Mae Whitman dazzles as the title character — which stands for Designated Ugly Fat Friend — a brilliant and quick-witted high school senior who takes that derogatory label and makes it her own. This breezy comedy is Whitman’s “Easy A”: the movie that will make the longtime supporting actress a...
Read more
Reviews
RogerEbert.com — The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
This second feature-length film based on the long-running “SpongeBob Squarepants” TV series is as zippy and zany as fans have come to expected. The animated, underwater sequences are a blast. It’s the back-and-forth to live action on dry land that’s the problem. My mixed RogerEbert.com review. Read the review...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Love, Rosie
Lily Collins and Sam Claflin are attractive and appealing as lifelong best friends who are clearly meant to be together, but the many contrived obstacles that keep them apart are more irritating than romantic. The lighting is pretty, though. My RogerEbert.com review. Read the review here...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — The Boy Next Door
“The Boy Next Door” is terrible, but it isn’t delightfully terrible enough. An R-rated erotic thriller starring Jennifer Lopez as a sexy high school English teacher being stalked by a hunk half her age should wallow in its over-the-top premise. And it does, eventually — but the insane climax of...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — The Humbling
Al Pacino dials it down and does some of his best work in a long time as a veteran actor struggling to regain his former glory. If that premise sounds a lot like “Birdman,” well, yes — that is an unfortunate coincidence. But Pacino’s performance is the strongest element in...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — The Wedding Ringer
The buoyantly loopy chemistry between Kevin Hart and Josh Gad helps keep this mostly formulaic bromance afloat. Gad stars as a sweet but schlubby dude who’s about to get married; Hart plays his best man for hire. What could possibly go wrong? My RogerEbert.com review. Read the review here...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Paddington
“Paddington” is smarter than the average bear. That’s right, I went there — but it’s true. It manages to pull off several different, tricky balancing acts while also serving as a stealthy allegory about immigration. Mostly, though, it’s just fun for the whole family. My review, at RogerEbert.com. Read the...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Exodus: Gods and Kings
Ridley Scott’s biblical epic “Exodus: Gods and Kings” is a numbing, soulless spectacle of 3-D CGI run amok. The plagues are fun, though. My RogerEbert.com review. Read the review here...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Still Alice
Julianne Moore gives a graceful yet powerful performance as a brilliant linguistics professor suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in “Still Alice.” The movie itself, however, isn’t all that great. My mixed RogerEbert.com review. Read the review here...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Penguins of Madagascar
“Penguins of Madagascar,” a spin-off from the “Madagascar” franchise, is zippy and zany and much funnier than you might expect. I laughed the whole way through — because the vast majority of the humor is for us and not our kids. Still, this animated comedy is super family-friendly. My RogerEbert.com...
Read more