Dark Skies (2013)
A mix of Poltergeist and Signs. Freaky things happen to a family in a suburban neighborhood, an old wise person comes to help, turns out it’s extraterrestrial in origin, and they communicate via walkie-talkies. A few good stings, but the aliens were kind of crappy-looking.
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American Hustle (2013)
At the start, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be having a Martin Scorsese or Wes Anderson or Coen brothers experience. Ended up being a combination of the three. And it might be the most authentic recreation of the 70’s ever put on film. Actually felt like I…
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Let’s Go to Prison (2006)
Kind of a dumb movie, but Arnett’s a great straight man. It’s nice to see him not taking himself too seriously, which is something that plagues a lot of his more recent comedy work.
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Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)
I really wanted this one to be funny, but it wasn’t. With three really funny guys returning for a sequel (Koechner has never made me laugh), I thought they’d have a good story and some witty banter, but it’s a lame effort all around. I can’t believe the same guy…
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Men in Black 3 (2012)
Silly story and some goofy effects, but it’s decent. Sonnenfeld adds a nice, touching angle to this one. Brolin does a good young Jones, and Smith is tolerable. Thompson is always quality.
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Prisoners (2013)
A refreshingly classic, simple thriller, solidly executed by Villeneuve. The story is nicely paced, if not a bit slow at times. The ending is seemingly abrupt, but it works perfectly. Jackman and Gyllenhaal are both great. Jackman is very ferocious but very vulverable and human, refreshing to see after years…
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Leap of Faith (1992)
Decent 90’s flick. Martin has an impeccable sense of timing. Drama is easy for him. But there’s not much comedy for him to work with. That’s what could have made this one great.
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Dirty Dancing (1987)
An interesting mix of the 50’s, 60’s, and 80’s that somehow works and really feels nostalgic. Swayze was cool, and it’s easy to see how Grey became American’s sweetheart for a little while. She has some real appeal. There seems to be quite an age difference between Swayze and Grey,…
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Dream House (2011)
A nice little thriller. Well-shot, well-paced, with just the right amount of touching and creepy and mystery. Sheridan knows what he’s doing. Craig is really good. Wonderful make-up job on him, transforming him from happy and normal to distraught and disheveled. Weisz is also good and has a wonderful American…
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Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic (2013)
Thorough and well-made, especially given there is no omniscient voiceover to tie it all together. Good interviews from those who were close to him. There’s a lot about the man I didn’t know, and I guess I didn’t really understand how much of a famous, cutting-edge comedian he was in…
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Soylent Green (1973)
As awkward as you might expect from a 1973 movie. Perhaps it merged thriller and science fiction in a unique way, but today it seems clumsily shot, clumsily edited, and a bit slow. Strangely anti-climactic ending. Most awkward of all may be Heston. Superficially tall and chiseled, but the man…
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Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012)
A beautiful, faithful capture of Cirque. I particularly enjoyed the Beatles segment and its creative remixes. With her lithe, athletic body and Frenchie haircut, it was obvious that the main character was a performer from the start. The most haunting, magical part was the beginning, with the real circus and…
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Road House (1989)
Kind of goofy. Swayze can pull off the small-town tough guy with swoony eyes, but he would never make it as a real action star.
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Hello Again (1987)
Occulty stories were big in the late 80’s, but this one just didn’t cut it. Big captured the magic best. Long and Bernson are OK, but the writing they’re given is pretty crappy. Laughable seeing Byrne doing something so lowbrow.
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3 Men and a Little Lady (1990)
The three guys are pretty good. More of the same. Travis pulls off a decent accent and mannerisms. Selleck has cool hair in this one.
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The Day Kennedy Died (2013)
Together with lots of footage I’ve never seen, details I’ve never known, wonderful interviews with people I didn’t know were still alive, and Spacey’s masterful voiceover, this might be the best documentary of the assassination that’s ever been made. The only thing that would have made it more complete would…
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The Odd Couple II (1998)
More of the same from Lemmon and Matthau. This could very well be Grumpy Old Men III.
