Man on Fire

After spending 16 years in the military and doing extensive counter- terrorism work, John Creasy (Denzel Washington) finds himself at the end of his rope, an alcoholic has been who wonders whether God will forgive him for the horrors he’s done for his country. Then one day when he’s down in Mexico to visit old army buddy Rayburn (Christopher Walken), he’s introduced to a wealthy…

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Hard Target

  New Orleans. All kind of people call it home, black or white, rich or poor. That’s where a bunch of evil businessmen are putting together big-scale hunts in which the targets are more-or-less willing bums. They’re picked up on the street, interviewed to see if anyone would notice their death and then offered a big load of cash to be preys. The bum has…

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Penelope

    Penelope is a fairytale movie about a young bourgeois girl, born with a pig’s snout for a nose, on a quest for freedom from her overbearing family and alienating face. While at first the film’s lightweight plot and cuddly mood are disarmingly charming, things quickly start to lose steam and feel a little too familiar as Penelope borrows and channels the vision of…

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Away We Go

Burt Farlander: I had a dream about Montreal last week. Verona De Tessant: Was I topless in it? Burt Farlander: Yes. From the moment you see this dilapidated shack of a house, you think how could anyone live here? There is a light on inside so someone must live there. Who could possibly though? It looks as though it could fall in on itself at…

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Gilmore Girls Season One

1.1 – “Pilot” Rory: You’re happy. Lorelai: Yeah. Rory: Did you do something slutty? Lorelai: I’m not that happy. In this first episode, the supporting characters are a bit too broad, there’s some unnecessary sitcomish beats and the tone hasn’t been perfected yet, but Lauren Graham’s wisecracking MILF and Alexis Bledel’s witty teenager are instantly adorable and their hyper caffeinated banter is as hilarious as…

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Pump Up the Volume

“Pump Up the Volume” is one of the most powerful movies I’ve ever seen. We gotta be grateful it achieved to even get made. Maybe we gotta thank Christian Slater, whose clout might have helped pass this red hot material by the thick-headed Hollywood types. But still, the movie was merely a bleep on the pop culture radar. In our world where box-office tallies are…

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Peter Pan

This live-action adaptation of the classic story about the boy who wouldn’t grow up will be remembered for a few of its spectacular images more than anything else. Some scenes have a mesmerizing beauty, such as the “fairy ball” and the ensuing moonlit dance shared by Peter Pan (Jeremy Sumpter) and Wendy (Rachel Hurd-Wood in her first role). There is a sense of amazement at…

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Elizabethtown

So the film was badly received at the last Toronto Festival and all but 30% of critics think it’s rotten. Fuck them. I’m here to tell you that if you love movies, music and that amazing girl you thought only existed in dreams, “Elizabethtown” will rock your world. Granted, Cameron Crowe is my favorite working filmmaker (I always assume Tarantino is never gonna get off…

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Where the Wild Things Are

“Let the wild rumpus start!” I hate to do this again, but I have to wonder once more why so many critics, especially in Montreal, seem to think of movies only in literary or theatrical terms. All they can focus on is storytelling, dialogue and themes, as if they were reviewing a book, or actors’ performances, as if they were criticizing a play. Show them…

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Rush Hour 3

Whereas a flick like “The Bourne Ultimatum” surpasses expectations and pushes the boundaries of the genre, this third pic in the “Rush Hour” franchise is content rehashing the same old odd couple, buddy cops, fish out of water formulas that were already well-worn when they showed up in the first flick in 1998. Chris Tucker is still brash, loud-mouthed and either hilarious, obnoxious or both…

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