With “Going the Distance,” we once again enter the realm of the not-terrible, which is better than expected.

I’ll admit right from the jump here: I’m not a Drew Barrymore fan. I find most of her performances mannered; I always feel as though I can see her acting. And, most of the time, she’s acting cute.

But in “Going the Distance,” Barrymore feels much less actorish, playing a young woman caught in a romantic dilemma: Does she choose the guy or her career? She’s got a natural ease I haven’t seen since, oh, I don’t know, “E.T.”

And that may have something to do with her costar. Actually, it probably has everything to do with the fact that she’s playing opposite her real-life squeeze, Justin Long. And Long is a talented comedian who, apparently, can make even Drew Barrymore look good. (More…)

”Max Manus” is a superior war movie, a tale of resistance and danger set amid the struggle by occupied people against the Nazis during World War II. (More…)

Robert Rodriguez is one of those rare filmmakers whose movies – for better or worse – always come alive with his sheer enjoyment of making them.

In the case of “Machete,” that’s a good thing. Unlike his corny kids’ movies (“Spy Kids,” “Shorts”), “Machete” bleeds pure entertainment. Returning to the crank-it-up style Rodriguez brought to his half of the vastly underrated “Grindhouse,” “Machete” comes out swinging – and usually what it’s swinging includes an extremely sharp blade. (More…)

It seems like a weirdly cross-cultural idea: the notion of Chinese master Zhang Yimou doing a remake of the Coen brothers’ debut film, “Blood Simple.”

But Zhang makes the movie uniquely his own with the spaghetti-western-style title, “A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop.” If the film lacks the dryly mordant Coen wit, it offers other pleasures – but also some problems. (More…)

Let’s say this upfront: “The American” is not an audience movie in the generally recognized sense of the term.

It is not an action movie.

It is not a thriller in any conventional sense.

Forget about the TV commercials and theatrical trailers that make it look like George Clooney is playing some Jason Bourne-like character, mowing down every bad guy who gets in his way.

It’s not that movie. Instead, it’s an art film. Anyone who goes in expecting it to be in any way a typical Hollywood product will be sorely disappointed.

Now, having said that, let me say how much I enjoyed “The American.” It is one of the most beautifully photographed, controlled, even formal films I’ve seen in a long time. (More…)