Browsing Category Movie Reviews

Deadfall

Oh man! This is so bad! This film is so badly written and directed that it would suck even if it was a TV movie. The only reason it was made is because itā€™s the first film of Francis Ford Coppolaā€™s nephew Christopher. Itā€™s about a con man who accidentally kills his father/partner during a scam and then goes to work for his uncle Lou,…

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Unfaithful

I love doing these reviews, but they donā€™t pay the bills. In fact, I still have to pay to see most movies, so I donā€™t bother seeing movies that are obviously not worth my time. As for what I do see, it can come down to a bunch of factors: an interesting synopsis, a cool looking trailer, a filmmaker whose work I admire, actors Iā€™m…

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Big Daddy

One of the things Iā€™m proud of as a film critic is that Iā€™m able to enjoy all kinds of movies. I donā€™t mean that Iā€™m too easily please; itā€™s just that I can appreciate the virtues of certain big blockbusters like I do for the classy arthouse pics. Hence, I donā€™t take part in the near-universal vendetta of reviewers against SNL alumn Adam Sandler….

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In Good Company

ā€œI totally phoned in that Dennis Quaid movie!ā€ So said Topher Grace in Oceanā€™s Twelve, but donā€™t take him seriously. Iā€™ve yet to see the guy be less than charming and hilarious on screen. Even in forgettable crap like Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, he manages to be entertaining and likable. Here he doesnā€™t have to worry about being the only bright spot in…

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Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

I was born in 1980. As a kid, I watched a lot of cartoons, I played video games (Atari, Nintendo, and eventually Super NES), I collected comic books, and I was into action movies something fierce. As I grew older, I also became a huge fan of music and of, well, girls. The above is not a self-indulgent intro but a way of telling you…

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UHF

Where the hell has ā€œWeird Alā€ Yankovic been? Besides an offhand reference in last yearā€™s ā€œGhost Worldā€, I havenā€™t heard of him since he released the amusingly titled album ā€œRunning with Scissorsā€ back in 1999. I always had a special fondness for Yankovicā€™ brand of silliness, whether it be on record, on stage, in his always inspired music videos or on his sadly short-lived subversive…

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Monica la Mitraille

This Quebec-made gangster movie is based on the true story of ā€œMachine Gun Mollyā€, a young woman born on the wrong side of the Main who made headlines in the 1960s during a spree of bank robberies. While not quite glorifying the notorious criminal, the film does attempt to make us understand that Monique Sparvieriā€™s choices were limited. For this uneducated girl to overcome poverty,…

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Closer

When perverted dermatologist Larry (Clive Owen) asks angelic stripper Alice (Natalie Portman) what she thinks of photograph Anna (Julia Roberts)ā€™s pictures, she answers that ā€œitā€™s a lieā€, a ā€œbunch of sad strangers photographed beautifullyā€ so the art gallery crowd can feel better about it. The implication, it seems, is that ā€œCloserā€ wonā€™t go for that lie, that it will show sad people without making them…

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Vertigo

This is one of the single most masterful pictures ever made. I had the privilege of first seeing it as it was meant to be watched, i.e. in a movie theater in a grandiose, newly restored 70mm Vistavision print when the film was re-released in 1996. I had never been so stirred by a movie, and have rarely been since to that level. ā€œVertigoā€ is…

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The Karate Kid

A remake of ā€œThe Karate Kidā€? Produced by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith and starring their son? Sounds like a pointless, ego-driven, ā€œletā€™s cash in on the nostalgia factor while also giving our boy the chance to be the lead in a movieā€ venture, right? Maybe, but after having seen it, I can assure you that whatever the producersā€™ intentions were, the end result is…

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