Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews

Category: Ratings

  • The Babadook (***) Boy that kid is the real monster

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    The Babadook – 2014 Written & Directed by Jennifer Kent Starring Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney, Barbara West, Ben Winspear Amelia’s got a sickly, annoying kid (Wiseman) who keeps her awake at night talking about Monsters. Her husband died in an accident on the way to have that kid delivered. She (Davis) works in a thankless job taking care…

  • Boyhood (***1/2): Life doesn’t give you bumpers

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    Boyhood – 2014 Written and Directed by Richard Linklater Starring Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Lorelei Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Marco Pella After having endured almost 3 hours of Richard Linklater’s passion project of 12 or so years, it is hard to come to any sort of conclusion. Was it a triumph of the artistic spirit? Is it a wasted opportunity of…

  • The Theory of Everything (****1/2) is a sweet tale about what love can create

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    The Theory of Everything – 2014 Director James Marsh Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox, Emily Watson, Simon McBurney, David Thewlis Screenplay by Anthony McCarten based on the book Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen by Jane Wilde Hawking To see The Theory of Everything is to see glimpses of brilliance, and the kind-hearted woman he loves. We…

  • The Imitation Game (***1/2) nice to know how we won

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    The Imitation Game – 2014 Director Morten Tyldum Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Charles Dance, Mark Strong, Allen Leech Screenplay by Graham Moore based on the book Alan Turing: The Enigma, by Adrew Hodges So many of these films come out that are based on real human events. Problem is, no one has the courage to tell the entire…

  • The Hunger Games 3: Mockingjay 1 (***)

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    Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 – 2014 Director Francis Lawrence Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Natalie Dormer, Sam Clafin, Jena Malone Screenplay by Danny Strong, Peter Craig based on the book by Suzanne Collins At this point we’ve all become accepting of the process of dragging out books into multiple movies.…

  • Forgotten Gems: Clueless (*****) brings the fun of love alive

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    Clueless – 1995 Writer and Director Amy Heckerling Starring Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison, Breckin Meyer, Dan Hedaya, Jeremy Sisto, Wallace Shawn Screenplay based on Emma by Jane Austen It’s remarkable how fresh and vibrant Amy Heckerling’s Clueless felt while I watched it with my wife and my oldest daughter last night. The jokes were still funny, the fashion was beautifully…

  • Whiplash (*****) dashes your hopes

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    Whiplash – 2014 Writer and Director Damien Chazelle Starring  J.K. Simmons, Miles Teller, Melissa Benoist, Paul Reiser If you are looking for the inspirational story of the year, this is not it. If you are looking to see a movie about justice, it is not this film. Whiplash is almost unidentifiable in nature, in that the…

  • Jupiter Ascending (**): Plateaus quickly, then sinks under its own insignificance

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    Jupiter Ascending – 2015 Written and Directed by The Wachowskis Starring Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Tuppence Middleton, Maria Boyle Kennedy, James D’Arcy, Gugu Mbatha-Raw Jupiter Jones (Kunis) is the daughter of a broken young Russian couple.  When her father is killed while she is in the womb, her mother journeys with the rest of the family…

  • Birdman (***1/2): Who is this guy?

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    Birdman – 2014 Director Alejandro González Iñárritu Starring Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Lindsay Duncan Screenplay Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., Armando Bo It’s during the second balcony scene with Mike and Sam (Norton and Stone) that one begins to realize how riveting Birdman has become. It’s not that the script is all that wonderful,…

  • A new reason to love Lucy (****)

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    Lucy – 2014 Written and Directed by Luc Besson Starring Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Amr Waked, Choi Min-sik, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Nicolas Phongpheth, Analeigh Tipton, Paul Chan For all the activity Luc Besson has had in movies over the last decade as writer and producer for some interesting action fare (most notably in the Transporter and Taken series), he has not directed many live…