Movies

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Thursday, 05 April 2007 14:38

Set entirely in Iraq, The Situation is the first feature film to come out of America dealing with the Iraq war. The film echoes the confusion and chaos in the region, leaving the titles of “good” and “bad” open to interpretation.

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Thursday, 05 April 2007 14:27

Good vs. evil is a staple in horror, but if you’re gonna bring religion into it and your directorial or screenwriting eyes aren’t set on entering Exorcist or Omen territory, you better have an absorbing tale to tell.

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Thursday, 05 April 2007 14:13

Puccini for Beginners

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Thursday, 05 April 2007 13:47

The film creates an almost dreamlike atmosphere where characters pop in and out of each other’s lives. It is easy to compare the character connections to a Robert Altman film, but there is something else at work here.

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Thursday, 05 April 2007 13:32

While Are We Done Yet? might be a fun movie for kids to learn how to deal with a stepfamily, most of the movie feels like someone scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel for kid-friendly entertainment.

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Written by Adrienne Jones Friday, 30 March 2007 03:45

Writer Scott Frank (Out of Sight) makes his directorial debut with this movie and has done an excellent job taking a fairly simple story, adding all the right pieces, and making an intriguing film. Frank's screenplay is delightfully down-to-earth for a crime drama.

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Written by Matthew F. Newlin Friday, 30 March 2007 03:41

In the same way Finding Nemo connected with a whole new group of children, Meet the Robinsons seeks to address issues many kids face.

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Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 30 March 2007 03:28

Black Tiger is one hell of a ride,when you cross the arterial spray of the Yakuza films of Japan with the candy-colored tomfoolery of Thai cinema, all saturated pinks and violets (who would have guessed that merely coloring blood lavender would make watching a film exponentially more fun?).

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Written by Adrienne Jones Friday, 23 March 2007 03:44

One performance that does surprisingly stand out, even in its brevity, is that of Tom Arnold. As head coach of the rich kids that the Marcus Foster team battles with, Arnold brings the right amount of skeeve and upper-class white entitlement to his part.

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Written by Matthew F. Newlin Friday, 23 March 2007 03:43

TMNT is a disappointing return for what was once at the apex of pop culture hysteria. The brothers have all been broken down into caricatures of themselves and are no longer funny or appealing.

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Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 23 March 2007 03:41

It may not sound like much, but a slow accumulation of this attention to detail and knowing of the world that the monster lives in amounts to what will likely be the most solid monster movie I see in my lifetime.

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Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 23 March 2007 03:39

If you go back to the films Paul Verhoeven made in his native Netherlands in the early '70s, you see that he is capable of turning out indisputably great films.

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Written by Joe Hodes Friday, 23 March 2007 03:34

It is worth watching these two fill up the full silver screen now, rather than just settling for the home video experience in a few months.

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Written by Pete Timmermann Monday, 12 March 2007 03:15

I have never once walked out on a movie in my entire life, but about five minutes into 300 I regretted coming to see it, and 15 minutes in I would have walked out, if I were the type.

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Written by Adrienne Jones Monday, 12 March 2007 02:32

Ricci channels every lost little skank anyone's ever known. She's hurt, sexy, lonely, scared, and a tiny bit scary—often all at once. If you didn't know better, you'd easily swear that Rae lived on sex and booze alone.

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Written by Joe Bowman Saturday, 03 March 2007 06:10

Despite its wild excess, Inland Empire, comes together in the end, and it's rapturous.

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Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 02 March 2007 14:29

As of this writing, Snow Angels has yet to be picked up for theatrical distribution in the United States, which makes me sad for the state of American cinema.

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Written by Joe Bowman Friday, 02 March 2007 08:35

Henckel von Donnersmarck's remark about it being easier to make a cold film than a warm one really struck me. Pulling off true emotions without seeming annoyingly sentimental is a serious accomplishment.

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Written by Joe Bowman Friday, 02 March 2007 08:30

Somewhere in the 1980s, the Academy stopped awarding [adventurous] films and started handed the prizes over to overly sentimental drivel.

