Tag: two stars

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)

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Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)

It may no longer be possible to make a successful biopic that captures the entire sweep of a man’s life.  Gone are the days of sweeping epics about larger-than-life leaders like Lawrence of Arabia or Gandhi or even Malcolm X.  In our information age, it may no longer be possible to make a grand womb-to-tomb […]

| November 25, 2013 | 0 Comments
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Carrie (2013)

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Carrie (2013)

How well you respond to the new remake of “Carrie” may depend greatly on how your mind is associated with the material that inspired it. If this is your introduction to this enterprise, it may be kind to suggest that you check out Brian DePalma’s original 1976 horror classic, or Stephen King’s 1974 debut novel.  […]

| October 18, 2013 | 0 Comments
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V/H/S/2 (2013)

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V/H/S/2 (2013)

The very concept behind both V/H/S movies is admittedly clever.  What would happen if someone found an errant old video cassette tape and put it on.  In the real world, it would probably be blank or at least packed with either bad porn or old episodes of “Oprah’ and ‘Diff’rent Strokes.’  But this is a […]

| September 29, 2013 | 0 Comments
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The Family (2013)

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The Family (2013)

French director Luc Besson is best at creating portraits of the criminal underground.  You can see this in his best work like “La Femme Nikita” and “The Professional.”  You can even see a bit of this in “The Fifth Element.”  He knows how to take us into the scummy underworld and introduce us to characters […]

| September 17, 2013 | 0 Comments
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2 Guns (2013)

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2 Guns (2013)

A lot of crime movies feature mountains of illegally obtained money.  Like the sight of shiny sports cars and healthy bosoms, its a fun treat that can be easily photographed – when we see it, we know exactly what we’re looking at.  Yet, Baltasar Kormákur may be the first director in history to place the […]

| August 2, 2013 | 0 Comments
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The Wolverine (2013)

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The Wolverine (2013)

The key problem with “The Wolverine”, the latest comic book adaptation from Marvel Studios, is that it tries to delve into the psychology and haunted life of a character that is not all that interesting to begin with.  Unlike his fellow X-Men, like Storm or Cyclops or Rogue, Wolverine is kind of blah as a […]

| July 28, 2013 | 0 Comments
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R.I.P.D. (2013)

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R.I.P.D. (2013)

“R.I.P.D” is an action-comedy that takes place in the afterlife.  That means lots of celestial bookkeeping, vortex clouds, lightening, the walking dead, and a higher court called Eternal Affairs that the audience never gets to see.  Curiously in all this eternity stuff, no one ever mentions God.  There’s mention of things created by “The Universe,” […]

| July 19, 2013 | 0 Comments
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The Croods (2013)

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The Croods (2013)

The Croods is a featherweight animated comedy perched somewhere between Ice Age and “The Flintstones.”  It’s not as funny as the former or as endearing the latter.  It is the kind of movie that you enjoy it while you’re watching it, but afterwards it slips away from your mind.  In six months your kids might […]

| March 25, 2013 | 0 Comments
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