Gary Thompson

Gary Thompson is the Daily News film critic.

Read Gary's blog Keep It Reel
Latest post: "Up" for Something Different? - 05/24/2012
Email Gary at thompsg@phillynews.com

Video: MIBIII: Will Smith's Back in Black
Gallery: The stars of 'Men in Black 3'
'Polisse': Cops coping with abused kids and their abusers
"Up" for Something Different?

"Up" for Something Different?

'Crooked Arrows' plays it straight - 05/21/2012: By Gary Thompson, Daily News Staff Writer

Gary Thompson: It’s billed as the first movie about lacrosse, the country’s fastest growing sport and also the continent’s oldest, played by the six nations of the Iroquois confederacy going back a thousand years or more — a heritage reflected in the underdog scenario that drives “Crooked Arrows.”
'Battleship' is silly but it doesn't sink - 05/21/2012: By Gary Thompson, Daily News Staff Writer

Gary Thompson: “Battleship” is an action comedy, with the emphasis on the comedy.
Local filmmaker finds satisfaction in release - 05/10/2012: By Gary Thompson, Daily News Staff Writer

Gary Thompson: Philadelphia native Rel Dowdell had a fairy tale baptism in the world of independent film.
‘Changing the Game’ filmed in Philadelphia - 05/10/2012: By Gary Thompson, Daily News Staff Writer

“CHANGING THE GAME,” the second feature from Philadelphia independent filmmaker Rel Dowdell, surely cannot be faulted for its scope or ambition. The movie is a literary, sprawling, age-of-globalization story about a North Philadelphia guy with a genius I.Q. who goes to Penn and then to high finance, and learns that Wall Street (surprise!) is no less treacherous than the mean streets he knew as a youth.
'God Bless America' is strictly Old Testament - 05/10/2012: By Gary Thompson, Daily News Staff Writer

Gary Thompson: God Bless America is a transgressive, edgy movie that doesn’t mind offending you in order to make its point. And the point? How's that for irony.
Summer's must-see movies - 05/03/2012: Gary Thompson

With so many big summer movies to choose from, choices must be made. Here are the films our staff is looking forward to seeing.
He’s just a Poe boy nobody loves him - 04/27/2012: By Gary Thompson, Daily News Staff Writer

THE BEST THING about the new thriller “The Raven” is John Cusack’s amped-up performance as Edgar Allan Poe. Cusack lost 30 pounds and pushed himself to the point of exhaustion to play Poe, a sometime action figure in “The Raven” who gallops on horseback through the fog and shoots guns. Cusack, however, said the really taxing aspect of the role was trying to achieve Poe’s famously agitated mental state.
Hugh Grant does pirate voice - 04/27/2012: By GARY THOMPSON, thompsg@phillynews.com

THE KIDDIE audience might not recognize the voice of the Pirate Captain in “Pirates: Band of Misfits!” but it belongs to Hugh Grant. Older viewers might not recognize it either — it’s been three years since Grant has made a movie. His last was “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” Grant’s one-billionth romantic comedy, and a project apparently so awful it soured him on movies completely.
‘Chimpanzee’ gives detailed view of monkey life - 04/19/2012: By Gary Thompson, Daily News Staff Writer

Gary Thompson: Filmmaker Alastair Fothergill spent three years in the jungles of the Ivory Coast capturing 700 hours of rare, beautiful footage detailing the complex, dramatic and at times quite moving lives of a chimpanzee clan.
Bully: Weak officials, helpless parents & students - 04/12/2012: By Gary Thompson, Daily News Staff Writer

Gary Thompson: The anti-bullying documentary Bully is finally here, widely hailed as a movie that every teen should see. And with the now-official PG-13 rating, they can.