— A —
Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (* ½) (Short Review)
— B —
Babel (***)
— C —
Cars (*** ½) (Full Review)
Casino Royale (*** ½) (Full Review)
Children of Men (****) (Full Review)
The Covenant (* ½)
— D —
The Da Vinci Code (** ½) (Full Review)
The Departed (*** ½) (Full Review)
The Devil Wears Prada (***)
Doogal (*) (Full Review)
Dreamgirls (****) (Full Review)
— E —
East Side Story (** ½)
Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds (* ½)
Eragon (* ½)
— F —
Five Fingers (***) (Short Review)
Flushed Away (** ½)
The Fountain (***)
Friends with Money (***) (Full Review)
— H —
Half Nelson (*** ½) (Full Review)
Happy Feet (**)
Hard Candy (***)
High School Musical (***)
Hollywoodland (** ½) (Full Review)
Hostel (** ½) (Full Review)
— I —
Ice Age: The Meltdown (**)
The Illusionist (** ½)
In the Valley of Elah (*** ½) (Short Review)
Infamous (****)
Inside Man (*** ½) (Full Review)
— L —
The Lake House (** ½) (Full Review)
The Last King of Scotland (*** ½) (Full Review)
Lifted (Short Film) (***)
Little Children (***)
Little Miss Sunshine (***) (Full Review)
— M —
Man of the Year (**)
Mission: Impossible III (**)
My Super Ex-Girlfriend (** ½)
— N —
Night Watch (***)
Notes on a Scandal (*** ½) (Full Review)
— O —
Over the Hedge (***) (Full Review) (Short Review)
— P —
Pan’s Labyrinth (****) (Full Review)
Penelope (** ½)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (*** ½) (Short Review)
Pink Panther (** ½)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (**) (Full Review)
Poseidon (** ½)
The Prestige (***)
The Promise (**)
Pusher (** ½)
Pusher 2 (** ½)
Pusher 3 (** ½)
— Q —
The Queen (****) (Full Review)
— S —
Saw III (**) (Full Review)
Scary Movie 4 (** ½)
Stranger Than Fiction (***)
Superman Returns (***) (Full Review)
— T —
Thank You for Smoking (*** ½) (Full Review)
Turistas (* ½)
— U —
United 93 (****) (Full Review)
— V —
V for Vendetta (*** ½) (Full Review)
— X —
X-Men: The Last Stand (***) (Full Review)
I’m an old guy who was around in the 50’s and 60’s when they were cranking out those stock rock ‘n roll biz movies. I’ve seen this movie a dozen times before. Dreamgirls has the clichéd characters and the predictable paper thin plot that were characteristic of the genre. Even in the context of that genre Dreamgirls doesn’t make the grade because it has an instantly forgettable soundtrack.
I think Dreamgirls was supposed to be a parody of those old movies, but none of the critics got it because they are all too young to have seen them. They are not classics. Dreamgirls takes itself very seriously with not one moment of humor. Therein lies the parody — nobody took those old rock n roll movies seriously.
As those old rock ‘n roll movies demonstrated, transferring great stage numbers straight to film with twinkie filling between the numbers does not make a great movie.
My nomination for the most over-hyped movie of 2006 goes to …