Grade: C+ | Genre: Drama/Romance
Summary: John Fante's, Ask The Dust is a 1939, hipster's novel that is lost in translation to the big screen, confirming to me again, that some literature should be left to the ancient art of reading.

Directed and adapted to the screen by Chinatown scribe, Robert Towne, Ask the Dust, follows the life and loves of an aspiring Depression-era author, Arturo Bandini (Colin Farrell) as he makes his way in Los Angeles, while becoming involved with a Mexican waitress (Salma Hayek). Arturo is a second-generation Italian, who dreams of landing a writing career and a hot blue-eyed blonde on his arm, while Camilla Lopez, the intense and fiery Mexican waitress, wants to marry someone wealthy and above her station. So what do they do? Of course, this couple runs headlong into a love/hate affair that is filled with angst and racial conflicts. This folks, is the entire film, honest. Director Robert Towne, who possesses a huge fascination with old Los Angeles and has done well in sharing that image onscreen in this film, reportedly spent years bringing this cool, celebrated novel to the screen after meeting the author of this book in the 1970s.

Grade: D+ | Genre: Romantic Comedy
Summary: It won't change your outlook on love and life, but it might help you pass a couple of hours. Otherwise, spare yourself Terry Bradshaw's cottage cheese behind because this film is a stinker.

We should have known better when we saw the word "Failure" in the movie title. While we would never judge a book by its cover, especially one featuring Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker, a movie title can speak a thousand words. Sure, Failure to Launch may have not been such a failure in it's opening weekend, but it has set itself up for the numerous play-on-words that will foreshadow how quickly this film will fade away. Systems won't be a go for much longer, and as fast it launched to the top, it's sure to come crashing down.

Grade: A- | Genre: Action Adventure
Summary: Superman Returns is a thrilling rebirth of yesterday's "Man of Steel" for today's generation. The time spent in development was worth the wait and we can only hope that the following additions continue to build and stay true to the franchise.

Review: The "Man of Steel" has indeed come a long way since his Quest for Peace and finally returns to the big screen to soar over all those that get in his way (those that aren't Pirates of course). It seems director Bryan Singer was able to take the franchise back in time and drop it snugly between the second and third Superman installments just before Mr. Bulletproofs film career began to tank.

Clark Kent has continued to see some life on the small screen in the hit series, Smallville, but alas with not one glimpse of the red cape and blue tights. It took a while for Superman to take over the big screen where previous incarnations saw Rush Hour and X Men 3 director, Brett Ratner manning the helm and, get this, Nicholas Cage playing "The Man of Steel." With years wasted and millions of dollars lost, the studios finally got the right pieces in place to create a Superman fitting of today's movie climate. This time around, we are given a film that doesn't necessary reinvent the franchise but is a dedication to the legacy left behind by Christopher Reeves.

Grade: B+ | Genre: Comedy
Summary: Unfortunately, unless you know a bit about Steve Coogan and appreciate the realistic edginess of British wit, you could miss the laughs in this mockumentary about making a movie based on a novel that simply cannot be filmed.

Just to get this out of the way first, in case you do not know about one of England's funniest and most creative men, Steve Coogan, shame on you. Not only will this keep you from catching some of the jokes in this film, as some are based on his former TV character Alan Partridge, and one running gag is about a real-life tabloid headline that plagues Coogan, but you are missing really brilliant humor from a great comic actor. But enough of that, and onto the review of the movie, which is a film about making a film from a novel that is un-filmable. In fact no one in their right mind would attempt to make a movie about this particular novel. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is a weighty novel written by Laurence Sterne that is one of those great books famous for being owned but seldom actually read. The book itself is a perfect vehicle for a movie about a novel that one simply cannot film, for this piece of literature is the fictional autobiography of an eccentric English gentlemen that have more digressions, narrative segues and utterly exhausting contrivances than any postmodern works that have ever been written.

Grade: D+ | Genre: Action/Suspense
Summary: Basically, it's a film that treads over ground we've seen hundreds of times to date and offers up nothing new for us to sink our teeth into. The goal seems to sufficiently vegetate the audience rather than intrigue them.

Its truly sad when once great actors become synonymous with bland filmmaking. Instead of being gracefully put out to pasture, they overstay their welcome, going through the motions without feeling and completely devoid of heart. Harrison Ford set the standard for tense action thrillers with nail biters like Patriot Games and The Fugitive yet these days he's a paycheck player, getting plugged in as the lead in the latest tepid action feature on the market. Remember stellar, gripping films like Hollywood Homicide, Six Days Seven Nights and K19: The Widowmaker? I didn't think so. The latest stink bomb is Firewall, pulling out all the formulas and wallowing in its own mediocrity. Shouldn't there be a mandate that guys like Ford, DeNiro and Pacino can't soil their brilliant body of work, slumming it in every half-baked project that gets green lighted through Hollywood?