I’ve got a couple things to say about this older-generation romantic comedy. First, it’s good to see Diane Keaton in a peppy, quirky role again. She and Jack Nicholson are having a hell of a good time in “Something’s Gotta Give,” and it shows. Director/writer Nancy Meyers has fashioned a populist script from the idea […]
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At last, after three years, the ten and a half-hour sweeping and majestic triumph that is Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy has come to a close. The visionary achievement that has been brought to fruition here cannot be underestimated. The three “LOTR” movies are classics for the ages, like J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. I […]
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Peter and Bobby Farrelly made their reputation with two movies. “Dumb and Dumber” was so dumb that critics everywhere blasted it for bringing gross-out humor to a new low. “There’s Something About Mary” was a near perfect meld of that same brand of zaniness and a new sort of sweetness. “Stuck on You” is their […]
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One of the reasons I enjoy going to the movies is to have new worlds opened up to me. I like my imagination to be stirred, and nothing can do that as quickly and deeply as a movie. Sure, I can read a book about the last of Japan’s magnificent samurai warriors struggling to uphold […]
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Considering the somewhat familiar territory that Catherine Hardwicke’s first movie “Thirteen” covers, it is no small feat that she took home the Directing Award at this year’s Sundance film festival. After seeing the film, I can see why. Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed play two thirteen year-old (go figure!) girls in Los Angeles going […]
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It would not be my first choice, if I were head of a major studio, to set my big action picture almost entirely on the H.M.S. Surprise, an English naval warship sailing the Atlantic Ocean during the Napoleonic wars in 1805. But if I had to pick any one Hollywood star to bring depth, credibility, […]
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Will Ferrell is the kind of comedic actor I root for. He was one of the only good things about “Saturday Night Live” for years. When he was popular enough to break out into movies, it was in forgettable SNL spin-offs like “A Night at the Roxbury,” “Superstar,” and “The Ladies Man.” He had funny, […]
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So I sit down at the screening of “The Matrix Revolutions,” the slightly less anticipated of the two “Matrix” sequels that came out this year, and the jackass sitting next to my brother says, without prompt, “Hey I hear Neo’s gonna fight a million Agent Smiths this time. My buddy saw it this morning.” We […]
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In the ads currently running for director Clint Eastwood’s newest film, “Mystic River,” I’ve seen the word “masterpiece” used. I’ve also seen that this is Sean Penn’s “role of a lifetime.” I don’t agree with either of these statements. “Mystic River” is a good movie. But if you want to see a Clint Eastwood masterpiece, […]
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Joel and Ethan Coen (“Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski”) create a very distinctive style of movie. Most often, critics complain that it is precisely too much style that gets in the way of connecting with their movies. For “Intolerable Cruelty,” there is a typical Coen mix of oddball characters and situations. But when you wed that […]
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Reaffirming his status as a grade-A talented filmmaker after a six-year hiatus, Quentin Tarantino scores big with “Kill Bill:Volume 1,” a fun, violent, trashy masterpiece. And it doesn’t even have an ending. From the very opening, in a disturbing scene featuring a blood-spattered bride (Uma Thurman) who receives a gunshot to the head, Tarantino is […]
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Jack Black, when let loose to do his thing, is hilarious. As the front man for hard rocking humorist legends Tenacious D, he brings foul-mouthed rock bravado to new levels. In “The School of Rock,” the PG version is on display. And while it’s not the full-on JB, it’s more than he’s given in a […]
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This latest Woody Allen misfire features Jason Biggs in the lead role of a neurotic joke writer and Christina Ricci as his oddball girlfriend. Their rocky relationship from beginning to end is chronicled with all the newness of an REO Speedwagon song. Allen has mined this same set up for many movies before, but the […]
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It’s rare when a movie can be this subtle, and yet also completely engrossing. Sofia Coppola has written and directed another superb tale of loneliness and alienation, following 1999’s excellent “The Virgin Suicides.” I’ve read that Coppola wrote this movie with star Bill Murray in mind. And it’s easy to see why. At times, he […]
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With 3 hours to kill before a show in Little Rock, Ark., I entered a theater with my band-mates to see this movie, mostly because the ads on TV featured positive quotes from Peter Jackson and Premiere magazine. It was a gamble, for sure. But every now and then it’s kind of fun to go […]
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