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Killing Kennedy (2013)
When making a film about historical events, there’s always the fine line between being broadly accurate and focusing on a smaller, more dramatic part of it. I’m not sure where the sweet spot is, but this one erred on the side of broad accuracy. A lot of what what is…
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Jack Reacher (2012)
An old school detective story. Cruise is OK as Reacher, but most of the other characters are stiff. Pike’s desperately trying to hide an accent. I’m getting tired of foreigners playing Americans with imperfect accents.
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Mama (2013)
Great story. Creepy and suspenseful, with lots of great stings. You can definitely feel the del Toro influence, and it’s also got a Shyamalan suspense quality to it. You don’t see horror like this very often. Chastain has a sultry, pointy-nosed cuteness. The short black hair and rocker look works…
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Flight (2012)
Zemeckis’ direction is polished, Denzel’s performance is great. Horrifying sequence at the beginning.
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Gravity (2013)
Cuarón puts together something that is beautiful and incredibly tense. Might be the only movie I’ve seen with essentially a cast of two. Bullock delivers a refreshingly raw performance. And she looks great. After imagining that the role would have been good for Nathalie Portman, it was interesting to learn…
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Head in the Clouds (2004)
Unexpectedly epic in scale, with a great variety of sets and time periods and foreign countries represented. There’s some nostalgic magic in there, evoking the same feelings as Midnight in Paris. Nice cast, but the film would have been better served with a star in Guy’s role. A young Theron…
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Benny & Joon (1993)
Depp is superficially entertaining, but Chechik’s movie is pretty flat and boring overall. A tame date movie. Very 90’s, with the quirky-is-cool main characters, cheesy music, trendy dress, and perfect lighting in every scene. Lots of familiar faces. Oliver Platt was in everything.
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Iconic actors playing iconic roles. Redford’s pretty cool. Newman’s a good-looking guy, but he mumbles. But as anti-heroes, they’re are not very redeeming, making us unsympathetic observers. In the Bonnie and Clyde-like final scene, there’s certainly no sympathy for them. The story is quite slow and filled with awkwardness and…
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Never Say Never Again (1983)
Kind of silly, with the usual Bond schlock and cheesy fight scenes. Returning to the role after an absence of 12 years, Connery’s getting old at this point, though they sort of address this in the plot. It works. I think a movie showing Bond’s retirement would be cool. Maybe…
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Stakeout (1987)
Nothing special. Standard fare for the late 80’s. Dreyfuss is always fun. Stowe’s not bad in her debut.
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Elysium (2013)
Blomkamp’s a visionary and a true talent with special effects. He proved that in District 9 and proved it again here with a much bigger budget. The story’s good but runs a bit long. Why did the code messenger have to die? Was Carlyle, the original carrier of the message,…
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Paradise Alley (1978)
Were all movies from the late 70’s boring and unfunny as a rule? A lame effort to reproduce some of Stallone’s magic with Rocky. Stallone does OK. He’s quite a chatterbox in this one and really belts out the opening theme. Lee Canalito looks like a young Brando.
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Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
The usual Bond schlock, though this one is sillier than most. Some very awkward writing for a couple of gay characters. The convoluted plot is pretty damn boring. Goofy humor, dated effects in the intro sequence, and some really bad dubbing typical of movies in the period. Amazing that it…
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Dredd (2012)
Gloriously violent, a great shoot-em-up movie. The action is action is visually good, though cheapened by constant ambient techno music. Effects, especially the slo-mo, are great. Urban’s pretty good, and he sounds just like Clint Eastwood. But the character’s a little robotic, and like Bane in The Dark Knight Rises,…
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Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
Even with a different director, they captured the same humor and feel as the first. Having much of the same cast certainly helped.
