Category: 3.5 Stars
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Bieber’s Never Say Never is a celebration of how fun it is to be young
Never Say Never – 2011 Directed by John Chu Starring Justin Bieber This Is It was a family’s desperate attempt to cash in on the recently deceased cadaver of a workhorse of a singer, songwriter and dancer who himself had tried to ramp up for one last tour to cash in on what was left…
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Cyrus shows that Tomei is without peer
Cyrus – 2010 Written and Directed by Jay and Mark Duplass Starring John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill, Catherine Keener, Matt Walsh, Kim Rhodes Marisa Tomei has had an interesting career. She had acted in major motion pictures since 1984’s The Flamingo Kid, but was thought of as a relative newcomer when she surprised the world with…
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Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – Plays like, surprise, half of a movie
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows, Part 1 – 2011 Directed by David Yates Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Gambon, Brendan Gleeson, John Hurt, Imelda Staunton, Bill Nighy, David Thewlis, Patricia Walters, Rhys Ifans Written by Steve Kloves based on the book by…
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The Next Three Days feels like a week or so
The Next Three Days – 2011 Directed by Paul Haggis Starring Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, Brian Dennehy, Olivia Wilde, Jason Beghe Written by Haggis and Fred Cavayé The Next Three Days is a well-intentioned, methodical, and ultimately plodding remake of a French film (written and directed by Cavayé) called Anything for Her. It follows its…
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Due Date is a crude, vulgar and unrelenting buddy movie
Due Date – 2010 Directed by Todd Phillips Starring Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis, Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan Screenplay by Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, Adam Sztykiel, Todd Phillips Todd Phillips is an enigmatic wonderland. There are moments in his films that make one want to turn it off. These are often followed by moments that…
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Winter’s Bone shows an the all too real effect of Meth
Winter’s Bone – 2010 Directed by Debra Granik Starring Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Garrett Dillahunt, Lauren Sweester, Dale Dickey, Shelly Waggener Written by Debra Granik and Anne Rosselini based on the book by Daniel Woodrell In all honesty, as good a movie as Winter’s Bone, I don’t think I could ever watch it again. It…
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Ryan Reynolds provides depth to Buried
Buried – 2010 Directed by Rodrigo Cortes Starring Ryan Reynolds Written by Chris Sparling The first thing one thinks when seeing the first light in the movie Buried (several minutes into the film) is: “Now that you that you know you are in a box with limited air, for God sakes turn off that oxygen…
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Machete is a political softball and hardcore action
Machete – 2010 Directed by Robert Rodriguez, Ethan Maniquis Starring Danny Trejo, Robert DeNiro, Jeff Fahey, Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Don Johnson, Steven Seagal, Cheech Marin, Lindsay Lohan Written by Robert Rodriguez, Alvaro Rodriguez Machete was the goose that laid the golden eggs, but that changed to just an ugly duckling with the political climate of…
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Wall Street Money Never Sleeps and neither does Michael Douglas
Wall Street Money Never Sleeps – 2010 Directed by Oliver Stone Starring Shia LaBeouf, Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Eli Wallach, Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon Screenplay by Allan Loeb, Stephen Schiff based on characters created by Oliver Stone, Stanley Weiser When Oliver Stone made the film Wall Street in 1987, he hoped to shed…
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Cool Papa E Reviews the original SCREAM Trilogy
The most original horror movie to be unleashed upon the world since Halloween, Scream literally re-invented the slasher flick on December 20, 1996. Wes Craven, the director of The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left, and more notably, A Nightmare on Elm Street, committed to direct a screenplay by Kevin Williamson. In…