Email Author Nick Pinkerton

2011 Stories by Nick Pinkerton

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  "The Adventures of Tintin" Loses and Gains Going From Page to Screen

  published December 22, 2011

  The Adventures of Tintin rolls together plot elements from three comic-book adventures starring Tintin, first introduced in 1929 and one... More >>

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  "Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol" Review: Tom Cruise, Bankable Movie Star, Lives Another Day

  published December 15, 2011

  For 15 years and now four sequels, Tom Cruise has pilgrimaged regularly to the Mission: Impossible franchise. Like a Hindu’s... More >>

• A Semblance of Human Emotion Emerges in "Real Steel," Starring Hugh Jackman

  published October 6, 2011

  Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a two-bit trainer traveling the state fair circuit in a not-too-distant future. His line is robot fighting, a... More >>

• In "Killer Elite," Duty-Bound Warriors Pummel Each Other In Crisp, Brutal Dustups

  published September 22, 2011

  Wholly unrelated to the 1975 Sam Peckinpah film of the same name, Killer Elite is distinguished by one no-mercy, eye-gouging,... More >>

• Authentic Blue-Collar American Grubbiness Lives On in "Warrior"

  published September 8, 2011

  You know those Affliction shirts, covered in skulls, gothic lettering, and tribal patterns, all cacophonous symbols of badass machismo? That's... More >>

• A Shaggy-Man Character Study Follow an Unorthodox Irish Cop in "The Guard"

  published August 18, 2011

  The Guard is a shaggy-man character study, its subject a 50-something policeman in West Ireland, Sgt. Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson). No... More >>

• What Terrence Malick Has to Offer Is Worth Working for in "The Tree of Life"

  published June 16, 2011

  Including glimpses of Sleeping Beauty in her glass coffin, the rings of Saturn, and a roadside Texas BBQ, Terrence Malick's The Tree of... More >>

• What Terrence Malick Has to Offer Is Worth Working for in "The Tree of Life"

  published June 16, 2011

  Including glimpses of Sleeping Beauty in her glass coffin, the rings of Saturn, and a roadside Texas BBQ, Terrence Malick's The Tree of... More >>

• "The Princess of Montpensier" Is Bartered for a Titular Title

  published May 26, 2011

  The finest Western you'll see this year is set in aristocratic 16th-century France, in the heat of Counter-Reformation. Mélanie... More >>

• "My Perestroika": Robin Hessman's Documentary of a Contemporary Russia

  published May 19, 2011

  Eight-millimeter home movies and statist hymns from the Soviet past haunt Robin Hessman's documentary of a contemporary Russia pocked with... More >>

• "Something Borrowed" Shows the Divine Secrets of the Eskimo

  published May 5, 2011

  Something Borrowed is based on a 2005 work of chick literature by Emily Giffin. It was directed with extraordinary impersonality by Luke... More >>

• Failing to Enshrine a Cleveland Folk Hero in "Kill the Irishman"

  published May 5, 2011

  With post-Goodfellas crime-movie tropes dyed for St. Patrick's Day, this Ballad of Danny Greene attempts to enshrine the... More >>

• "Ceremony": A Callow Movie About Callowness

  published May 5, 2011

  Sam (Michael Angarano), a young kids'-book author, suckers his neglected childhood best friend, Marshall (Reece Thompson), into driving them... More >>

• "3 Backyards": A Mood Movie on Long Island

  published May 5, 2011

  A rare breed of mood movie, 3 Backyards crossfades through three stories, each begun in an unidentified Long Island suburb. The... More >>

• "Prom" May Just Be Worse Than Your Own

  published April 28, 2011

  This one perfect moment." "That soul-crushing mistress." "Our forever night." These and other understated definitions are obsessively applied... More >>

• "The Conspirator" Another Dull History Lesson From Robert Redford

  published April 14, 2011

  Set in the months after Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, The Conspirator follows the consequences of the fatal shot at... More >>

• "Scream 4" the Latest in a Franchise That Simply Won't Die

  published April 14, 2011

  Why won't you die? There is a particular sort of stupid-acting-smart movie experience that can be achieved only through the reunion of David... More >>

• "Your Highness" Dishes Dirty Jokes for the D&D Crowd

  published April 7, 2011

  Your Highness plays like a dirty-joke blooper reel made by the cast of a junky sword-and-sorcery epic, streaked with carelessly... More >>

• "Insidious": The Saw duo Take us Through a Haunted House

  published March 31, 2011

  There is a great deal of prowling motion in Insidious: a recurring sideways dolly outside a haunted house, a trench-coat-clad cacodemon... More >>

• "Take Me Home Tonight" Succumbs to Soggy Nostalgia

  published March 3, 2011

  Ink still wet on his MIT degree, Matt Franklin (Topher Grace) is back in hometown Los Angeles, waiting for his future to clarify itself while he... More >>

• "Hall Pass" Gets a Load of Farrelly Brothers-Style Raunch

  published February 24, 2011

  Rick and Fred (Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis) are two domesticated husbands whose long marriages (to Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate,... More >>

• "Drive Angry" Revs Into Softcore Porn, With Guns Blazing

  published February 24, 2011

  Genre-unto-himself Nicolas Cage's latest displays much the same tattoo-parlor hellfire imagery as Ghost Rider, but this is the hard-R... More >>

• "Justin Bieber -- Never Say Never 3D" Review: As Bad as You'd Expect

  published February 10, 2011

  The Bieber movie, a concert experience and origin-myth documentary, is not good — not that it needs to be. It is draggily paced and lacks... More >>

• "The Roommate" Review: Nothing Serious to See Here

  published February 3, 2011

  The Roommate is exactly what you thought it would be: a plagiarized, campus-set Single White Female pitched to teens. The... More >>

• "The Rite" Review: Demons Are No Scarier Than Nasty Old Sisters

  published January 27, 2011

  The Rite is the latest of at least a dozen widely released American movies in half as many years with demonic possession as a major plot... More >>