Matthew R. Reis: Film and TV Critic

Stars’ beauty no match for bad story 1 Star As featured in: The Ithacan Director Zach Snyder’s latest visual extravaganza, “Sucker Punch,” is an experiment in overindulgent style gone wrong. While memorable characters such as the dapper, mustachioed villain Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac) lend a fun energy to the film too many elements don’t fit well together. Emily Browning plays Baby Doll, a petite, feisty 20-year-old who’s imprisoned in a brothel fronting as a mental institution by her ruthless stepfather. Baby Doll, along with four other big-breasted heroines, including the opinionated, no bull Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket, Blondie and Amber plan an ambitious escape in order to avoid being harmed by their pimp Blue. Baby constructs a dream world in order to gain the confidence she needs to lead the other gals to freedom. This premise obviously caters to a largely male audience with an appetite for scantily clad women parading around. “Punch” needs more sizzling entertainment ...

Blood, Sweat & Salt 2 1/2 Stars Blog exclusive! Buy the Blu-ray today! “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” featured Angelina Jolie playing nice alongside her future real-life husband Brad Pitt. In “Salt” she’s bad to the bone. Evelyn Salt is a seemingly ordinary women working for the CIA. As a highly decorated agent she seems to bleed red, white and blue. However a captured Russian spy rocks her world by calling her a traitor of the U.S.A. As shocking as this may seem beautiful Evelyn Salt might just be the sexiest femme fatale the cinema has seen for a long time. How could a seemingly normal woman be implicated in destroying white picket fences all across America? Well watch and learn. Salt may be a hardcore martial arts expert, but she does have a soft spot in her heart. These feelings are directed towards her husband, an arachnologist (one who studies spiders) who disappears the same day she is labeled a traitor. The film’s similarities to The Bourne Series of films are ine...