“Anna Karenina” is back, regardless of whether we need another adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s tragic story of love, longing, locomotives and, when things work well, some pithy social material in between. Director Joe Wright gives it an original go, but his stylized, design-heavy approach undercuts essential passion. Read More

Already mourning the loss of best mate Dr. Watson (Jude Law), whose impending nuptials at least provide an excuse to throw a spectacularly bruising stag party, a newly single Sherlock Holmes would seem to be wanting for playmates. What’s a punch-drunk, giddily androgynous supersleuth to do? Read More

Maybe this is how the world ends — not with a bang, but a wheeze. Paranoia seems almost sensible under certain circumstances — a late-night stroll through a dark alley, perhaps — but what about riding the bus to work, where killers could be sitting beside us, polluting our space with their germs? If the idea isn’t enough to terrify, it should at least give you pause, which is what Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion” does with unsettling precision.   Read More

Hundreds of actors and production crew have been filming in front of San Francisco’s City Hall on Friday for a movie starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet and Jude Law.“Contagion,” an action-thriller about preventing the spread of a deadly virus, had its crew and military tanks stationed around Civic Center Plaza on Friday afternoon along with hundreds of extras wearing pandemic flu masks.Production assistants declined to comment on the scene they were filming. Read More