 |
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B |
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(2007) |
|
"A long-held cause celebre for leftists the world over, the story of immigrant activists Sacco & Vanzetti is told in Peter Miller's rote documentary as a reference point for the way immigrants are still mistreated in America."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
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B+ |
|
(2004) |
|
"The film's expressionist style and lighting design provide it with an immaculate richness of visual textures."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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C- |
|
(2005) |
|
"For an adventure movie based on chase scenes in exotic locations "Sahara" never takes hold because director Breck Eisner and his team of screenwriters can't agree on what the story's about or what tone should resonate against it."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
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A+ |
|
(1975) |
|
"Dramatically feral and artistically fertile, "Salo" is a rigorous movie that dares to use the metaphor of torture as a device of utter physical and psychological annihilation for both the victim and the torturer."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
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C- |
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(2008) |
|
"Dark humor, along the lines of "The Honeymoon Killers," gives way to fractured set pieces that gesture toward the film's gratuitous climax, one that's destined to bestow upon it a cult status."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
|
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C |
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(2007) |
|
"It's obvious that Jenkins is inspired by the work of Canadian writer/director Denys Arcand ("The Barbarian Invasions"), but she doesn't dig deep enough to capture the complexities and nuance that the material demands."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
|
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C- |
|
(2007) |
|
"The film refuses to follow any one strand of political logic, and as such exists on an insufficient amount of thematic oxygen to support its loaded dramatic context."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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C |
|
(2004) |
|
""Saved!" starts out as a feisty satire on organized religion but sputters in its third act to an apologetic footnote for all that has come before."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C- |
|
(1998) |
|
"Violent, harrowing, and horrific; you bet. This is not a movie to take your children to see, or even a date. And it's definitely not worth seeing alone. How the ratings board gave this movie an "R" rating is a mystery. Well, maybe not."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
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B- |
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(2005) |
|
"One-part “Silence Of The Lambs,” one-part “Ten Little Indians” and still carrying a lasting dosage of “Se7en,” “Saw II” reveals a horror franchise to be reckoned with."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
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| |
C- |
|
(2006) |
|
"The extreme gore is gratuitous, and character development non-existent in a movie packed with the cookie-cutter visual design of the previous two films. Torturer, victim and audience become one."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
|
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D- |
|
(2008) |
|
"Everything after its gory "pit-and-the-pendulum" opening scare sequence is downhill in the fifth and potentially last installment in a horror franchise that has run completely out of steam."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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D |
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(2009) |
|
"Headache-inducing, and featuring one of the worst D-movie performances of the aughts from Costas Mandylor, the latest "Saw" franchise addition is more of the same torture-punishment-rehab-porn audiences have come to expect."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
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C- |
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(2006) |
|
"High production values and seemingly endless celebrity cameos only moderately elevate the scattershot satire of the Scary Movie franchise."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
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C+ |
|
(2006) |
|
""School For Scoundrels" relies on Thornton's hovering performance to drive the film, and the formula nearly succeeds in the face of Jon Heder's narrow comic range and inability to develop his character over the course of the story."
[movie review] |
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ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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A- |
|
(2003) |
|
"Jack Black is a one-man rock 'n roll powerhouse in this infectious musical comedy directed by Gen X wunderkind Richard Linklater..."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
D |
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(2006) |
|
"Navel-gazing director Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") wears his developmentally arrested heart on his sleeve, on his pants, and on his forehead in the most self-indulgent movie of 2006."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C |
|
(2006) |
|
"As writer, director and actor Allen borrows so liberally from himself that anyone familiar with his movies will experience twinges of déjà vu in nearly every other scene."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C |
|
(2003) |
|
"Duval and Caine make the film watchable, but there's too much gunplay for the movie to truly be the child-friendly entertainment that it pretends."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C- |
|
(2008) |
|
"The Secret Life of Bees is further evidence that there should be a moratorium on secret-life-of-anything movies."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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A+ |
|
(1996) |
|
"Much more than just a touching story of the ties that bind humanity and the way we reveal ourselves, "Secrets and Lies" (1996) is a staggering work of cinematic genius. It is truly a perfect film."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
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| |
C- |
|
(2007) |
|
"Director David L. Cunningham and screenwriter John Hodge ("Trainspotting") conspire with a gruelingly slow pacing to underpin nebulous special effects sequences. "The Seeker" is a children's fantasy movie worth avoiding."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
B- |
|
(2008) |
|
"Will Farrell loiters in the comfort of his signature punch-drunk delivery of outrageous lines and sight gags in a '70s era parody that extends the funk vibe of Judd Apatow's summer comedy "Superbad.""
