delivers on that promise. "The jumping effect is faultlessly executed," writes Empire's Olly Richards, adding that the movie "packs some cracking action" into its relatively short 88-minute running time. More»

(NEWSER) - The newsroom-meets-boxing-ring drama "Resurrecting the Champ" is slow on its feet, critics say, weighed down by its own sentimentality, despite a powerful performance by Samuel L. Jackson—"slumming again in a role miles beneath him," writes Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post—and a taste of the nuts and bolts of journalism. More»