Howard Baldwin

1 star (out of four) In any era, the time-travel adventure movie "A Sound of Thunder" is just awful. Set in 2055 Chicago and in an undisclosed location 63 million years ago, it follows a team of temporal safari guides trying to save the world after a...

"Swimming Upstream" is a welcome throwback to the rich Australian cinema of the late '70s and '80s that was suffused with the sense of an entire people discovering itself on the screen. There was a tremendous freshness, energy and lack of self-...

2 stars (out of 4) How many leaps of logic do you allow an action movie before that thin strand of suspended disbelief snaps? In the case of "Sahara," based on the novel by Clive Cussler, not enough. Even if you buy Dirk Pitt's (Matthew McConaughey)...

It might be useful for filmmakers to note that with popcorn movies, the audience's suspension of disbelief is going to dissipate in direct proportion to any attempt to call attention to Serious Issues. It's probably a bad thing if the synopsis begins to...

"Danny Deckchair" is an Australian romantic comedy about a suburban stiff who hitches a lawn chair to some helium balloons and accidentally floats off to a better life. First-time feature director Jeff Balsmeyer, a former storyboard artist who won a...

Director Jon Purdy aptly describes his picture "Joshua" as "a spiritual western, a story about a stranger who comes to a small town and instead of changing their way of thinking with his six-guns, he changes them through a compassion that is revealed to...

When you play a genius on screen, you better have the right stuff yourself, or the camera will shrivel you. That doesn't happen in "Ray." In this triumphant musical movie-bio, Jamie Foxx gives a landmark performance as soul, jazz and blues great Ray...

4 stars (out of 4) When you play a genius on screen, you better have the right stuff yourself, or the camera will shrivel you. That doesn't happen in "Ray." In this triumphant musical movie-bio, Jamie Foxx gives a landmark performance as soul, jazz...

Friday December 22, 1995      "Sudden Death" is a treat for Jean-Claude Van Damme fans, a superior action thriller loaded with jaw-dropping stunts and special effects, and strong in production values. Expertly directed--and photographed--by Peter Hyams,...

Friday October 1, 1999      "Mystery, Alaska" is a film that believes, in the words of hockey player and ladies' man Skank Marden, that "skating and fornicating are the most fun you can have in the winter." While that may or may not be accurate in life,...