“RocknRolla” is supposed to be writer/director Guy Ritchie’s return to form. What that means is that his first two movies “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch” were so similar in style and plotting that they defined him as a filmmaker. After two ill-received departures (“Swept Away” and “Revolver”), Ritchie goes back to the […]
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Sometimes the most important traits of a person can be observed from the moments they spend in the background. Director Jonathan Demme’s new verite-style movie “Rachel Getting Married” is at its truest when its characters are hiding on the fringes of an event that’s bigger than them. Well at least its bigger to most all […]
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Say what you will about the manipulation of facts in a Michael Moore-directed documentary, but the man knows how to tell compelling stories. Critics accuse him of hogging too much face time, mounting attack interviews, and staging publicity stunts, and they would all be right. But his films resonate. Not only does Moore cover hot-button […]
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From the trailers, “Blindness” may look like an M. Night Shyamalan event movie where an unexplained supernatural event leads to chaos and it’s all resolved with a twist ending, but it’s actually the kind of movie that could conceivably be shown in a Western Civ course. Like that required 100-level history course, though, the movie […]
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There’s hardly an extended action scene in Ed Harris’ new Western “Appaloosa.” Everybody is such a good shot that almost all the gunfights last about two seconds. Actor/co-writer/director Harris, working from a book by Robert B. Parker, is clearly not worried about modern action conventions. He also knows what classic Westerns should look and sound […]
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I’m not one to get hung up on silly plot devices—as long as there is a very good reason for them. In Christopher Nolan’s remarkable backwards-time thriller “Memento,” you have to accept that Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) has a short-term memory and loses everything every ten minutes or so. That makes it pretty difficult to […]
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“Ghost Town” is the kind of movie that can sink or swim on its casting alone. I mean, it’s not like we haven’t seen this film before: A cranky loner has to step outside of his comfort zone and learn to connect with people again, due to some crazy supernatural coincidence! More specifically, as you […]
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For the on-camera review with clips from the movie, click here. Before the critical triumph of the surprisingly warm-hearted black comedy “Fargo” in 1996, Joel and Ethan Coen’s critics had accused the brothers’ movies of being cold and detached—exercises in cinematic virtuosity, for sure, but lacking empathy for their characters and instead reveling in any […]
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James Marsh’s remarkable documentary “Man on Wire” is a reminder that in a rigid world filled with rules and regulations, true beauty can come from the most indefinable of acts. After French highwire walker Philippe Petit was arrested for walking across the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center in 1974, the press only […]
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The fact that there’s not one believable moment in all of “Hamlet 2” doesn’t mean that it’s not a funny movie. Thanks to the oddball choices of its star Steve Coogan—who plays the most obtuse drama teacher in all of history—sometimes the film moves beyond the stage of trying too hard and into the realm […]
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Satire is a tricky thing, and Ben Stiller used to do a lot more of it than he has lately. The actor is extremely good at playing the put-upon everyman who finds himself in the middle of chaos (“There’s Something About Mary,” “Meet the Parents”), and he’s made a lot of money starring in mainstream […]
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If there was anything left to demystify marijuana use in America, “Pineapple Express” has done its part to satisfy any lingering curiosity. The film’s cavalcade of cinematic depictions of marijuana use and dealing, including a scene with three teenage boys, pretty much guarantees that it won’t be awarded any merit badges from those film and […]
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In this age of procedural crime dramas like “CSI” and “Law & Order: Endless Spinoff Unit,” it’s surprising that “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” chucks all that out the window and is content to rely almost solely on the same faith vs. science debate that Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) […]
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I can’t remember being as excited for the release of any previous animated feature as I was for “Wall-E,” the latest animated masterpiece from the wizards at Pixar Studios and director Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo”). My lofty expectations were easily met and surpassed by the visually magnificent artistry and the thematically challenging storyline. However, it […]
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Well, it’s official. The times have changed drastically since the days of pumped-up muscleheads like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vin Diesel—anybody can be an action hero. And it’s a wonderful thing. Especially in “Wanted,” a movie based off of Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ popular comic book miniseries. The movie strips the comic of most of […]
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