Posted June 11, 2014in Film Review
“Edge of Tomorrow” 2 stars Rated PG-13 113 minutes Action Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton All high-concept, but affording only minimal entertainment reward by way of its stale ghost-in-the-machine storyline, “Edge of Tomorrow” is the “Groundhog Day” of sci-fi movies. Based on a Japanese novel (“All You Need
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Posted June 04, 2014in Film Review
“A Million Ways to Die in the West” 3 stars Rated R 116 minutes Comedy Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson Of the hundred or so gags, jokes and one-liners that comic genius Seth MacFarlane throws at the wall over the course of his bawdy and sometimes grotesque western
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Posted May 28, 2014in Film Review
“The Dance of Reality” 5 stars Not Rated 130 minutes Drama Starring: Brontis Jodorowsky, Pamela Flores, Jeremias Herskovits After a 23-year hiatus from making feature films — his last was “The Rainbow Thief,” a work-for-hire film from 1990 starring Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif that he disowned after it was
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Posted May 21, 2014in Film Review
“Belle” 4 stars Rated PG 88 minutes Drama Starring: Gugu Mbatha-Raw Matthew Goode, Emily Watson However fated to be inexorably linked to “12 Years a Slave” — by mere virtue of its slave-related subplot — “Belle” is an accomplished period drama firmly in line with the top-drawer production values and
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Posted May 14, 2014in Film Review
“Godzilla” 1 star Rated PG-13 123 minutes Action Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston Further confirmation that no one in Hollywood knows how to tell a story on film anymore, “Godzilla” starts out promising enough before slipping into a snooze-fest by the end of its first act. A cool
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Posted May 07, 2014in Film Review
“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” 2 stars Rated PG-13 141 minutes Action Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx Even the nerdiest members of that long-dead-gone cultural movement known as fanboys will admit that rebooting Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” is/was a mistake. It’s bad enough that the franchise lost Raimi, along with
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Posted April 30, 2014in Film Review
“Young & Beautiful” 5 stars Not Rated 95 minutes Drama Starring: Marine Vacth, Géraldine Pailhas, Frédéric Pierrot For his latest filmic exploration, François Ozon addresses a complex mix of sexual, personal, social, familial, gender-based and technological issues, inexorably honing in on a striking synthesis of generational catharsis. That he does
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Posted April 23, 2014in Film Review
“Transcendence” 3 stars Rated PG-13 119 minutes Drama Starring: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman In spite of its many and assorted plot-holes, “Transcendence” is a captivating sci-fi movie thanks to strong performances from a stable of reliable actors and a romantic hook at the heart of its high-concept trappings.
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Posted April 16, 2014in Film Review
“The Unknown Known” 4 stars Rated PG-13 96 minutes Documentary Starring: Donald Rumsfeld, Errol Morris, Kenn Medeiros Errol Morris meets his match in Donald Rumsfeld. The notoriously contentious documentarian, whose probing interviews with 1960s secretary of defense Robert McNamara form the finest political documentary ever made (“The Fog of War:
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Posted April 09, 2014in Film Review
“Under the Skin” 2 stars Rated R 108 minutes Drama Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay More visually accomplished than its malnourished narrative supports, “Under the Skin” works well as a foxy sci-fi movie for stoners. It would look great projected on a giant screen at a rave
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