Category: Drama
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Promised Land plays scientist, judge, jury, etc…
Promised Land – 2012 Director Gus Van Sant Starring Matt Damon, John Krasinski, Frances McDormand, Rosemarie DeWitt, Scoot McNairy, Titus Welliver, Terry Kinney, Hal Holbrook Written by Damon, Krasinski, Chris Moore Promised Land is perhaps the laziest script I have seen make it to the big screen. It takes a debatable subject, bends one side, to make it…
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Silver Linings Playbook: Who says crazy can’t be funny?
Silver Linings Playbook – 2012 Written and Directed by David O. Russell Starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Julia Stiles, Anupam Kher, Shea Wigham, John Ortiz, Brea Bree Pat: How old are you? Tiffany: Old enough to have a marriage end and not wind up in a mental hospital. I can’t be…
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The Impossible: Harrowing, simple and beautiful
The Impossible – 2012 Director J.A. Bayona Starring Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pedergast, Sönke Möhring, Geraline Chaplin Screenplay Sergio G. Sánchez The Impossible is a simple story covering the most incredibly horrific event one could ever imagine happening to a person, a family or community. In this story, we see the Bennett family, on…
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Hitchcock is the director, but Mirren is the star
Hitchcock – 2012 Director Sasha Gervasi Starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, Toni Collette, Danny Houston, Jessica Biel, James D’Arcy Screenplay John J. McLaughlin based on the book Alfred Hitchock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello Psycho is one of the most celebrated films of all time. It came after one of the greatest financial successes of the career of…
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Killing Them Softly, because it wasn’t named Hitting one for Ira
Killing Them Softly – 2012 Writer and Director Andrew Dominik Starring Brad Pitt, Andrew McNairy, Ben Mendolsohn, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Sam Shepard, Slaine, Vince Curatola, Max Casella, Trevor Long When I was dating my wife, I took her to see the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Afterwards, at dinner, I asked her what she…
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This is 40: The sort of Sequel to Knocked Up
This is 40 – 2012 Written and Directed by Judd Apatow Starring Leslie Mann, Paul Rudd, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Jason Segel, Albert Brooks, Charlene Yi, Megan Fox, Ryan Lee, Lena Dunham, Melissa McCarthy, Graham Parker, Chris O’Dowd, Robert Smigel, Tim Bagley, John Lithgow, Anne Mumalo “This is coming out wrong.” A lesser storyteller would have saved…
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Atlas Shrugged II: Nothing is everything, is the same
Atlas Shrugged Part II – 2012 Director John Putch Starring Samantha Mathis, Esai Morales, Jason Beghe, Patrick Fabian, Kim Rhodes, Richard T. Jones, D.B. Sweeney, Robert Picardo, Ray Wise, Diedrich Bader, Arye Gross, Thomas F. Wilson, Paul McCrane, Rex Linn, Teller, Michael Gross, Bug Hall Screenplay by Duke Sandefur, Brian Patrick O’Toole, Duncan Scott based on the novel by Ayn Rand “I don’t…
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Argo: It’s that few rotten million…
Argo – 2012 Director – Ben Affleck Starring – Affleck, Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Tate Donovan, Clea Duvall, Victor Garber, Philip Baker Hall, Kyle Chandler, Michael Parks, Chris Messina, Titus Welliver Screenplay – Chris Terrio Alan Arkin is remarkable. He’s been doing the same shtick for 50 years. You would think it’d get old by now. It hasn’t.…
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Zero Dark Thirty or Forty, Whatever it Takes.
Zero Dark Thirty – 2012 Director Katheryn Bigelow Starring Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Ehle, Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Mark Strong, Harold Perrineau, Chris Pratt, Édgar Ramírez, Mark Duplass, James Gandolfini Screenplay Mark Boal I spent much of the Bush administration reading books about the wars in the middle east after 9/11. Most of it was read in disgust…
Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews 