recent product reviews
Pusher (1996)
Haunting, intense, and brutal. Drugs are bad. Appealing characters and actors, amazing how far Mads has come. Bodnia is great to watch, with an fixed expression throughout revealing only the most subtle changes from scene to scene. He has a Tom Sizemore/Kevin Spacey peacefulness quality to him. Shooting style really…
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Captain America: Civil War (2016)
This is really Avengers 3, but the title of the movie kept expectations lower and helped make it a pleasant surprise. It’s a big, ambitious effort with real plot lines and great action, and it’s nice to see everyone together again. The regular all-star cast gives us more of the…
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Lucy (2014)
Hokey story, hokey characters. This is what Luc Besson does. He goes for cool and intense, throwing logic and real drama out the window and ending up with something that’s cartoonish and silly.
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Bronson (2008)
The whole celebrity in prison thing was reminiscent of Chopper, the characters in the crazy house reminded me of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and the confessionals to the camera were similar to the ones in JCVD. There’s no denying Hardy’s intensity. His performance is brutal and raw, and…
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Zootopia (2016)
Not as smart as some of the other Pixar movies, but cute nonetheless. Yes, these comparisons of Disney/Pixar collaborations to the original Pixar classics will continue. I fear that some of Pixar’s wit and heart is slowly being replaced by Disney’s safer, more generic characters and stories. The sloths are…
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Vacation (2015)
About as good as you could do, I guess. Helms channels Chevy for his performance, which is fun but a bit weird since he wasn’t a goofball in the original movies.
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Into the Blue 2: The Reef (2009)
A throwaway thriller with beautiful people, actually not as bad as it could have been. Vandervoort is delicious.
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Papillon (1973)
Experimental and a little bit awkward, which is owed to the era in which it was filmed. But the greatest flaw is that the story is a bit aimless. I know that anti-heroes were popular around this time, but there’s almost no character development and no reason that we should…
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Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
A fine adventure with pretty good pacing and character development for the 1930’s. Was this one of the first real adventure movies? Gable’s good, isn’t he? Laughton is wonderfully horrible and a big reason for the film’s dramatic success. What an amazing story, especially with descendants of the original mutineers…
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Ip Man 3 (2015)
A worthy sequel. Nice and long and beautifully shot, like the others from the series. An example of how some decent writing and characters can take a kung fu movie to the next level. The relationships are complex, but they work and have real emotion. Dramatically, Wing-sing’s death sometime before…
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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 2,375 reviews now. This makes me cool or a complete dork, depending on your perspective.
Some of these reviews contain spoilers, so if that bothers you, don't read!
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