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Battleship (2012)
Berg took a few pages out of the Michael Bay playbook. Basically, this is Transformers at sea. Ridiculous caricatures, a constant veneer of sweat on every actor, polished photography, bad jokes, classic rock, and masturbatory obsession with military machismo. Using the tsunami buoys to channel the board game was a…
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The Conjuring (2013)
A nice slow pace builds the anticipation, and I love the authentic 70’s feel. Livingston’s fantastic, and Taylor’s good as the demon-mother. But I thought it would be scarier. An updated version of The Exorcist.
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This Is the End (2013)
Seth is Seth, and this is probably the least annoying I’ve ever seen Jay. Some of the ad-libbed banter is good, McBride’s got some lines, and Hill’s exorcism was hilarious, but the silly drug and penis humor gets old quick. This might as well have been Pineapple Express 2.
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Pacific Rim (2013)
Lots of high-octane effects and testosterone-driven action. The robots and monsters fighting in cities make are a perfect combination of Godzilla, Cloverfield, and Real Steel. But with the awful dialogue, caricature performances, contrived dramatic situations, low-grade comedy silliness, and the most basic breaches of military protocol, I’d swear it was…
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The Thing (2011)
A faithful, well-made prequel. Heijningen reins it in and does a good job keeping things real. Edgerton headlines a bunch of good performances from unfamiliar faces. Nice effects and gore, though I’m constantly asking myself why every room has to be so dark and why every flashlight has to be…
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Millions (2004)
Definitely something different. An ethical exploration with a Pleasantville slant, this one’s a weird mix of comedy, drama, suspense, and allegory. Goofy and whimsically shot, almost like a Guy Ritchie or Tarantino film, with a soundtrack right out of Edward Scissorhands. Etel is great, and all supporting performances are good…
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Killer Elite (2011)
One of Statham’s better roles. He’s a bad-ass, probably more in this movie than in any other because he gets hurt, expresses emotion, and shows vulnerability. He’s not quite as robotic as he usually is. Owen is a marvelous adversary. I don’t know if it’s look or his diction, but…
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World War Z (2013)
Could be a continuation of 28 Days Later, shot in a similar style as well. Overall, it’s pretty good, though little of it feels original and there is nothing about it that’s exceptional. The story and Contagion-like plot twist are pretty good. I like internationalization of the problem, though all…
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The Campaign (2012)
Silliness, but there are a few good lines. With speech and mannerisms from Bush, Ferrell gets some easy laughs. Galifianakis is good, too.
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Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
A pleasant but remarkably undramatic end-of-the-world tale. Carell does his best to flex his dramatic chops.
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Chernobyl Diaries (2012)
For a no-name director and no-name actors, surprisingly good suspense and performances. Good characters and good character-building. Having people we care about makes things more scary. CHeesy ending. Some sort of explanation would have been nice.end was cheesy. An explanation would have been nice.
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This Means War (2012)
Light and fun. Pine and Hardy play well off each other, and Witherspoon keeps up. Awkward ending. Didn’t need that last scene.
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Cloud Atlas (2012)
What the fuck. Actors playing different characters in different stories in different times. It’s all a bit too much for me. Some of the characters and stories are interesting, but I couldn’t piece it all together. If you need to have read the book or a cheat sheet to make…
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Man of Steel (2013)
It’s a Zack Snyder movie. Wonderfully visual and violent, with lots of perfectly shot battles and explosions and destruction. Creative lighting, carefully timed slo-mo, and close-ups of Superman gritting his teeth enhance the action further. People like this kind of stuff, and Snyder’s got it down. But every confrontation is…
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The Hangover Part III (2013)
The worst of the bunch. There’s no raucous celebration, no hangover, no mystery, and not much comedy. Too much Chow. He’s irreverent but unfunny. When the sequence during the end credits is MUCH funnier than anything in the movie, it says something about the movie.
