Such is Spielberg’s draw that even film lovers with little interest in dystopia or sci-fi hesitate only a couple of days before dutifully making their way to the nearest movie theater. So, does it deserve the praise? Not really. Special CGI-enhanced effects, spectacular as they are, pall after a while and become repetitive although to the end there are lovely surprising images such as the disco scene with the dancing couples floating in an endless colorful vortex.

When you have a film that boasts the comedic talents of Lake Bell and Simon Pegg nothing can go wrong. In MAN UP, Lake Bell is Nancy, a woman who is a master of words but less skillful in love. When Nancy is accidentally mistaken by Jack (played by Simon Pegg) to be his blind date, she decides to be impulsive for once and just go along with it. What follows is a hilarious, rollicking romp of schemes, sparring, and slapstick humor.

I dressed like that. In college more so than high-school. Black trench coat (but mine was brown). Black slacks. Doc Martens. I never owned that Sisters of Mercy T-shirt, but I did own the album with that cover.

That was Gary King’s wardrobe on the last day of high-school in 1990, the day he and four friends started (but didn’t finish) a legendary twelve-pub crawl in their English hometown. It’s still what he wears twenty-three years later as he rounds

I am a sucker for spy movies. Whether it is the Bourne series, the revitalized Bond series or the Mission: Impossible series, and even though I have a love/hate relationship with the latter. The first one was really good with a lot of double-crossing and excellent action, but the second one was a train-wreck, from the script to John Woo’s over-the-top directing. And J.J. Abrams’s third film got the train back on the tracks

“Paul” is another alien movie that feels like ET just phoned it in from home. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz) play Graeme and Clive, two British comic book geeks who decide to go on a tour of America’s famous alien tourist spots (think area 51). They come face to face with the real thing when they meet Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen), a little green alien who escaped from a government lab and now must trust Graeme and Clive with getting him to a safe spot for a space ship pick-up.

How does such a proven genre-deflater as Simon Pegg fall […]