“Fever Pitch” is clearly a Peter and Bobby Farrelly movie. It is easily identifiable not for the gross-out humor that made the directors’ names in “There’s Something About Mary” and “Dumb and Dumber,” but instead for the awkward sentimentality of recent misfires “Shallow Hal” and “Stuck on You.” Like those, “Fever Pitch” is chock full […]
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Maverick independent filmmaker Robert Rodriguez co-directs this hard-boiled comic book adaptation of “Sin City” with its author, Frank Miller. Blood runs white, red, and in one case, yellow as Rodriguez weaves three hyper-violent tales, each with a different damaged anti-hero looking for retribution, all set in the testosterone-charged and super-corrupt world of Basin City. The […]
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In the opening scene of “Kung Fu Hustle,” smartly dressed crooks with top hats and axes cruelly murder a rival and his crew on a stylized, neon-drenched street. The slain mobster’s girl is told she will not be harmed, but as she walks away, she is shot in the back. Then, typical of the wildly […]
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Henry Darger was a sorry saint who fought most of his life trying to protect children. It was not an easy task, because the evil John Manley and his child-enslaving Glandelinian army were always on the hunt for the seven angelic Vivian sisters. Darger himself always seemed just one step behind; never sure whether he […]
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“A Hard Day’s Night.” “The Last Waltz.” “This is Spinal Tap.” “Almost Famous.” The combination of rock n’ roll and movies has lead to some truly great films and classic moments. But for every “Spinal Tap,” there is a “KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park.” Movies that revolve around the music industry are even […]
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“Life begins with the knowledge of death,” says U.S. Marine sergeant Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) in the new psychological thriller “The Jacket.” If that’s true, then what does life end with? In Jack’s case, the answer is blunt trauma to the head. Again. “I was 27 years old the first time I died,” he says […]
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Director Sam Raimi produced last year’s surprise horror hit “The Grudge” starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. This weekend, his GhostHouse Pictures imprint follows up that box office champ with “Boogeyman,” another PG-13 low-budgeter that is aimed at the same crowd. Raimi seems uniquely qualified to oversee this new factory line of scary movies. After all, it […]
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Dear Robert DeNiro, For the sake of other living screen legends and film fans everywhere, please do another American Express commercial when you are short on cash, and not another full-length feature that insults the intelligence of all involved, especially the audience. Your new suspense thriller “Hide and Seek” made me very sad and uncomfortable, […]
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There’s a cameo in “Ocean’s Twelve” where Topher Grace plays himself as a bratty, self-important actor apologizing to Brad Pitt for trashing his property after an all-nighter. In reference to “In Good Company,” he tells Pitt, “I totally phoned in that Dennis Quaid movie.” The real joke, however, is that that Dennis Quaid movie is […]
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Is there an accurate way to sum up the entire past year in movies? No, there never truly is, but now is the time of the year that movie critics and entertainment reporters try do just that. It certainly was the year of the unexpected blockbusters, as independently released films like “The Passion of the […]
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I have seen all but one of the scheduled biopics that are opening for this year’s winter Oscar rush, but I have serious doubts that there will be a more engaging and exciting biography this year than The Aviator, Martin Scorsese’s breathless take on Howard Hughes’ glory years. Like Jamie Foxx in Ray, it features […]
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Thanks to the success of recent musicals like 2001 Best Picture nominee “Moulin Rouge” and 2002 Best Picture winner “Chicago,” more have been making their way to the big screen. However, the latest big-budget extravaganza, a new film adaptation of “Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera,” won’t be winning any Oscar kudos come […]
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Flor, a proud and attractive Mexican woman who speaks no English, moves to the United States with her daughter in search of a better life and ends up working for an upper-class Los Angeles family made up of oddball characters. The premise sounds like a bad sitcom pilot, but with writer/director James L. Brooks at […]
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As soon as the nasal and wholly inappropriate voice of Ryan Reynolds (“National Lampoon’s Van Wilder”) as Hannibal King opened the newest installment in the “Blade” series, I sensed that this would be a different kind of movie than its two bloody fun predecessors. And, boy, was I right. “Blade: Trinity” is all the bloody, […]
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Writer/director Alexander Payne and his collaborator/co-writer Jim Taylor got no less an acting legend than Jack Nicholson to move to Omaha, Nebraska for over a month to shoot his last foray into low-key character examinations, 2002’s Oscar-nominated “About Schmidt.” Before that, he revitalized Matthew Broderick’s career and made a star out of a budding young […]
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