An adaptation of an apparent dime-store cheapie masquerading as important literature, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is overflowing with faux-titillating elements, from lesbianism and rape to S&M-themed sexual violence and murder. Nazis also play a key role in this cinematic version of the first novel in deceased Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium Trilogy,” though…

In spirit if not quite execution, The Transporter 3 is the equal of its predecessors, offering up the same goofy over-the-top martial arts and vehicular madness that has become the series’ signature (and which I’ve finally embraced). There’s nothing quite as ridiculous as the Transporter 2 sight of stone-faced wheelman Frank Martin (Jason Statham) removing…

The full moon turns Benicio Del Toro into the titular monster in Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman, but in reality both he and costar Anthony Hopkins do little more than sleepwalk through this misbegotten reimagining of Lon Chaney’s 1941 Universal classic. An esteemed American actor who returns home to his perpetually mist-enshrouded familial English estate after…

Inverting traditional male-female roles with a dreary lack of imagination, She’s Out of My League tells the guy-friendly romantic comedy tale of ugly-duckling airport security agent Kirk (regular Judd Apatow player Jay Baruchel), who inadvertently winds up in a relationship with super-hot party planner Molly (Alice Eve). Kirk’s self-consciousness about this romance is amplified by…

Michael Cera’s awkwardly sardonic schtick has reached the point of polarization – either you’re with his softly voiced, linguistically erudite quips, or you’re fervently against them. Youth in Revolt does nothing to alter this paradigm, although the film’s central conceit – nerdy loner Nick Twisp (Cera), in an effort to win the heart of a…

Glossy exploitation cinema without guts, Edge of Darkness (a condensed adaptation of a 1985 British TV miniseries) sets up a scenario for vengeance-driven violence and then backs off, choosing to dawdle when it should be rampaging. Mere hours after his daughter returns home for a visit, detective Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson) watches her get shotgunned…

Andy’s off to college in Toy Story 3, leaving his favorite playmates Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen) and the rest of the plastic gang at a literal and philosophical crossroads, forced to choose between clinging to a life that’s passed them by or embarking on a new, uncertain future. As such, Lee Unkrich’s sequel…

From Paris with Love follows Luc Besson’s trademark formula – A-list American star in a B-grade French actioner, directed by one of the filmmaker’s protégés. Like Taken, Besson’s latest producing venture is helmed by Pierre Morel, who here can do little to energize what amounts to an incoherent muddle of cursing, gunplay and mismatched-buddy banter…

“Overkill is underrated” muses Colonel Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson) late in The A-Team, and in the case of this thoroughly unnecessary, doggedly silly, belligerently rollicking summer throwaway, he’s on the money. Joe Carnahan’s adaptation of Steven J. Cannell’s ‘80s TV series is as faithful as it needs to be in terms of character as well…