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Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 02 March 2007 08:24

Where Seven had exciting action scenes, Zodiac has exciting scenes of lots and lots of talking. Where Seven's pace was fast, Zodiac's is slow.

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Written by Matthew F. Newlin Thursday, 22 February 2007 16:00

In the same way that every kid makes the freshman football team, every police department is invited to the national convention. No one is cut, even if they are likely to accidentally shoot one of their teammates while running drills.

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Written by Drew Stewart Thursday, 22 February 2007 16:00

"We became writers; we became producers; we became actors; we became financiers. You just build yourself up with more responsibility. I think that's the key to everything: empowering yourself to get it done."

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Written by Matthew F. Newlin Thursday, 22 February 2007 10:58

The sprawling desert scenery and hard-rock soundtrack work only to remind the audience that they are seeing techniques and style taken from a classic film.

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Written by Joe Bowman Thursday, 22 February 2007 10:49

Similarities to Allen have been thrown around for a while in relation to the work of Daniel Burman, whose Family Law concludes an unofficial trilogy of three men named Ariel, each played by Daniel Hendler, at various stages of maturation.

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Written by Adrienne Jones Thursday, 22 February 2007 10:40

Are we really supposed to believe that Audie wouldn't instinctively know a spaceship would cost an assload of money? Seriously?

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Written by Pete Timmermann Thursday, 15 February 2007 11:20

This is an American independent film in the best sense of the word, the 1989-1994 definition where it meant that the filmmakers could experiment with and embrace their low budgets and come up with something that you would never see in mainstream cinema.

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Written by Adrienne Jones Thursday, 15 February 2007 10:57

Words cannot express how worried I am about Andrew Ridgeley. What do you mean, you don't know who that is? He was only half of '80s super duo Wham! You didn't really think George Michael made all that magic alone, did you?

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Written by Jason Green Sunday, 11 February 2007 11:40

It's February, the season when Hollywood trots out their bland, formulaic romantic comedies. Looking for an alternative? Try this sweet, charming romance from Japan about a young nerd who finds love on the rails.

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Written by Kevin Renick Saturday, 10 February 2007 10:29

By the time Congressman Leo Ryan headed to Guyana for his ill-fated investigation of the Peoples Temple, the façade of any real unity quickly faded.

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Written by Kevin Renick Friday, 02 February 2007 09:43

Lovely, emotionally convincing, and blessed with an ability to blend great timing with facial expressions that convey shades of emotion, Moore has come into her own as a young actress and has outshone just about everyone in her peer group in the romantic comedy genre.

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Written by Pete Timmermann Sunday, 28 January 2007 10:35

I can now tell people that I have seen a film with MC Hammer.

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Written by Pete Timmermann Sunday, 28 January 2007 10:30

While We Are the Strange doesn't really look like anything you've ever seen before, it doesn't really work, and Strange doesn't use his innovations as the means to any sort of end. It feels like what it would be like if Henry Selick and Jonas Akerlund collaborated on an Insane Clown Posse music video, if that gives you an idea.

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Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 26 January 2007 08:44

In the Shadow of the Moon is a documentary about all of the men who made it to the moon, what the political climate was like at the time, etc. Also, it features never-before-seen footage of the moon and what the Earth looks like from its surface. Why don't they teach this stuff in school?

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Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 26 January 2007 03:30

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Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 26 January 2007 03:30

As it turns out, Waitress was selected for Sundance mere days before Adrienne Shelly died, and it was sold because, well, it's really solid. There's nothing too groundbreaking here (it's about a small-town pie waitress (played by Keri Russell) who has an affair and wants to get away from her abusive husband), but it's well made and thoroughly entertaining and well cast and funny.

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Written by Pete Timmermann Wednesday, 24 January 2007 10:02

I don't follow the trades as closely as I probably should when I'm at Sundance and don't really know the ins and outs of buying and selling films at the market here, so I probably should shut up.