Bradley Cooper as Brian Gilcrest, Emma Stone as Allison Ng and Rachel McAdams as Tracy Woodside in Aloha. PHOTO COURTESY Columbia Pictures Well, it certainly looked good on paper. With a script and direction by Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire) and a cast that features hot as napalm Bradley Cooper as well as Emma Stone, Rachel […]
Movies
Posted inArts & Culture
Madding a glorious, romantic throwback
Carey Mulligan in Far from the Madding Crowd. Unabashedly romantic, sumptuously shot and wonderfully acted, Thomas Vinterberg’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd is the perfect anecdote for the summer movie overload. (Yes, I know the season has just begun, but I’m feeling special effects weary already.) This is the sort of […]
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Ferocious Fury Road a grand vehicular opera
Tom Hardy as Max and Charlize Theron stars as Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road. Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures Like a Road Runner cartoon on steroids – replete with gizmos that surely came from ACME, Inc. – George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road is a glorious ode to vehicular destruction, outdoing the Fast and […]
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Furious 7’s only goal is to thrill
Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner in Furious 7. PHOTO COURTESY Universal Pictures There’s a great deal of anticipation surrounding James Wan’s Furious 7, the latest and posed to be the most lucrative installment in the greatest gearhead franchise in film history. Not only does the director have the unenviable task of trying to top the […]
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McFarland runs a winning course
Carlos Pratts as Thomas and Kevin Costner as Jim White in McFarland, USA. PHOTO COURTESY WALT DISNEY PICTURES Continuing their series of inspirational, true-life sports stories, Disney Pictures’ McFarland USA is a worthy addition to their cannon, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Miracle, The Rookie and Million Dollar Arm. To be sure, these are […]
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Son fails to cast a spell
Ben Barnes as Tom Ward and Jeff Bridges as Master Gregory in Seventh Son. PHOTO COURTESY Universal Pictures Sometimes bad movies happen to good actors. Such is the case with Sergey Bodrov’s Seventh Son, an adaptation of the first book in Joseph Delaney’s The Last Apprentice series – and likely the last. That’s too […]
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Violent: Much ado about little
Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac in A Most Violent Year. Like the only guy at a party who doesn’t get the joke, I’m wondering what it is about J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year that I’m missing. Riding a wave of good reviews (the film is trending 90 percent positive on the Rotten Tomatoes website), […]
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Black or White a flawed but noble look at race
Jillian Estell as Eloise and Kevin Costner as Elliot Anderson in Black or White. PHOTOS COURTESY Relativity Media Much like American Sniper, Mike Binder’s Black or White is likely to draw a disparate number of responses, interpretations and criticisms as it deals with the issue of race relations, a subject in which people are passionate […]
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Paddington stuffed with charm
Michael Bond’s Paddington books were not a part of my childhood, so I went into Paul King’s big screen adaptation of these beloved English children’s stories blissfully ignorant. I’m glad, as it afforded me the pleasure of being pleasantly surprised throughout. “Charming” and “delightful” are overused descriptors where films of this sort are concerned, lazily […]
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Sniper’s aim is true
Kyle Gallner as Winston and Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle in American Sniper. PHOTOS COURTESY WARNER BROS. PICTURES His best and most-assured film since Invictus, Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper covers many themes the filmmaker has touched on over the course of his career. The devastating impact of violence, the importance of community and the irony […]
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Selma: A reminder of sacrifice and struggle
David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. and Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King in Selma. In life, and with releasing films, timing is everything and Ava DuVernay’s Selma could not have opened at a more opportune moment. Obviously set to coincide with the 86th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth, the producers of […]
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Chris Rock goes for broke with Top Five
Chris Rock as Andre Allen and Rosario Dawson as Chelsea Brown in Top Five. PHOTO COURTESY PARAMOUNT PICTURES As far as the movie world is concerned, 2014 will be remembered as the year in which things ended with an international bang and a corporate whimper. After having massive numbers of files hacked presumably by representatives […]
