| Movie Reviews |
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| Monster in Law |
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Monster in Law marks Jane Fonda’s return to the big screen after a fifteen year absence and Jennifer Lopez’s return to film after the Bennifer debacle. Monster in Law tells the story of Viola (Fonda) a Barbara Walters-esque reporter who loses her job to a young, blonde skinny Minnie who she thought was there to fetch her coffee. Upon learning this news she has an on air breakdown and after some time in a psyche hospital she leaves only to learn that her only child Kevin (Michael Vartan) is going to marry some girl (Lopez) that she has never met. » Read the full story |
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| Kingdom of Heaven |
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Kingdom of Heaven is Ridley Scott’s way of trying to recapture the success of Gladiator and to turn Orlando Bloom into the international sensation and instant leading man that Crowe became after is Oscar winning performance in that Gladiator. I don’t fault Bloom for trying. I know he had to be thinking how could he lose? Sure it’s an epic drama and none of the other recently released historical epics (including his Troy) have come anywhere near the success of Gladiator, but Dreams has Ridley Scott, Gladiator’s mastermind at the helm, he couldn’t go wrong…right? » Read the full story |
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| Sith Connects the Dots |
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A review of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. If you have not yet seen the movie read this at your own risk. It does contain information which might spoil your enjoyment of the film. » Read the full story |
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| Crash |
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Rarely do I find myself equally liking and disliking a movie but that is exactly where I find myself with Crash, Paul Haggis’ first film following the critically acclaimed Million Dollar Baby. Crash follows a group of people in L.A. as their lives collide unexpectedly and violently over a forty-eight hour period. » Read the full story |
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| Man on Fire: How Sound Tells the Story |
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* WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW* “I’m the sheep that got lost, Madre.” And so goes the description John W. Greasy offers of himself in Tony Scott’s Man on Fire (2003). John Greasy (Denzel Washington) is a lost soul trying to find his way back to the light, back to living. He is a man seeking redemption for the atrocities he committed in the past as a black ops agent for the government. His light comes in the form of Lupita Ramos (Dakota Fanning) the young charge he is set to protect. As he slowly finds his way again, finds a reason for living, it is suddenly and violently lost to him as a heinous kidnapping plot goes array and the young girl is ripped away from him. Scott’s use of sound acts as a way to document Greasy’s evolution through the film and highlights major turning points in the movie. » Read the full story |
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| A Look at the Heart of American Beauty |
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Sam Mendes’ darkly comic portrayal of suburbia in his first movie, American Beauty (1999) takes a hard look at what happens when you’ve accomplished the American Dream only to realize that it isn’t enough. Lester, the film’s anti-hero wakes up one morning deep in a mid life crisis and decides that he wants something more then the life he has carved out for himself and proceeds to search for that something and in the process, disrupts the lives of those around him, particularly his wife Caroline. Through his use of color and surrealist elements Mendes shows how passionless and unhappy Caroline and Lester are in their seemingly perfect world and how true happiness lies not in doing what’s expected or in material goods but in finding the beauty in being true to yourself. » Read the full story |
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| Heart of Platinum |
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In the film "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," the actors, director and screenwriters (including the late Doug Adams, author of the book) all manage to be fairly competent. And in its own way this film is a legitimate take on the “Hitchhiker’s” story, especially if you like happy endings. But at its heart, it’s more platinum than gold, it’s just not the “Hitchhiker’s” that we all know and love. » Read the full story |
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| A Lot Like Love |
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Ashton Kutcher isn’t a great actor. Let’s face it he isn’t going to win any acting awards anytime in the near future. However he is quite competent at playing variations of Kelso the character that made him famous on the hit FOX series That 70’s Show. Kelso is bumbling, inept and manages to posses an uncanny combination of insecurity and confidence. Kutcher’s film roles don’t stray much from that formula and his character Oliver in his new movie A Lot Like Love isn’t an exception to the rule. While being light-years ahead of Kelso in the intelligence department he has all the other characteristics that make him just as endearing and lovable and fun to watch. » Read the full story |
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| The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy |
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The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy had the potential to be the best movie of the year. And yes, I sincerely mean that. Really, look at all it had going for it: it’s based on a classic book that has a cult following that could rival the Lord of the Rings trilogy. A very funny and talented cast that includes Tim Freeman (BBC hit series The Office) as everyman Arthur Dent, Sam Rockwell as the two headed, split brain, charming President of the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblevrox, Alan Rickman as the voice of the paranoid android Marvin who incidentally resembles an oversized storm trooper and Mos Def as the quirky and lovable, towel wielding alien and author of the guide, Ford Perfect. Throw in the fact that Jim Henson’s Puppet Shop created all of the aliens and creatures in the film so none of them end up looking like bad CGI you should have a innovative, funny, and ingenious movie on your hands….but that’s not what happened, not quite anyway. » Read the full story |
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| Don't Let Them Sell You Sin |
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I have found nothing more surprising in recent days than the torrent of ultra positive reviews for Robert Rodriguez’s interpretation of Frank Miller’s Graphic (with a capital G) Novel Sin City. It literally astounds me. I wonder now if I didn’t accidentally wander into the wrong theater, in the wrong alternate dimension to see a movie only half as good as the one everyone is raving about. But the clips they show, and the elements they describe seem consistent with what I saw, so the theory that I saw the wrong movie won’t hold up. » Read the full story |