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C |
|
(2006) |
|
"Michael Douglas goes through the motions of playing an action man in this plodding and pedestrian political suspense thriller."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
B+ |
|
(2005) |
|
""Separate Lies" is a hearty mystery/drama that blooms as a succinct social critique of British aristocracy."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
C- |
|
(2007) |
|
"The director's overreaching attempts at social commentary with hackneyed devices weaken the veracity of the source material and leave the film open to interpretation as propaganda."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
A |
|
(2009) |
|
"Documentarian R.J. Cutler manages the impossible--revealing the notoriously aloof Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour's personality behind the ice queen facade."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
B+ |
|
(2008) |
|
"...the audience is brought increasingly closer into the heart and mind of a genius whose turbulent inner life eventually envelops her conscious being."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
D |
|
(2009) |
|
"Filipino director Brillante Mendoza fails to disguise his prurient exploitation film, about a family-run soft-core cinema, as art house fare--although he seems to have succeeded in doing so with Cannes and New York film festival programmers."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C- |
|
(2009) |
|
"It's not so much that "A Serious Man" isn't accessible--it is that. But the film never sets down parameters."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
A+ |
|
(1954) |
|
"Kurosawa's intention of making his first period film "entertaining enough to eat" is brought to that palpable condition through [Toshiro] Mifune's endlessly watchable peasant warrior."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
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| |
C+ |
|
(2007) |
|
""Severance" is just enough of an exploitation satire (think, Roger Corman in his heyday) to hold your interest beyond its gratuitous knife, blood and breast recipe for suspense and shock."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
D- |
|
(2009) |
|
"Minimalist independent cinema doesn't get much more low fidelity than debut writer/director Tony Stone's garish vision of 11th century Vikings discovering North America."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
C |
|
(2008) |
|
"An obligatory smattering of gross-out humor and a litany of erotic hopes and fears get ground up in a slapstick approach to an already diminishing genre."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
A- |
|
(1971) |
|
"With an ultra hip musical score by Isaac Hayes, "Shaft" is a muscular black action movie where Richard Roundtree is "hotter than Bond and cooler than Bullitt""
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
B |
|
(2002) |
|
"Kung Fu and sports movies collide in writer/director/actor Stephen Chow's devilishly entertaining Honk Kong action movie."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
A- |
|
(2003) |
|
"Journalistic ethics are scrupulously explored in this crystal-clear dramatization of real-life "New Republic" feature writer Stephen Glass's meteoric rise and rapid dissolution over falsified articles he wrote for the publication during the mid '90s as a"
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
C- |
|
(2009) |
|
"The "fish-out-of-water-coming-of-age" genre loses so much ground in Craig Saavadra's tedious indy comedy that you"
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
A- |
|
(2006) |
|
""Sherrybaby" is an insightful and penetrating drama that never condescends or sentimentalizes its subject. Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a tour de force performance that is not to be missed."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
A+ |
|
(2008) |
|
"Where Scorsese's focus for the "The Last Waltz" was on capturing a cultural zeitgeist that supported a generational shift of musical ideas, here he goes after the incredibly honed inner-workings of the Rolling Stones' performance style and musical deliver"
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
B |
|
(2007) |
|
""Shoot 'Em Up" belongs to the "Transporter"/"Smokin' Aces" school of modern western grindhouse cinema."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
C- |
|
(2007) |
|
"The picture molders under the predictable fiery explosions that fill the screen while any pretense of believability remains extinct."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
D+ |
|
(2005) |
|
"Steve Martin makes his personal dysfunctional romantic proclivities the subject of a brittle romantic comedy that affords painfully little romance or humor."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
C |
|
(2006) |
|
"Director John Cameron Mitchell ("Hedwig and The Angry Inch") flaunts cinematic tradition with a raucous sex comedy filled with truly shocking sex acts that underscore his vision of New York as a playground of debauchery."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
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| |
B+ |
|
(2007) |
|
"Even audiences not enamored with Broadway musicals could find Dori Berinstein's documentary, about the trajectory of four Broadway shows, entertaining and informative."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
D |
|
(2007) |
|
"This out-of-tune, off-kilter, lame-o finale (oh how I hope it's the last one) to the Mike Meyers-led "Shrek" franchise is so far removed from the first two films that doesn't seem related."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
C |
|
(2006) |
|
"The most inspiring element of the film is the genuine fortitude and loyalty that Maines and her bandmates Emily Robinson and Martie Maguire exhibit outwardly and to one another."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
B+ |
|
(2007) |
|
""The Simpsons Movie" lives up to every bit of irreverent satire Simpson fans are accustomed to."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
A |
|
(2005) |
|
""Sin City" is a high contrast tour de force cinematic adaptation of Frank Miller's hugely popular and wickedly grotesque graphic novel homage to the hard-boiled style of Dashell Hammett and Mickey Spillane."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
A |
|
(2009) |
|
""Sin Nombre" is a convincing verite-styled drama that pulls you into its dangerous universe of desperation and immediacy."
[movie review] |
|
ColeSmithey.com |
|
|
