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King of California
OK 84 Points 2007

Well intentioned flop: the comedy never inspires laughs and the drama never hits home. Nonetheless, the great concept – oddball father drags practical daughter on a real treasure hunt through modern day suburbia – and the likable performances by Evan Rachel Wood and Michael Douglas make this wat…

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Chimpanzee
Great 83 Points 2012

Youth is wasted on the young – the saying goes. The same can be said about Chimpanzee. Not that children won’t appreciate it. They’ll love it. It’s just that grownups will appreciate it more, though how many adults without kids in tow deign to see “family” nature documentaries?

Dramatic …

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WikChip Video A Sweet Taste from the Trailer
War Horse
Great 83 Points 2011

Stephen Spielberg’s War Horse is an instant classic in several categories:

  • War Movies: WWI’s trench warfare, poison gas and mismatch between pre-industrial and industrial warfare are vividly shown, albeit without the explicit savagery of Saving Private Ryan
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WikChip Image Bringing Swords to a Gun Fight
1 Reply
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Moonrise Kingdom
Great 83 Points 2012

Wes Anderson movies are an acquired taste – highly stylized, absurdly droll comedies. Moonrise Kingdom? Stylized well into pronounced surrealism. Yet it works due to a lovely and improbable romance between a couple of emotionally disturbed twelve year-olds.

Being a Wes Anderson movie, the…

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WikChip Image Searching for her man, er, boy.
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  • Wick – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
Super 8
Really Great 83 Points 2011

Spielbergian indeed — middle school kids running their own show, parents stricken with tragedy, lots of bike riding, police cruisers and one big honking Air Force train in one hell of a crash.

Cincinnati, we’ve got a problem.

And America’s got a really great summer blockbuster. Set in mid…

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WikChip Image The Older Sister: Amanda Michalka
Life of Pi
Very Good 83 Points 2012

Portraying religious faith amidst tragic hardship is a lot of weight for a mainstream movie to carry. Fortunately Life of Pi features visual wonders and frequent grace notes to lighten the load, resulting in an exhausting if moving cinematic experience.

The movie is taken from the celebrate…

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WikChip Image Boy, Tiger, Whale: Wondrous
2 Replies
  • BrianSez – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
  • Wick – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
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
1 Reply
  • Wick – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
Don Jon
Great 83 Points 2013

Heterosexual relationships circa 2013 get skewered in Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s smoking hot opus Don Jon. The awkward title – albeit bold in its simplicity – undersells what an accomplished undertaking this is by JGL, who continues a long running ascent towards Hollywood immortality.

His hig…

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WikChip Image Father-Son bonding
The Joneses
Pretty Bad 83 Points 2009

A hypocritical indictment of conspicuous consumption, this bargain-basement satire never strikes beyond the obvious. Nominally attempting to bury the cult of brands, The Joneses instead praises them – name dropping and extolling cars, fragrances, golf clubs and all the effluvia touted in the a…

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WikChip Image Amber Heard: Generic hottie, generic ...
Ender's Game
Good 83 Points 2013

Nice try, but Ender’s Game is barely a winner. Perhaps Orson Scott Card was right in saying his lauded SciFi novel is unfilmable.

BrianSez and other fans of Card’s novel and its sequels may like it better than a newbie like me. I ha…

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WikChip Image What's going on in there Ender?