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The Great Gatsby (2013)
Wonderful period acting and dialogue and costumes, along with bold, wide effects that showcase 1920’s New York, provide rich fabric for the story. Unfortunately, every few minutes, Luhrmann’s anachronistic dance-beat musical choices take me out of the moment. It’s fun to watch, but things move slowly and the story never…
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Knuckleball! (2012)
An honorable attempt to honor the knuckleball, but it’s a bit sloppy. We start with Wakefield and then we go to Dickey and then the older guys and then back to Wakefield and Dicky? Bouncing around doesn’t add anything, it just makes us wonder why we’re bouncing around. Might have…
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Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
More of the same. Good action, amazing effects. The planetary effects are especially good, even during the closing credits. Again, Abrams overdoes it with the lens flare. Strange story arc. There’s no consistent enemy, so the story doesn’t build to a dramatic climax. Instead, we ride a dramatic plateau for…
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Mansome (2012)
Some comedy, but not enough. Some history, but not enough. If the film had taken the subject more seriously, or gone the other way and made it a big joke, it might have been a lot better. Fanciful graphics and music are typical of Spurlock, but it’s all a bit…
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Oblivion (2013)
Visionary sci-fi derived from, or perhaps in homage to, a long list of classic and recent sci-fi movies. We have the familiar plot twists and moral issues of cloning from Solaris and Moon. The pods are reminiscent of David Bowman’s module in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and there’s a creepy,…
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S&M: Short and Male (2008)
Are we supposed to be laughing at them? Or taking the subject matter seriously? Can’t be both. On one hand, there are heartfelt stories from a few of the short guys, the surgery segment is insane, and the voiceover seems to beg for sympathy and fairness. But then there’s circus…
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Magic Mike (2012)
Bold in its subject matter, but shallow in its execution. Weak story, weak characters, weak acting. Seems like a Tatum vehicle that Soderbergh uninspiringly directed for him. Brooke is the most interesting character, but she also delivers the weakest performance. And there’s not much else. Tatum can dance, for sure,…
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Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Toy Story for video games. The visuals are nostalgic, but we’re missing some pretty famous characters. Q-Bert makes several appearances, but Pac-Man’s only visible for a single shot. Where are Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Metroid, Mega Man, and Sonic? How cool would it have been to see Leisure Suit Larry…
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Amour (2012)
Depressing, boring, and shocking. Watching somebody die in real-time is not fun. “Fin” might have been a more appropriate title. Natural performances all around. An especially courageous performance by Riva, but the fact that she was a snooty bitch makes us less sympathetic for her. Impressively long takes and no…
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Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Gritty and mystical, but not a whole lot really happens. The girl is cute and good, but her performance is not Oscar-worthy. The emotionally confusing relationship between the girl and her raving lunatic father makes it hard to feel for either of them.
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The Specialist (1994)
Stallone’s cool, Stone’s hot, Woods is a pretty good bad-ass. But the story, direction, and photography have that glossy sterility of early 90’s movies.
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The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
So what did this one give us that the Raimi/Maguire 2002 movie was missing? Nothing. Why was this even made? Same story and characters, bad humor, uninspired direction. Instead of lamely rebooting the series, they should have just made another sequel.
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Happy (2011)
An interesting look at what creates happiness. Most Americans are so far off course. Would be interesting if a formalized version of this should be taught early in every American school.
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American Reunion (2012)
A nice follow-up. We have most of the original cast, and The comedy still works. Even Stifler’s schtick doesn’t get old. Just the right amount of T+A, including a surprisingly bold penis shot from Biggs.
