This time, Optimus is in his prime.

Monte Carlo has pitch-perfect performances, but the plot is pathetic.

Larry Crowne starts with a deserved slam on corporate downsizing when Larry — a department store’s best employee — is unceremoniously dumped by soulless management.

The movie Green Lantern must not be mistaken for The Green Hornet. They are two different characters.

For someone loving alliteration Mr. Popper's Penguins is priceless.

I’m not sure what to make of the MTV Movie Awards.

My name is Gary. I’m an alcoholic.

Midnight in Paris is an inventive story mixing longing for the “good ol’ days” with a writer’s drive to create and the allure and magic of the streets of Paris.

The 1970s and 1980s produced some excellent sci-fi flicks.

A few years ago an industry out of ideas began to delve more deeply into comic books and graphic novels for plots and movie concepts.

RICHLAND — I have the honor of hosting the last film of Battelle Film Club's 2011 Spring Series.

The sequel has the panda Po leading the Furious Five into battle with a paranoid peacock determined to conquer and rule China.

Writer/director Todd Phillips reunites the original cast and adds a semi-funny cameo from former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson.

Of Gods and Men is last year’s Grand Prix winner at Cannes. Loosely based on true events during armed conflict between the government and Islamic extremists in the 1990s, it centers around eight Trappist monks and their relationship to the village that grew around the monastery over a few decades.

The fourth film in the series sets sail with Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush’s Barbosa on a quest for the legendary fountain of youth.

I just learned about this, and it is worth passing on. The 2010 Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job plays tonight in the Tri-Cities.

One of 2004's best foreign films is Walk on Water, and it is being presented Friday by Battelle Film Club.

A film about women and marriage may be virgin territory for Judd Apatow, but the results are the same. 'Bridesmaids' is flat-out funny and is worth saying “I do.”

John Aglialoro produced Atlas Shrugged: Part 1.

Somewhere in Jumping the Broom is a good movie. It just didn’t get made.

Typical of a love triangle flick, "Something Borrowed" is as packed with angst as it is with cliche. A better title would be "Everything Borrowed."

Marvel's Thor now joins his comic book mates Spider-man, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, X-Men and others as a movie.

This week's showing by Battelle Film Club is Alamar, which is about the primitive life of its subjects, their interaction with nature and beauty of the simple life of a fisherman.

Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil is a sequel to 2005’s original twist on the Little Red Riding Hood fairytale.

Win Win has Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan playing Mike and Jackie Flaherty. They’re an average New Jersey couple with all the usuals: cute kids, a mortgage and a loving home.

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker reprise their roles as racing-addicted rivals. They’re on the run from the law and just trying to survive.

Even the most hardened critics are fans of someone.

Let’s get it out in the open immediately. Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 isn’t a very good movie.

Water for Elephants finally proves that Twilight's tortured heartthrob Robert Pattinson can play a character that does something besides sulk and be sullen.

China has the largest migration of human beings on the planet.

Blu is a Blue Macaw. They're the largest bird in the parrot family.

Three historical notes.

Ayn Rand’s political and economic opus Atlas Shrugged has been turned into a movie. It was scheduled to screen one-time only at the Richland Public Library on Sunday.

Dudley Moore’s lovable lush got raves in 1981. The effervescent, irresponsible and very rich Arthur is offset by the perfectly done, Oscar-winning, one-line jabs by Sir John Gielgud who did his always-responsible butler, Hobson.

Saoirse Ronan’s work in The Lovely Bones and Atonement put her on the radar of producers.

Finally. There is an explanation for the distraction of James Franco while hosting this year’s Oscar telecast.

RICHLAND — The Battelle Film Club is presenting a couple of interesting World War II “documentaries” Friday night.

Duncan Jones' first film Moon made my top-10 best list in 2009.

A man is in a metal cockpit strapped into a seat. He can see a video screen and is surrounded by science gadgets, gobs of wires and flashing lights.

This section of the blog has spoilers. If you haven’t seen Source Code, then you will want to watch it before you enter your opinion.

Characters played by Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne move into an old house with their three children.

The producers are bragging that this is done by the same people that gave us the excellent Despicable Me.

TV writers Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah did the first film, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

When it comes to style, writer/director Zack Snyder is pure genius.

The story of the quest to find an original version of the 1927 silent classic Metropolis and its ultimate restoration is as fascinating as the film. Fritz Lang'’s flick ran 153 minutes and was considered too long for moviegoers of the day. Anything over 90-minutes was more than most people could sit through.

Limitless is a brilliant piece of science fiction that works off the premise that human use of the brain is limited.

Miguel Arteta directs Cedar Rapids. It got raves at the annual Sundance Film Festival a couple of months ago and is just now going wide-release. It opened Friday, March 18 at Regal’s Columbia Center 8.

Ed Helms — one of the stars of TV’s The Office — shines as a naive agent attending his first insurance agent convention.

Here’s the set-up for The Company Men. Corporate downsizing. Layoffs. Profits over people. We live high with a high monthly nut. As couples we don’t communicate. Our kids are strangers. Our families are strangers.

Most flicks featuring life from other worlds are lifeless.