 |
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C+ |
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(2008) |
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"A slapdash but amiable crossbreed of The Karate Kid and The Wizard of Oz, The Forbidden Kingdom functions as a martial arts cinema primer for American youth."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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F |
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(2008) |
|
"Unsurprisingly Zombie Strippers is poorly acted, written, directed, edited, and lit, but it is so tedious to watch that this might be the first movie that would be improved if Uwe Boll were calling the shots."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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B |
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(2008) |
|
"Shine a Light doesn't break any new ground for Scorsese or the Stones, but it's an enjoyable showcase for the prodigious skills the director and band have."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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B- |
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(2008) |
|
"The lack of explanations in The Ruins may prove unsatisfying to some, but the unknown is often more terrifying than the tangible. Such are the wages of fear."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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C |
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(2008) |
|
"Produced by Judd Apatow and co-written by Seth Rogen, Drillbit Taylor has a been there, done that quality reminiscent of Superbad if it were much tamer and less funnier."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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C |
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(2008) |
|
"The jokes land softly, but Run Fatboy Run moves at a sitcom-like clip that keeps it watchable even when it isn't especially funny."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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B+ |
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(2008) |
|
"Snow Angels can painfully burrow into one's heart, but such is the cost of empathy, or any human connection for that matter."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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D |
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(2008) |
|
"With a dreadfully dull story and performances as petrified as 12,000-year-old wooden artifacts, 10,000 BC shambles along as if on a march to its own extinction."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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B |
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(2008) |
|
"Executed with machine-like precision, The Bank Job is a ripping good caper with plenty of interesting twists."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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C- |
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(2008) |
|
"College Road Trip plays like an instructional video shown at orientation to ease sheltering parents afraid to let their children leave the nest."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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B- |
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(2008) |
|
"Shot in widescreen, all the better to appreciate the swanky art deco sets, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day can feel static...but the wonderful lead actresses provide the momentum that the composition and editing fail to provide."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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D |
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(2007) |
|
"While Charlie Bartlett's spitting in the face of authority may thrill disenchanted teens, its obnoxiousness and phoniness is enough to make me feel like an old man yelling at kids to get off my lawn."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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B |
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(2008) |
|
"Cassandra's Dream is not a top-notch Woody Allen film, but this dark drama is a worthy addition to the director's career-long search for meaning in a world where randomness and cruelty often reign."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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B- |
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(2008) |
|
"Definitely, Maybe stumbles along the way to its destination just like its protagonist does, but the humor and heart compensate for the lack of sure footing that extends all the way to the uncertainty in the title."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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D+ |
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(2008) |
|
"Like its namesake mineral, Fool's Gold looks like one thing (a romantic comedy), turns out to be something else (an action-adventure), and has zero value."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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C |
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(2007) |
|
"Dedication's problem isn't its idealized conception of love but the thoroughly unconvincing way in which it is realized."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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A- |
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(2007) |
|
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly transcends the uplifting movie-of-the-week story through Schnabel's artful direction and deep empathy."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
D |
|
(2008) |
|
"The Eye remake rolls off Hollywood's Asian horror assembly line like expired goods that have been repackaged."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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C- |
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(2008) |
|
"Instantly forgettable and proudly lazy, Strange Wilderness feels like it's being made up on the spot."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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D+ |
|
(2008) |
|
"If it were considered unseemly to speak ill of dead films, then the only thing to recommend about Over Her Dead Body would be the lead actor's palpable indifference."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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C- |
|
(2008) |
|
"Boring, hypocritical, and didactic, Untraceable is an exercise in tut-tutting the audience for being curious about the very stuff the film traffics in."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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F |
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(2008) |
|
"At the risk of praising with faint damning, Meet the Spartans isn't the worst film I've ever seen; however, I'm not suggesting that this feature-length parody of 300 is good in any way."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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C+ |
