Posted April 10, 2013in Film Review
“42” 4 stars Rated PG-13 Biography Starring: Chadwick Boseman, T.R. Knight, Harrison Ford Writer-director Brian Helgeland’s methodically balanced biopic about revered baseball legend Jackie Robinson manages a near-impossible feat of offering all things to all people. Baseball fans, civil rights followers and casual filmgoers will be rewarded with a film
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Posted April 03, 2013in Film Review
“The Company You Keep” 2 stars Rated R 25 mins. Thriller Starring: Robert Redford, Brit Marling, Stanley Tucci A movie in search of a story, this Robert Redford-directed flop has all the interest and suspense of a piece of burnt toast. The fate of three former members of the American
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Posted March 27, 2013in Film Review
“Strap-On” 3 stars Rated NC-17 152 mins. Drama Trashmeister writer/director John Waters takes ironic comedy and social commentary to an all-time sleazy low in his new movie “Strap-On.” Waters deviates from his Baltimore roots to urban and rural areas of Afghanistan where Maya Stain (played by former SLA member Patty
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Posted March 20, 2013in Film Review
“No” 2 stars Rated R 110 mins. Drama Starring: Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers Gael Garcia Bernal’s television adman-turned-political-commercial-creator Rene Saavedra is such an ethically ambiguous and passive protagonist that “No” falls flat as a piece of wannabe agitprop cinema. Director Pablo Larrain continues his ongoing study of
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Posted March 13, 2013in Film Review
“The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” 3 stars Rated PG-13 100 mins. Comedy Starring: Steve Carell, Luke Vanek, Jim Carrey Artfully satirizing the in-your-face state of modern magic — as practiced by the likes of David Blaine and Criss Angel — while celebrating the cheesy aspects of old school slight-of-hand tricks, “The
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Posted March 06, 2013in Film Review
Phantom 2 stars Rated R 87 mins. Thriller Starring: Ed Harris, Julian Adams, David Duchovny The cinematic offenses committed by the filmmakers of “Phantom” are varied and many. Whoever thought it was a good idea to have Russian characters speak without a Russian accent has some fundamental lessons to learn
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Posted February 20, 2013in Film Review
“Beautiful Creatures” 3 stars Rated PG-13 124 mins. Drama Starring: Alice Englert, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson An imaginative, adolescent, gothic romance, “Beautiful Creatures” arrives with considerably more camp and intellectual humor than the “Twilight” franchise to which “Creatures” is sure to be compared. Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons trade off
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Posted February 13, 2013in Film Review
“A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III” 1 star Rated R 86 mins. Comedy Starring: Charlie Sheen, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray Roman Coppola’s ’70s-era scattershot comic apologia for Charlie Sheen’s sins of womanizing and drug abuse has a train-wreck appeal that makes it moderately interesting to look at
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Posted February 06, 2013in Film Review
“Side Effects” 5 stars Rated R 105 mins. Drama Starring: Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law Steven Soderbergh’s last feature before his retirement from the movies (he’ll still do theater and TV) is a milestone psychological thriller comparable to Hitchcock’s best work. Operating with a deft screenplay by recent collaborator
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Posted January 30, 2013in Film Review
“Stand Up Guys” 3 stars Rated R 94 mins. Comedy Starring: Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Christopher Walken “Stand Up Guys” is a respectable compact crime drama comedy about camaraderie among a passing generation of retired wiseguys. There’s still some honor among thieves. Christopher Walken, Al Pacino and Alan Arkin play
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