Author: Laurie Coker

By Laurie Coker Rating: B+ Some films try too hard to be monumental productions and others not hard enough, so when I first saw the poster for Tom Cruise’s newest film Oblivion (I avoid trailers), my first thought was “oh no, this will be Cruise’s Waterworld,” but I was wrong. Director Joseph Kosinski, who gave… Continue reading Review: OBLIVION

By Laurie Coker Rating: B+ Before the theatre went dark for the screening of Starbuck, someone told me that Vince Vaughn just wrapped up the American version of the French-Canadian film about a man who donated sperm multiple times in his youth and who discovers that of the 560 plus children conceived, nearly 150 are… Continue reading Review: STARBUCK

By Laurie Coker Rating: F- As part of my midnight features review for SXSW, I covered Rob Zombie’s Lords of Salem, so I want to allude to that review, and I’d like to begin this one by saying, even with the passage of time, I still think the film is complete trash. I find it… Continue reading Review: LORDS OF SALEM

By Laurie Coker Rating: B- For cast appeal alone, The Place Beyond the Pines will draw big and rightly so. Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper highlight the cast and for their efforts all is well with The Place Beyond the Pines. It is, however, director Derek Gianfrance and co-writers Ben Coccio and Darius Marder’s script that falters.  It… Continue reading Review: THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES

By Laurie Coker Rating: B+ Baseball, THE American pastime – I suppose, but perhaps not as much today as in the past. Still, its heroes are our heroes and few don’t know the significance of Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson in sports and in the United States. Director/script writer Brian Helgeland’s biopic gives audiences a… Continue reading Review: 42

By Laurie Coker Rating: A I remember spending evening after evening reading Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park with and to my dyslexic son, because we both wanted to see the film when it hit theatres. Six years before I became a film critic, with a lifetime love for film, unending admiration for Spielberg and a fascination… Continue reading Review: JURASSIC PARK 3D

By Laurie Coker Rating: B Some films simply make us feel and connect us wholly to the characters. With exceptional lead actresses like Ella Fanning (Dakota’s younger sister) and Alice Englert and an equally impressive supporting cast, Ginger and Rosa, a coming of age film set in England during the 1960s, engages while it entertains.… Continue reading Review: GINGER AND ROSA