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![]() Spectacular calamity followed by impressive vengeance makes Olympus Has Fallen an amply satisfying cinematic experience. So what if it’s jingoism. It’s extremely well executed jingoism, by jingo! Patriotic action-movie fans – like me – happen to like this sort of button-pushing entertainment…
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Stunts and FX make the movie.
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![]() Nobody’s Fool was a late career classic for everybody’s favorite moviestar. Paul Newman’s townie hand revels in being his own man, consequences be damned. He’s the town fool, even if he’s nobody’s fool — but his own. Moviestar performances from not only King Cool but also Bruce Willis, Me…
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Paul Newman: Mr. Sensitive
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![]() High concept meets high ass in Neighbors. Adolescent studs move in next door to immature new parents. Hijinks ensue, with lots of laughs, LOLs even. However, pervasive grossness keeps Seth Rogen & Nicholas Stoller’s movie from greatness, even by the standards of hard-R comedies. "F’ing Sara…
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The airbag bit is funniest in this tr...
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![]() Nebraska is a triumph of character development and acting. Good thing, since the plot only goes from A to B – or from Billings to Omaha, which is further than A is from B, but not by much. It dyspeptically portrays Middle-American lives lived as nasty and brutish. Short too? No, long and …
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The toughest of them all: June Squibb
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![]() Glamorous L.A. noir from back when real men wore fedoras makes Mulholland Falls a high calorie treat. A sultry Jennifer Connolly cavorting with John Malkovich and Nick Nolte makes it a guilty pleasure. Cheesy dialogue makes it a bit tough to swallow. Should this luxo crime thriller be bett…
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Malkovich & Connelly make the movie
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![]() Joe Morgenstern declared Mud an instant classic in the Wall Street Journal. Not sure why, but hell yes. You almost want to ding Mud for being such a classically terrific movie, but damn if it doesn’t play out as monumentally cinematic yet nearly natural. Kind of a crime caper involving b…
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Leading men, now & then: Matthew & Tye
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![]() Moviestar movies get no better than this one. Super hot, totally cold and dead-bang funny, this huge hit could have been overwhelmed by the fusion of its soon-to-be-coupled stars. Instead Brangelina’s debut perfectly serves the power-couple satire, even more so in hindsight given how their real…
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Moviestar Chemistry Incarnate
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![]() A married Cary Grant being tempted by Marilyn Monroe is ample inducement to watch Monkey Business. Yet mere adulterous titillation undersells this sparkling marital comedy from the early Fifties. The movie centers on Grant’s loving relationship with his wife, played by a deft Ginger Rodgers. …
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Cary & Ginger find their inner children
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![]() Deaths in the family surround Casey Affleck’s New Englander, dragging him down and knocking him around in Manchester by the Sea. Kenneth Lonergan’s latest fractured-family film has been highly praised at film festivals and has Oscar buzz around it, especially for Affleck’s tortured performance….
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Before it all went to hell
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![]() Deeply, floridly Italian, Malèna is a sumptuous WWII find, a Sicilian movie extraordinaire and a devastating depiction of Italian machismo reacting to the hottest signorina since Sophia Loren. Monica Belluci plays the title character, a gorgeous war bride living in a small Sicilian town, bro…
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where Malèna went, the town followed
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