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Signs
Great 68 Points 2002

M. Night Shyamalan peaked with Signs. Wonderfully creepy and magnificently manipulative, it’s a self-consciously old-school scary movie. Even this non-horror fan enjoyed it.

Mel Gibson’s Muted Max performance anchors writer-director Shyamalan’s achingly heavy story. Leading a great cast…

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WikChip Image Charismatically great acting: Gibson ...
Dangerous Liaisons
Really Great 67 Points 1988

Five big-names starring in “the best period film”1 make Steven Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons really great. Frears, he of The Queen, employs Michelle Pfeiffer, Glen Close, a nubile Uma Thurmond and a horny John Malkovich in bringing Christopher Hampton’s …

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WikChip Image They are impressive. The cast, that is.
Secondhand Lions
Very Good 66 Points 2003

Great-uncles lead to great adventure for a boy in need of a loving home. Some have put down this movie as sentimental and bland, but I found it wry and satisfying. Especially for boys and men, the resonance runs deep. Come to think of it, it would be the perfect movie to watch on Father’s Day,…

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Duma
Great 66 Points 2005

Wonderful movie about a boy and his cheetah. Heartfelt, sufficiently realistic and not sappy. Bravo.

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Beetlejuice
Very Good 66 Points 1988

Lesser Tim Burton and greater Michael Keaton add up to a fitfully funny fantasy. Keaton nails the title role, a ghost-for-hire paid to chase off pesky humans. If only he were onscreen for more of the movie.

Burton achieved greater comic-horror results with Edward Scissorhands

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WikChip Image Somebody get this man a microphone.
Finding Neverland
Very Good 66 Points 2004

The man who wrote Peter Pan meets the brothers who inspired the story in Finding Neverland. He also meets their mother, played by the fetching Kate Winslet. Julie Christie plays her mother and Radha Mitchell plays his wife, as terrific a trio of top actresses as you’re likely to find.

Seve…

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WikChip Image Boy Who Never Grew Up
Sunset Blvd.
Perfect 66 Points 1950

Hollywood’s greatest confection is and has always been Hollywood, a reality that the fabulous imagery of Sunset Blvd. celebrates better than any movie before or since. Oh yeah, it’s also a hell of a lot of fun, a black & white cauldron of irony, ambition and beauty, full of devilish turns and …

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WikChip Video A Hyperbolic Trailer That Doesn't Ove...
The Philadelphi...
Very Good 66 Points 1940

Call me crazy, but I find The Philadelphia Story inferior to Bringing Up Baby, its contemporaneous cousin. Katherine Hepburn’s comeback movie – the picture that cemented her status as a hit-making star – is a very fine romcom and an understandable member of seven American Film Institute all-t…

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WikChip Image Starburst: Grant, Hepburn, Stewart
Dial M for Murder
Good 66 Points 1954

Dial M for Murder is lesser Hitchcock, yet worth watching for its classic tropes, timeless title and for Grace Kelly. But, the convoluted and constrained plot is insufficiently removed from its stage play roots.

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WikChip Image Hitch loved blond: Grace Kelly's Gold...
Cat on a Hot Ti...
Very Good 66 Points 1958

The eyes have it! Well, the eyes and the lies have it. The eyes belong to golden superstars Paul Newman & Elizabeth Taylor — his intense blue orbs opposite her intoxicating violet ones, no FX involved with either. The lies, well, the lies drive the story, with the fancy word “mendacity” bandied a…

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WikChip Video Liz Taylor gets sexy with Paul Newman