“The Astronaut Farmer” is not a movie for cynics. From a laughable title with a jokey double meaning to a formulaic plot that charges ahead seemingly unaware of how ridiculous it is, this is one bold movie. The latest strange concoction from the filmmaking duo known as the Polish brothers (Michael writes and directs, Mark […]
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Browsing through YouTube.com at work today, I came across some clips of the new comedy “Reno 911!:Miami.” The movie’s studio put them there to promote the movie during its ever-so-crucial opening weekend. The tagline attached to the clips read: “Borat with a Badge.” Yeesh. It’s typical marketing—piggy back a new film with a mega-successful one […]
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So, this years Oscars are even less exciting than they have been of late. With Helen Mirren’s almost certain stronghold in the Best Actress catagory and Marty Scorsese getting the Russell Crowe treatment for director – winning in subsequent years for a lesser performance, after having been thoroughly dissed on previous more deserving work – […]
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Scene-Stealers.com is having an Oscar Party AND I’m even helping you out in the biggest categories worth the most number of points. Could there be a nicer host? It’s that simple; that clear–I want you to win big. Come for the money, come for the poster giveaway, come for the drinks, the big screen, and […]
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For a movie that places so much emphasis on the soul, “Ghost Rider” is conspicuously devoid of one. “Ghost Rider” is another ham-fisted Marvel comic adaptation from Mark Steven Johnson, the writer/director who made “Daredevil” such a tedious bore four years ago. Johnson has the uncanny ability to make the extraordinary seem ordinary, as evidenced […]
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From its handsome black-and-white images and heavy use of shadows to its low-key lighting and back-projected car backgrounds, “The Good German” is a loving tribute to the noir melodramas of the 1940s and 50s. It’s a shame that the film can’t muster the emotional weight that marks the best of those movies. Blame the dense […]
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Steven Soderbergh’s new noir melodrama tribute “The Good German” starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett inspires Eric and J.D. to take a detour of their own, and their true feelings about each other are revealed. Click on the photo for the Windows Media version of this on-camera review.
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George Cukor may be the prototypical “women’s director” of Hollywood’s classic period, but nobody can write witty, sympathetic roles for modern women like Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar. And where Cukor had a rousing multi-picture partnership with Katherine Hepburn, Almodovar again teams with one of his favorite heroines, Penélope Cruz, in the genre-busting new film “Volver.” […]
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If you think about it, fairy tales have always been pretty brutal. There’s Hansel and Gretel—two abandoned children who are kidnapped by an old woman who plans to devour them. Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother are both eaten by a wolf, and are miraculously rescued only after a woodcutter slices open the wolf’s […]
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This past Tuesday morning the Oscar nominations for movies released in 2006 were announced. Just one week after the triumphant “Dreamgirls” win for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes, it seemed that the Broadway-adapted musical was a shoo-in for a Best Picture nod. As Borat would say, “Not so much!” I […]
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What is cool? Thirteen years ago, it was Quentin Tarantino’s self-conscious black comedy “Pulp Fiction.” Four years later, Guy Ritchie pumped up the body count and number of quirky hitmen in the adrenalized “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.” I may not be the all-knowing arbiter of what is cool and what’s not, but I […]
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Forest Whitaker recently won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of unpredictable Ugandan President Idi Amin in the film “The Last King of Scotland.” Amin was a brutal dictator who reigned from 1971-79, and was responsible for the killing of as many as 500,000 Ugandans during his vicious and erratic rule of Uganda. Amin did, […]
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A famous U.S. war propaganda film from 1945 depicted Japanese soldiers as a relentless mass of people with identical faces and a singular purpose. Called “Know Your Enemy- Japan,” it was directed by Frank Capra (“It’s A Wonderful Life”) and was withdrawn quickly when the fighting in the Pacific ceased. This opinion of the Japanese […]
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“Notes on a Scandal” has everything required of a great film – a smart and edgy script, competent, articulate direction and a story line that doesn’t give itself up inside of twenty minutes. But the thing that makes this film so memorable is the top notch work of Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, who give […]
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In 2003, Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines made a now-famous offhand comment about President Bush at a London concert. “We’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.” Coming just as the U.S. military was gearing up to attack Iraq, it was real bad timing. The country music lovers back home who […]
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