Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews

Category: 3 Stars

  • The Kings of Summer is two jacks and a dunce

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    The Kings of Summer – 2013 Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts Actors Nick Robinson, Moisés Arias, Gabriel Basso, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally Writer Chris Galletta The intended strong point for The Kings of Summer is quirkiness that falls somewhere between Stand by Me and Napoleon Dynamite.  Taking the coming of age cliché and making it an extended camp out, the 3 erstwhile kings…

  • Escape Plan (***): Character actors beware

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      Escape Plan – 2013 Director Mikael Håfström Starring Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Vinnie Jones, Vincent D’Onofrio, Amy Ryan, Sam Neill, Faran Tahir Screenplay Miles Chapman, Jason Keller Having skipped many of Sylvester Stallone’s mid ’80’s early ’90’s fare, such as Over The Top, Lock Up, Cobra, Oscar, Stop! or my Mom will Shoot, etc., I sometimes wondered if…

  • Despicable Me 2 (***): The great average

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    Despicable Me 2 – 2013 Directors Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud Starring Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Elsie Fisher, Dana Gaier, Russell Brand, Steve Coogan, Ken Jeong Screenplay Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio It’s a simple premise.  Put a threadbare story involving super criminals, make one a loveable doof who can’t resist cute kids (who can?), throw in some adorable Igor types and then you’ve…

  • Planes is straight arrow

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    Planes – 2013 Director Klay Hall Starring Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, Priyanka Chopra, Brad Garrett, Cedric the Entertainer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Roger Craig Smith, John Cleese, Carlos Alazraqui, John Ratzenberger Screenplay Jeffrey M. Howard So Dusty Crophopper wants to be the fastest slug in the – er, wait.  That’s a different movie.  Not that much different, though.  Dane Cook gives us as generic performance as his…

  • 2 Guns: Not enough bullets

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    2 Guns – 2013 Director Baltasar Kormákur Starring Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton, Bill Paxton, Fred Ward, James Marsden, Edward James Olmos, Robert John Burke Screenplay Blake Masters based on the book by Steven Grant There is a lot of star power in this film.  Personality just jumps off the screen at every turn.  We have Wahlberg somewhere between the knowing novice of his early…

  • Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters: Harmless Bite

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    Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters – 2013 Director Thor Freudenthal Starring Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Douglas Smith, Leven Rambin, Jake Abel, Stanley Tucci, Nathan Fillion Screenplay Marc Guggenheim based on the book by Rick Riordan Logan Lerman was around 15 when he made the first Percy Jackson movie.  By the time he made this one, he was a fully developed 20-year-old and had considerably…

  • The Way Way Back Sam Rockwell’s take on Bill Murray

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    The Way Way Back – 2013 Written and Directed by Nat Faxon, Jim Rash Starring Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, AnnaSophia Robb, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, Liam James, Rob Corddry, Amanda Peet There are some laughs nestled in this summer home coming of age in the age of divorced parents melodrama.  There’s a fair amount of depressing stuff in here too.  The Way Way Back…

  • Ender’s Game: Show Don’t Tell

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    Ender’s Game – 2013 Director Gavin Hood Starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin Screenplay Gavin Hood based on the book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card One cannot underestimate how badly I wanted for this venture to succeed.  After the heaping of vitriol the producers of the film withstood from those who felt that the book should be punished for…

  • CPE, Em & El: Thor: The Dark World: More Loki, anyone?

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    Thor: The Dark World – 2013 Director Alan Taylor Starring Tom Hiddleston, Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo Screenplay Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely It’s no surprise that Loki is one of the first characters that you see after the prologue of Thor: The Dark World.  It’s a short…

  • The Conjuring: Because we’re running out of horror titles

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    The Conjuring – 2013 Director James Wan Starring Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor Screenplay Chad and Carey Hayes The path has been taken so many times by now it’s a wonder it ever works at all.  It’s about technique and its more than a little about feigning surprise.  I think that might be why Patrick Wilson can do…