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Joe Kidd
Great 66 Points 1972

The great Elmore Leonard wrote two kinds of scripts, great ones and, well, er, the great Elmore Leonard wrote one kind of script, not counting the two genres he wrote: Westerns and darkly funny crime dramas. Known more now for the latter, he was a modern master of the former, populating his hair…

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WikChip Video Guitar kicks in 40s into the Joe Kidd...
Jackie
Very Good 17 Points 2016

Natalie Portman kills it as Jackie Kennedy. Who knows how accurate the post JFK death portrayal is, but her portrayal of Jackie’s poise, controlled speech, and control is a sight to behold. The vision of Camelot was all Jackie’s, and when the rug was pulled out from under her anyone but her wou…

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Jack Ryan: Shad...
Very Good 83 Points 2014

The hero of many a Tom Clancy story gets rebooted in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, a more than competent action thriller. Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Keira Knightley and Kenneth Branagh are much more than competent as its starring quartet, allowing the movie to draw from a deep well of moviestar…

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WikChip Image Branagh the Dir employs a killer villain
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Ip Man 2: Legen...
OK 66 Points 2010

Ip Man 2 was supposed to focus on the legendary Grandmaster’s relationship with Bruce Lee, his most famous disciple. But Lee’s descendants didn’t go along with the plan, so the movie ends up being about Ip Man’s post-war struggles to establish Wing Chun kung fu in colonial Hong Kong. The resul…

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WikChip Image Ip Man teaches Wing Chun kung fu
Ip Man
Great 83 Points 2008

This great martial arts movie follows the beats and tropes of fictional king fu movies while burnishing the legend of Ip Man, a real life Grandmaster of Wing Chun kung fu and Bruce Lee’s teacher. The scene of an unarmed Master Ip facing down an armed Police Captain is a classic of the form.

*I…

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WikChip Image Ip Man amid the Japanese occupation
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Invictus
Very Good 83 Points 2009

This magnificent political biography also happens to be a very good movie. Not a great movie, but a great and important story, well told and even better acted by its two leads. Lessons in history and leadership should all be so charismatic.

The movie has rhythms and totems unfamiliar to Amer…

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WikChip Image American superstars as African heroes
Inside Llewyn D...
Perfect 66 Points 2013

The Coen Brothers latest is one of their best, strong praise indeed for the creators of classics that include The Big Lebowski, Intolerable Cruelty and Miller’s Crossing. Yet their evocation of a fictionalized early Sixties folk scene is pitch perfect. Star turns, outstanding songs and more tha…

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WikChip Video Justin & Carey sing Five Hundred Miles
In Old California
Good 66 Points 1942

In Old California is a simpleminded recreation of Old Sacramento in 1848 and then 1849, made in 1942. A quasi-historical tale, it mostly exists to showcase John Wayne looking quite-the-dandy, from Boston even. The settings are the thing now: pre-49er San Francisco and then up the river to Old…

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WikChip Image John Wayne, the Boston Dandy
Hostiles
Great 83 Points 2017

The American Indian Wars were mostly over by 1892. Bad blood ran deep, with bands of crazed killers roaming the land, as other combatants tried to move on with life after wartime. Writer-director Scott Cooper adroitly uses this brutal and beautiful milieu for a piercing story about a cavalry capt…

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Hoosiers
Great 69 Points 1986

Second chances define Hoosiers as much as basketball, even though the movie is widely considered the greatest hoops movie ever. Hell, some have declared it the greatest sports movie ever.

Thus non-sports fans needn’t shy away, as basketball is a backdrop to a terrific story about a middle-a…

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WikChip Image Hopper & Hackman look for redemption.