M. Night Shyamalan movies make great trailers. He’s all about the high-concept hook—an easy-to-explain premise that sucks you in right away. The thing that the movie studio is selling this time out is that “The Happening,” starring Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel, is his first rated-R effort. I have to admit, the idea perked my […]
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The one and only thing the new Adam Sandler vehicle “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” has going for it is that it is so profoundly ridiculous, so utterly devoid of substance, that it’s hard to level any serious criticism at the film. Supernaturally gifted Israeli secret agent Zohan (Sandler) has tired of killing and […]
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An out-of-place “Law & Order”-style opening narration clues you in that “The Strangers” was “inspired by real events.” The authoritative voice goes on to tell you some statistics about violent crime (as the movie prints them for us to read as well) before ending with the shocking admission that, in this case, nobody really knows […]
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First things first, I have to declare a serious bias against “Sex and the City.” I have very publicly stated, to both friends and strangers, my curiously strong dislike of majority of the principle cast, and my objection to the general tone and to the repulsively materialistic center of the popular TV series and its […]
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I love movies about the power of movies. Believe me, I’m not a film critic because I think there’s a lot of money in it. I review movies because they hold this strange and exciting power over me and they have ever since I was a kid—the power to ignite the imagination. U.K. import “Son […]
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For all the fans out there still reeling from the fallout and disappointment caused by the profoundly unsatisfying “Star Wars” prequels let me quell your fears… this isn’t that. Remember kids, George Lucas’ name is attached to both franchises, but at the end of the day these are Stephen Spielberg movies. Sure, Lucas wrote the […]
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[Rock Fist Way Up] Remember when you were a kid and you discovered the joys of coloring books? If you were like me, you just wanted to fill in the spaces between those rigid black and white lines. But there was always that showoff whiz kid who used every one of those 64 Crayons and […]
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What better actor to play a hard-drinking billionaire playboy than Robert Downey, Jr.—whose own well-publicized brushes with the law inform every scene he’s in? The actor’s real-life troubles serve as a kind of shorthand to the lead character on display, and it helps make “Iron Man” the smartest kind of dumb comic book movie. What we have […]
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With a title like “Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay,” it would seem that the makers of its equally ridiculously-titled predecessor “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle” had returned with a more politically flavored sequel—one that expanded the racial stereotype humor of the first to and set their comic sights a little higher. […]
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This is truly the worst type of film to review. “88 Minutes” is neither the worst film I’ve ever seen, nor is it in any way notable, remarkable, or original. This movie is why some critics use a rating system that allows them to call this what it is…a rent-it-on-DVD-some-sad-lonely-night-out-of-boredom-or-sheer-desperation movie. Or better yet, it’s […]
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Director/star Morgan Spurlock’s new documentary “Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?” is a lot like singer/songwriter Ben Folds’ solo debut record, “Rockin’ the Suburbs.” If that sounds like a strange analogy, let me explain. Spurlock, whose 2004 movie “Super Size Me” blindsided the fast food industry and the box office, making a huge […]
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Jason Segel follows Seth Rogen as the next Judd Apatow-produced regular to be an unlikely leading man and show off solid writing chops—this time, in the same movie. Following the forgettable “Drillbit Taylor,” this raunchy and sweet romantic comedy shows that as long as Apatow keeps mining the cast and crews of his old TV […]
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The first thing I will promise from this review is that there will be no bad football puns—no “Clooney fumbles at the goal line,” no “quarterback runs wrong play from pigskin playbook,” no “director scores a touchdown but misses the extra point.” I just won’t do it, you hear? I won’t stoop to that level, […]
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Martin Scorsese already has one definitive rock concert film under his belt, and with his new Rolling Stones documentary “Shine A Light,” which chronicles the legendary band’s two-night stand at New York’s Beacon Theater, he delivers another. “Shine A Light” actually provides the perfect bookend to 1978’s “The Last Waltz”—a movie that featured The Band […]
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In “21,” the lastest feature from “Legally Blonde” director Robert Luketic, Jim Sturgess (“Across The Universe”) plays Ben Campbell, a genius at M.I.T. who has been accepted to Harvard Medical School, but doesn’t know how he’s going to pay for it. So, right off the bat the premise is flawed. I’m going to go out […]
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