“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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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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Renee Zellweger is back as novelist Helen Fielding’s hugely popular character in “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.” It is the sequel to 2001’s worldwide smash comedy “Bridget Jones‚ Diary.” And, although it is not quite as funny or believable as the first movie, the lovable Ms. Jones just squeaks by on her own (and […]
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Before the advent of tourism as industry, traveling was more than ready-made resorts, staged photos and crutch Lonely Planet guides. “The Motorcycle Diaries” explores the age-old soul of travel—travel as means to find yourself. (Ironic, then, that the film proposes the idea that traveling and experiencing the world firsthand enriches the soul, and to get […]
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The horror movie hasn’t been really scary for quite some time now. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Kevin Williamson-penned modern slasher send-ups like “Scream”, so lately, movies like the awful “Cabin Fever” and that lame “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” re-imagining have had to suffice. The newest trend of re-making Japanese horror flicks that weren’t that […]
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Slumped on the floor of an elevator with his arch nemesis, Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman) has reached a higher level of peace with himself. It has been a rough last couple of days. He’s been deliberately and repeatedly hit in the face by a big red punching ball. He’s been dunked in a puddle of […]
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Midway through “Friday Night Lights”, worn out Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) tells his struggling quarterback Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) that there hasn’t been much difference in the way he feels lately, no matter whether he’s just won or lost a game. It’s the defining moment of the film, and it sets a surprisingly […]
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