|
(2008) |
|
"Qualms about Rambo's contextual appropriateness aside, this guns-ablazing movie works on a primal level, but stiff performances and a musty script has it firing its share of blanks too."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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B |
|
(2008) |
|
"Bridesmaid dresses are notorious for being unflattering, single occasion garments. Although formulaic, 27 Dresses wears well on its star."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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A+ |
|
(2007) |
|
"There Will Be Blood is a spectacular achievement that, at this early date, seems worthy to be mentioned alongside cinema's avowed masterpieces."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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C+ |
|
(2007) |
|
"Although The Bucket List shouldn't sit well on the stomach, it goes down as easily as meals through an IV."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
A |
|
(2007) |
|
"Atonement is an exquisitely crafted film bursting with the possibilities that cinema has to offer."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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C+ |
|
(2007) |
|
"After choking on laughs for a period, the question becomes whether Baumbach has anything to deliver beyond his misanthropic floggings."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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C+ |
|
(2007) |
|
"Practically a duplicate of the breezy (and bloated) original, National Treasure: Book of Secrets is not without charm, but it lacks the thrill seeker's joy of discovery."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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C |
|
(2007) |
|
"For all of the care and creativity put into Walk Hard's original songs, the rest of the film feels less inspired and maybe a little lazy."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
D |
|
(2008) |
|
"While it may be clichéd to proclaim the original foreign film to be superior, the fact remains that the Japanese pic contains more scares and intended laughs than this slapdash American remake."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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A- |
|
(2007) |
|
"Todd Haynes' masterful portrait of Bob Dylan scrutinizes the musician-poet-actor-artist-husband-father-outlaw and leaves him at once as mysterious as ever and yet somehow knowable."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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B- |
|
(2007) |
|
"Enchanted bubbles over with good cheer, due in large part to Adams for the wide-eyed optimism and innocence she brings to her irony-free performance."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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D+ |
|
(2007) |
|
"Broken into storybook-like chapters...the film implies that it possesses literary roots; however, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium comes across as a quickie knockoff attempting to capitalize on a more popular title's success."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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|
| |
B |
|
(2007) |
|
"As good as the action scenes are, the humanity in [Will] Smith's performance is most responsible for I Am Legend's success."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
B |
|
(2007) |
|
"As a showcase for Washington and Crowe, American Gangster does not disappoint."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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B+ |
|
(2007) |
|
"Lars and the Real Girl could have felt overly precious, like a cheap stunt or joke, but the emotional depth and warmth make this quirky regional character study anything but plastic."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
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|
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| |
C- |
|
(2007) |
|
"Damaged individuals healing one another is a serviceable idea for a film, but Things We Lost in the Fire is missing an essential component: plausibility."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
C- |
|
(2007) |
|
"This well-meaning talkathon about the war on terror, contemporary politics, journalistic integrity, and civic engagement has enlightenment more than entertainment as its goal."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
D |
|
(2007) |
|
"It's just the same old same old repackaged as the new worst offender."
[movie review] |
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Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
B |
|
(2007) |
|
"Ocean's Thirteen shows that summer movies and their attendant presumption of needing to turn one's brain off can still be executed with style and wit."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
F |
|
(2007) |
|
"If junior high school boys wrote a cheesecake syndicated TV show and spun it off into a movie, the result would be DOA: Dead or Alive."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
B- |
|
(2007) |
|
"Making the team and playing in the big game grab the headlines, but the repaired relationship at the heart of Gracie shows that there are bigger prizes than kicking a ball around a field."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
B |
|
(2007) |
|
"With equal measures of raunch and sentimentality, Knocked Up explores the minefield of imminent parenthood for two people who don't know each other very well."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
C |
|
(2007) |
|
"Bug straddles the lines of genre seediness and high art pretension, but it's not enough of a cheap thrill or mindbender to succeed at either."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
C- |
|
(2007) |
|
"Where the character cannot maintain well-adjusted behavior over sociopathic indulgences, the film fails to strike a balance between the serious and outlandish."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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| |
A- |
|
(2007) |
|
"After the Wedding's anguished portrait of family, charity, and mortality peels back layers in the characters that defy their easy categorization."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
|
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| |
B+ |
|
(2007) |
|
"A tense and terrifying trip through urban chaos, 28 Weeks Later is Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's respectable follow-up to Danny's Boyle's original."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
|
|
| |
D- |
|
(2007) |
|
"The subject matter in Georgia Rule--sexual abuse and alcoholism, for starters--lends itself to drama, but Garry Marshall's tone deaf direction and Mark Andrus' sloppy script play it as comedy."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
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|
| |
C |
|
(2007) |
|
"With undue emphasis placed on the cards instead of the characters, Lucky You is holding a losing hand by the time it reaches the river."
[movie review] |
|
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema |
|
|