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Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Bigelow does a great job making a man’s movie. Perhaps it’s a woman’s touch that makes it so good. In this movie about brutality, military strategy, and political maneuvering, Maya’s emotional journey is in the forefront. While the final action scene was dramatically motivated and suspenseful, it took away some…
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Life of Pi (2012)
A fantastical story with whimsical editing and wonderful special effects, though some are definitely better than others. Just not sure how I feel about the fact that 95% of what we watched was ultimately bullshit. I don’t mind that it’s a fable, but not knowing that from the beginning is…
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Side Effects (2013)
Soderbergh gives us another film that’s contemplative and polished, with a deftly woven plot. His message that drugs are over-prescribed and bad for you is a bit heavy-handed, even if it is masked by a complicated story. Jude Law delivers a solid performance, he’s always appealing. Mara is good, too.…
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Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
A nice mix of touching and funny, but some plot questions. In the scene were they’re all in the kitchen concerned about lying to Pat, shouldn’t they have been more concerned with how he might react when Nikki ultimately does NOT show up to the show? For whatever reason, they…
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Lady and the Tramp (1955)
An interesting look at 50’s ideals and family mores. Were rats going after babies in affluent neighborhoods really a problem? Even the voices mark the time. Tramp speaks with a cool, warbly, Dean Martin-like voice. Why did he start calling lady Pidge? Was that a common nickname back then? Some…
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One Million Years B.C. (1966)
Not quite historically accurate, but fun. The Harryhausen stop-motion effects are pretty cool. Welch really was a hottie, wasn’t she? And this was after two kids. Beswick was cute, too.
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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Lots of great actors and polished cinematography, but boy is it slow.
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Total Recall (2012)
A noble attempt to update the story, a few homages to the original, and lots of good-looking stars, but the dialogue and editing are both amateurish. That gimmicky horizontal lens flare doesn’t need to be in every shot. Farrell is twitchy and rarely sustains eye contact with anyone. Hard for…
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Wildcats (1986)
Made when comedies couldn’t just be funny. Had to have some drama in there. Not much of either, unfortunately. Goldie’s charming in roles where her very feminine character is stuck in manly situations. Is this where Woody met Wesley?
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The Sitter (2011)
Hill’s pretty funny, though his formulaic awkward humor is getting a bit old. Can he carry a movie with it?
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Water for Elephants (2011)
Not bad. Pattinson, Witherspoon, and Waltz are all pretty good.
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*batteries not included (1987)
A special effects showcase with a tame story and lame characters. An edgier story and a star with a real personality would have really helped this one.
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The Revenant (2009)
Goofy in a Shaun of the Dead sort of way, complete with a lead character (Wylde) who’s a strange cross between Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Using a vibrator to get the decapitated head to talk was genius.
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Highlander: The Final Dimension (1994)
We really needed to do this? Even if they found a Scotsman to play a Scotsman, it would still suck. Lambert’s slightly crossed eyes and French accent make him hard to take seriously. Unger’s nice to look at.
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G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
Story is dumb, with almost no loyalty to original series. Effects are dumb. Ice doesn’t sink. Quick editing ruins the potential for any real action. Star actors, but who cares. Everyone is dumb.
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Django Unchained (2012)
A brutal retribution story with intensely dramatic scenes strung together at just the right pace. Typical of his style, Tarantino whimsically transitions between comedy and tension and brutality. In any given scene, you never know what you’re going to get. The only thing you know for sure is that things…
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This Is 40 (2012)
A weird mix of drama and comedy. One minute, we share emotional and insightful moments with the characters, the next minute they are clowns, going above and beyond the story for some laughs. This bouncing back and forth between subjective sympathy and objective comedy is a little awkward. Mann delivers…
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The Love We Make (2011)
An interesting slice of a celebrity’s life. Lots of nice cameos. Just wish they had found a way to craft a bit more of a story to it. As a photographer, I know why they did the whole thing in black and white.
