Kansas City Movie Reviews - Kansas City Movies Guide

Movie Reviews

As personal assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to France, James Reese (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) can keep himself in well-tailored suits and keep his... More>>

By Nick Pinkerton

Published: February 04, 2010

Edge of Darkness

In the trailer for Edge of Darkness, the question is posed in flat-voweled Bostonian: "Did you shoot my daughtah?" And Mel Gibson, much-bereaved... More>>

By Nick Pinkerton

Published: January 28, 2010

Crazy Heart

Yesterday's honky-tonk hero, Bad Blake, arrives at a Clovis, New Mexico, bowling alley. It's another in a string of low-paying, low-turnout gigs... More>>

By Nick Pinkerton

Published: January 21, 2010

A Single Man

Too much is never enough for fashion designer turned filmmaker Tom Ford, whose debut feature flaunts its capital-A Artiness the way some... More>>

By SCOTT FOUNDAS

Published: January 14, 2010

Broken Embraces

Harry Caine, the blind, middle-aged filmmaker in Broken Embraces, admits: "Everything has already happened to me. All that's left is to enjoy... More>>

By ROB NELSON

Published: January 14, 2010

The Book of Eli

Allen and Albert Hughes' fourth film, The Book of Eli, centers on the Christianity that was at the margins of... More>>

By Nick Pinkerton

Published: January 14, 2010

The Lovely Bones

Cults collide as Peter "Lord of the Rings" Jackson tackles Alice Sebold's best-selling New Age gothic, the story of a rape and murder and its... More>>

By J. HOBERMAN

Published: January 14, 2010

The Spy Next Door

Like director Brian Levant's Snow Dogs (2002) and Are We There Yet? (2005), The Spy Next Door is immediately forgettable family entertainment.... More>>

By Melissa Anderson

Published: January 14, 2010

Youth in Revolt

For years, Hollywood has wrestled with adapting C.D. Payne's 1993 novel, Youth in Revolt — actually, three novels were collected under one... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: January 07, 2010

Daybreakers

No fashion-conscious multiplex movie seems to face opening day without some grave issue of our day propped in its buttonhole. Daybreakers dials... More>>

By Nick Pinkerton

Published: January 07, 2010

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Reunited with Charles McKeown, his co-writer from Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam has created another ultimate... More>>

By ELLA TAYLOR

Published: January 07, 2010

Leap Year

According to supposed Irish custom, women may propose to their reluctant boyfriends on February 29. The woman in Leap Year is Anna (Amy Adams), a... More>>

By Brian Miller

Published: January 07, 2010

The Maid

For more than 20 years, Raquel (Catalina Saavedra) has worked as the hired help for an upper-class Santiago family, whom she has served with the... More>>

By SCOTT FOUNDAS

Published: January 07, 2010

Decade's List of Films

Looking back on a decade dominated by the movie franchise — Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars and Spider-Man, to name just a few... More>>

Published: December 31, 2009

Three Critics, 10 Best

J. Hoberman, Robert Wilonsky and Scott Foundas put their minds together to come up with their favorite films of the year. Let's hear it for... More>>

Published: December 31, 2009

The House of the Devil

The devil, apparently, lives in an out-of-the-way gingerbread Victorian, just past the cemetery, where college sophomore Samantha (Jocelin... More>>

By Nick Pinkerton

Published: December 31, 2009

Still Walking

Despite recycling potential clichés — the grouchy elderly father, the disenfranchised second son — Japanese director Hirokazu... More>>

By Anthony Kaufman

Published: December 31, 2009

It's Complicated

Does Nancy Meyers hate women? The thought ran through my head not very long into It's Complicated, Meyers' stocking stuffer about the romantic... More>>

By SCOTT FOUNDAS

Published: December 24, 2009

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeaquel

Closing out a pretty great year for children's movies — Up, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Coraline among them — Betty Thomas'... More>>

By ELLA TAYLOR

Published: December 24, 2009

New York, I Love You

As with its predecessor, Paris je t'aime, there are hits and misses. Producer Emmanuel Benbihy decreed that each of the 11 segments of this... More>>

By Michelle Orange

Published: December 24, 2009

Nine

There's no city-clogging traffic jam in Nine, the musicalized version of Federico Fellini's movie-about-moviemaking 8 1/2, but the result feels... More>>

By SCOTT FOUNDAS

Published: December 24, 2009

Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie's resurrection of the world's most famous detective is a dank, noisy affair that unfolds in a gloomy London that seems a bootleg copy... More>>

By J. HOBERMAN

Published: December 24, 2009

The Young Victoria

British heritage cinema can be dull and boring when packaged for the export market. Laboring under lampshade millinery, hair that looks like... More>>

By ELLA TAYLOR

Published: December 24, 2009

Up in the Air

There is something oddly familiar about Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, in which George Clooney plays a commitment-phobic business traveler with... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: December 17, 2009

Avatar

The money is on the screen in Avatar, James Cameron's mega-3-D, mondo-CGI, more-than-a-quarter-billion-dollar baby. The bling is almost blinding.... More>>

By J. HOBERMAN

Published: December 17, 2009