While I’m not privy to what’s said during the bean-counting meetings at DreamWorks Animation, I’d be willing to bet the moneymen there are more than thrilled with the success of their Madagascar franchise. The first film in the series was a hit to the tune of $532 million at the international box office while its […]
Movies
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Insecurities, self-reflection at core of Birdman
Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson in Birdman. PHOTO COURTESY FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES Like a snake consuming its own tail, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Birdman is so postmodern, so self-referential that it ultimately begins to consume itself. This is all as it was designed to be by the director, who co-wrote the script, as this daring exercise […]
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Cast brings life to familiar Lights
Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Noni Jean and Nate Parker as Kaz in Beyond the Lights. There’s never been a shortage of behind-the-scenes showbiz melodramas in film history, but it has been a while since we’ve had a good one. So until the fourth version of A Star is Born hits the screen – to be directed […]
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It’s all about Murray in St. Vincent
Bill Murray as Vincent and Jaeden Lieberher Oliver in St. Vincent. PHOTO COURTESY THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY I’ve never been a member of the cult of Murray – Bill, that is. I know he has a very devoted following that thinks the sun rises and sets on his every move, marveling at the masterful way he […]
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Ouija board, movie lack mystery
Douglas Smith, Ana Coto and Olivia Cooke in Ouija. It isn’t that Ouija, the latest property to hit the screen from Hasbro Toys after G.I. Joe and Transformers, is necessarily a bad movie; it’s simply late to the party. After the recent success of Paranormal Activity, Insidious and Sinister, the whole “haunted house combined with […]
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John Wick: A bloody, cathartic ride
Keanu Reeves as the title character in John Wick. PHOTO COURTESY Summit Entertainment Make no mistake, there’s little in the way of originality where David Leitch and Chad Stahelski’s John Wick is concerned. It’s a simple story you know well – a man of violence, in an attempt to put his past behind him, settles […]
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Fury gets job done, accomplishes little else
Shia LaBeouf, Xavier Samuel, Brad Pitt and Michael Pena in Fury. PHOTO COURTESY COLUMBIA PICTURES Perhaps my expectations for David Ayer’s Fury were a bit too high. Primed by the presence of a strong cast, the strength of the director’s previous film – the tough cop procedural End of Watch – and the realistic aesthetic […]
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Questions of identity propel Gone Girl
Rosamund Pike as Amy Dunne and Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne in Gone Girl. PHOTO COURTESY 20TH CENTURY FOX Having purposely kept myself in the dark regarding the central conceit at the core of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel Gone Girl, I approached David Fincher’s adaptation of it ready to be knocked back on my heels. […]
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Washington invaluable in slick Equalizer
Denzel Washington as Robert McCall in The Equalizer. PHOTO COURTESY COLUMBIA PICTURES There’s no escaping the “been-there-done-that” feel that hangs over the new Denzel Washington actioner The Equalizer. Based ever so loosely on the Edward Woodward television series from the 80s, you can’t help but draw connections between this, Washington’s own Man on Fire and […]
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Neeson walks strong Among the Tombstones
Liam Neeson as Matt Scudder in A Walk Among the Tombstones. PHOTO COURTESY UNIVERSAL PICTURES In the last decade, Liam Neeson has seemingly taken every script that’s come his way. He’s been forthcoming in his reasoning as, since the tragic death of his wife Natasha Richardson, he’s freely admitted that the best way for him […]
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Drop fails to live up to Hardy’s fine work
James Gandolfini stars as Cousin Marv and Tom Hardy stars as Bob Saginowski in Fox Searchlight Pictures’ The Drop. Michael Roskam’s The Drop is a movie I wanted to like more than I did. I kept looking among the many positive things in the film for just one more great moment, one more clever turn […]
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Boyhood: Subtle, powerful meditation on life
Lorelei Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Ellar Coltrane in Boyhood. PHOTO COURTESY IFC FILMS On the surface, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood seems to be nothing more than a gimmick. Filmed for a week to 10 days over the course of 12 summers using the same cast, the movie serves not only as a time capsule of the […]