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Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
With offbeat humor, campy cinematic techniques, and ludicrous photographic symmetry, Anderson’s turns life into a satirical stage play. Raw, matter-of-fact emotion provides a lot of the comedy, and dysfunctional parents are once again a prominent theme. Anderson’s scenes and charaters are deconstructed and carefully reconstructed. All dialogue is spoken very…
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Alien³ (1992)
Nice continuation of story, and lots of character development. Weaver’s a good anchor, and all the Aussie roughnecks gives the movie a Mad Max feel. Fincher’s very good at building suspense, but the alien effects are suspect. I was even more let down by the fact that there was only…
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Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
Undoubtedly painful for anyone who lived through this. Beautifully shot, wonderfully paced. Daldry is quite a talent. Horn is extremely engaging and incredibly believable. But one beef with casting him in the role is that he doesn’t look like he’d be the son of Hanks and Bullock. He has an…
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Larry Crowne (2011)
A polished, star-studded, feel-good movie about nothing. Roberts has still got it.
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Lincoln (2012)
A noble movie about a noble man by a noble director. It’s the kind of movie we’re all supposed to like. And the audience showed their appreciation with a smattering of applause as the credits rolled. But I found it all incredibly boring. What we have is a seemingly accurate…
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K-9 (1989)
Animal humor isn’t enough to carry a movie. After the dog, we’re left with a thin story and weak actors. Belushi isn’t exceptionally funny or cool or tough, but I’m not sure if that’s his fault or the writing.
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Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Nice to see Reeve and Hackman again, but this is an awful movie. Story and performances are uninspired, and somehow, the effects in this latest movie are the worst in the series.
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Rising Sun (1993)
A hardly suspenseful who-dunnit with the flat photography and poor dialogue typical of 90’s movies.
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The Girl (2012)
Jones is good as Hitchcock, and Miller’s good as Tippi, but the story does nothing but paint Hitchcock as a manipulative, confused, horny old man. What’s the pleasure in that?
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Tower Heist (2011)
Nicely motivated plot. Most movies, especially comedies, don’t have this much set-up anymore. Good ensemble cast.
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Sophie’s Choice (1982)
A very serious tearjerker of the kind that was in vogue in the early 80’s. A little slow overall, but some individual scenes are very dramatic and well-done. Streep is amazing. Today’s audiences probably don’t know that she has this kind of performance on her resume. Kline is great, too.…
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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
Intense, agonizing, one of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen. Just a touch of comedy makes things even more tragic. Schnabel does a fantastic job. The fact that an American, English-speaking director created this makes it even more impressive. A truly courageous performance by Amalric. He should have gotten…
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Gandhi (1982)
A seemingly accurate depiction of Gandhi and his life, but long and slow. One of the problems with being historically accurate is that you run the risk of being boring and non-dramatic. I wonder if something could have been chopped or tightened up. Kingsley was a perfect choice. Great job…
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Skyfall (2012)
A bit different than the other Bond films: heavy on character, somewhat light on action, not much witty dialogue, and almost devoid of a love interest. But the characters and mood do carry it. It’s a good story and a good film. Bond is reactive instead of proactive, constantly on…
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Amores Perros (2000)
Polished direction, beautifully photographed, and intense throughout. Iñárritu knows what he’s doing. The stories are deftly woven together (a technique which has apparently come to be known as “hyperlink cinema”), and it takes a bit of effort putting everything together. So much time and energy is spent on each tale…
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Argo (2012)
Affleck’s direction is polished, and his performance is nicely understated. The rest of the cast is adequate, though I would have liked to see more dramatic tension from the mostly non-actors who played the six escapees. Pacing may have been a bit off, though. While the escape scene was intense,…
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Klitschko (2011)
An interesting documentary about two interesting guys. To make such an in-depth, cohesive, and polished documentary without any narration takes a lot of research, carefully scripted interviews, just the right stock footage, and conscientious editing. Well done.
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I'm a photographer, web developer, travel enthusiast, and movie buff living in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.In the summer of 1993, I started writing reviews for every movie I saw and haven't looked back. I'm up to 2,363 reviews now. This makes me cool or a complete dork, depending on your perspective.
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