Movie & Book Reviews

Movie Review: The Vow
Feb 11 2012
Channin Tatum isn't gone, but he is forgotten in this romantic comedy.

Book Review: 'A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism'
Feb 07 2012
Phyllis Goldstein’s “A Convenient Hatred” is a major work of history that illuminates perhaps the most persistent and tragic source of hatred and violence in the history of Western civilization.

Movie Review: Big Miracle
Feb 03 2012
NEW YORK –“Free Willy,” the 1993 whale rescue film, looks like child’s play when compared to “Big Miracle” (Universal), in which not one but three giant mammals are trapped in Arctic ice.

Movie Review: One for the Money
Jan 30 2012
NEW YORK – The title of the forgettable fish-out-of-water comedy “One for the Money” (Lionsgate) recalls Carl Perkins’ seminal hit, “Blue Suede Shoes,” a song covered most famously, of course, by Elvis Presley. While this lukewarm cinematic offering won’t knock you down or step in your face, its surfeit of profane dialogue does slander God’s name all over the place.

Movie Review: "Man on a Ledge"
Jan 27 2012
NEW YORK (CNS) -- When an ex-cop is falsely convicted of stealing a multimillion-dollar diamond and sentenced to 25 years in jail, there's just one course for him to follow: Break out of prison, check in to Manhattan's landmark Roosevelt Hotel, order lobster -- then clamber out onto a cornice hundreds of feet above street level.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Jan 24 2012
CLASSIFICATION "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" (Warner Bros.) -- Catholic News Service classification, A-III -- adults. Motion Picture Association of America rating, PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Millennial Series Part 3: Are young people too connected?
May 26 2011
During the 1980s and early 1990s, there wasn’t a more reliable pair of babysitters than the Super Mario Bros.

‘There Be Dragons’ director takes full responsibility for film
May 06 2011
WASHINGTON – Roland Joffe, director of “There Be Dragons,” the new movie that dramatizes the early life of St. Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei, says he takes full responsibility for the finished product.

Cannes Film Festival grand-prize winner ‘Of Gods and Men’ had ‘monastic adviser’ on set
Mar 25 2011
WASHINGTON – “Of Gods and Men,” the Cannes Film Festival grand prize-winning feature now debuting across the country, had a “monastic adviser” on the set to help faithfully depict the lives of the French monks whose story is at the heart of the movie.

Harry Potter ‘magic’ felt around archdiocese
Nov 18 2010
Ken McVeary couldn’t stop laughing.

Vatican newspaper praises values in new Harry Potter film
Jul 14 2009
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican newspaper gave the new Harry Potter movie four stars for promoting “friendship, altruism, loyalty and self-giving.”

Catholic scientists debunk movie’s depiction of science, faith clash
May 15 2009
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A bomb. A secret sect of anti-Catholic scientists. A church straddling ancient traditions and the modern world.

Speakers impart knowledge at local colleges
May 12 2009
Many students at the three Catholic colleges in the Archdiocese of Baltimore are approaching the end of their education journeys.

‘Angels and Demons’ is harmless entertainment, Vatican newspaper says
May 07 2009
ROME – The newly premiered movie “Angels and Demons” is little more than “harmless entertainment,” with many factual errors and little cultural value, according to the Vatican newspaper.

College students, teachers try to right business wrongs
Feb 07 2009
Andrew Velazquez sounds disillusioned. He yearns for the days when businesses took responsibility for their decision-making and were accountable to their customers, community and country.