Director Michael Bay throws audiences a curveball with his latest film Pain and Gain as he actually tells a story that revolves around human beings rather than alien robots. After conquering the international box office and rupturing an untold number of eardrums with his Transformers films, he brings his manic style to a stranger-than-fiction tale […]
film and movie reviews
Posted inArts & Culture
Pines a haunting look at the sins of two fathers
There’s no question that writer/director Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines, is an ambitious film, the sort of work that intelligent filmgoers long to see. It tackles profound themes in an intelligent and artful way. He sets out to make a masterpiece with this Modern Greek tragedy and he nearly succeeds. This tale about […]
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Narrative déjà vu haunts Oblivion
There’s no question that Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion is a well-crafted film, sporting a unique vision of a dystopian future that delivers on the promise the director showed with his first movie TRON: Legacy. The visuals he employs are imaginative and crisply rendered as is the flair with which he presents them. Too bad the same […]
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Violent Dead for true horror fans only
The poster for the reboot of Sam Raimi’s cult horror movie The Evil Dead (1981) promises that it is “the most terrifying film you will ever experience.” Of course, there’s more than a bit of hyperbole at play here but there’s no doubt that it’s likely the goriest film you’ll ever see as first-time director […]
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Host’s trite execution
Author Stephenie Meyer does the same to Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers with The Host as what she did to the vampire myth in Twilight – namely dumb it down with a sappy teen romance to the point where it’s nearly impossible to take any of it seriously. Which is frustrating because beneath […]
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Breakers an unexpectedly sobering look at today’s youth
The first surprise of the 2013 film year, Harmony Korine’s 2012 Spring Breakers is a bold look at today’s younger generation, portraying them as a group who has no firm connection with reality, content to exist in a hedonistic lifestyle in which all of their needs are met without taking any responsibility for any of […]
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Change is good in The Croods
While Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders’ The Croods shows you can teach an old caveman new tricks, it also drives home the point that some things never change, namely that teenagers will rebel and that fathers have had a hard time letting go of their little girls for time immemorial. Clever and at times a […]
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The Call not worth taking
If there’s one thing I realized while watching Brad Anderson’s The Call, it’s that a documentary on 911 call centers and the people who work there would probably make for a fascinating film. A look at the triumphs and tragedies they experience, the stress they deal with and how the system works would probably help […]
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More to Admission
About 15 minutes into Paul Weitz’s fine new film Admission, Princeton admissions officer Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) is put through the ringer by a group of exceptionally smart high schoolers who question the need for higher education and wonder why the esteemed institution she works for remains behind the times in its stance on certain […]
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Wonderstone encourages us to be amazed
My obsession with film began at an early age, and I got my hands on every book I could find on the subject at the local library. It was my father’s fault that I had gotten hooked on cinema, and while he had no objections to my mania, he warned that if I learned how […]
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Raimi and Franco save new Oz
Is Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful a foolhardy endeavor to cash in on one of the most beloved films of all time or an honorable addition to the folklore of this classic slice of Americana? Actually, it’s a little bit of both and then some. This Disney production contains more than its share […]
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Johnson shows surprising range in compelling Snitch
Based on a true story, Ric Roman Waugh’s Snitch is far better than it has any right to be. As a vehicle for Dwayne Johnson, going a far way toward putting his “Rock” image in the past here, it includes elaborate action scenes. However, there are far fewer explosive moments than usual for this kind […]
