Category: 3.5 Stars
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Oblivion: A nice, unoriginal Sci-Fi story with great visual flair
Oblivion – 2013 Director Joseph Kosinski Starring Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Melissa Leo, Morgan Freeman Screenplay Joseph Kosinski, Karl Gajdusek, Michael Arndt So many elements are borrowed from other sources in Oblivion, it’s remarkable that it ends up as cohesive as it is. That the sources all derive from the more contemplative sci-fi of the 1970’s may have something to do…
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Pain & Gain: Meat
Pain & Gain – 2013 Director Michael Bay Starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub, Ed Harris Screenplay Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely based on the book by Pete Collins Let’s not get down to the nitty-gritty on this. No one will benefit from knowing whether the events in the movie are true or not. What is remarkable is the…
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Olympus Has Fallen is a not so subtle slice of Peckinpah
Olympus Has Fallen – 2013 Director Anton Fuqua Starring Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Cole Hauser, Finley Jacobsen, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, Rick Yune Written by Creighton Rothenberger, Katrin Benedikt The attack on the White House is glorious. An ungodly amount of .50 caliber bullets flying throughout, maiming some,…
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Evil Dead remake is better than the original
Evil Dead – 2013 Director Fede Alvarez Starring Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Jucas, Elizabeth Blackmore Screenplay Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues, Diablo Cody Who ever comes up with the idea of going to a cabin in the woods for entertainment? If everything goes well…you end up bored and surrounded by trees. In the remake of…
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Cloud Atlas: And then a bunch of stuff happened…
Cloud Atlas – 2012 Writers and Directors Larry and Andy Wachowski, Tom Tykwer Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy, Zhou Xun, Keith David, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant Based on Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell If there’s one thing I learned from the time tripping global opus known…
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Side Effects is full frontal storytelling
Side Effects – 2013 Director Steven Soderbergh Starring Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vinessa Shaw Screenplay Scott Z. Burns There is a propulsive feeling to the first 1/3 of Side Effects. It’s a little like we’re heading towards inevitable disaster. Once disaster strikes, the viewer is somewhat shocked, and like Dr. Jonathan Banks…
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Star Trek Into Darkness: Going where they’ve gone before
Star Trek Into Darkness – 2013 Director J.J. Abrams Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, Alice Eve, Peter Weller, Noel Clarke, Nazneen Contractor Screenplay by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof One of my favorite aspects to the Star Trek reboot (my very first…
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CPE, Em & El: Not quite an Epic, but it’ll do
Epic – 2013 Director Chris Wedge Starring Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, Beyoncé Knowles, Christoph Walz, Aziz Ansari, Chris O’Dowd, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis, Steven Tyler Written by William Joyce based on his book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs In the end, I really expected nothing from this film, so I did not leave disappointed. Epic…
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Jack Reacher plays like a procedural with an edge
Jack Reacher – 2012 Written and Directed by Christopher McQuarrie Starring Tom Cruise, Jai Courtney, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, Werner Herzog, David Oyelowo, Robert Duvall, Alexia Fast Taking on book franchises can be a tricky business. One can run the risk of pissing off the fan base even before the movie is released. Tom Cruise managed to…
Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews 