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A lesser Scorsese crime movie, Casino can’t shake the shadow of Goodfellas, especially given the central presence of De Niro and Pesci. Still, a good Scorsese crime movie with an A-list cast ain’t chopped liver. |
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Unlike Bonnie and Clyde, the Newton Boys were successful bank robbers, so it’s an injustice that they’re not as famous – nor their biopic as celebrated – as that of those other early 20th century Texas outlaws. Especially because The Newton Boys is a slick, rollicking and interesting movie, on… |
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“Do you realize I haven’t kissed you in over an hour?” says Charlton Heston to Janet Leigh at the end of Touch of Evil’s famous opening scene, three and a half minutes of directorial perfection. One long tracking shot, it features close-ups leading to long shadows, followed by long shots of cho…
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Touch of Genius: the legendary opening
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Dennis Lehane took a short-story set in his characteristic Boston and expanded it into a screenplay set in Brooklyn. This works, great writer that he is, even if the story’s legs don’t so much cohere as cohabitate. The Drop won’t cohabitate as among his best with Mystic River…
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Hardy & Schoenaerts play American.
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Oliver Stone loves making drug-trade movies, war movies and especially drug war movies. So a California drug war makes an ideal subject for his obsessions. Savages – the title flaunts its nihilistic appeal – fills the bill. Speaking of flaunting, Stone’s movie sports rich ingredients but nev…
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Salma Hayek -- Cleopatra Kingpin
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I’ve been a Kurt Russell fan since The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, making him perhaps my favorite moviestar. He’s played Elvis, he’s played the last living man on a polar mission, he raised Kate Hudson after “marrying” my favorite comedienne Goldie Hawn and he’s still worth watching. Crunch Calho…
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Kurt Russell's still got it.
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When it comes to grading Smokin’ Aces, I’m splitting the difference between Spaceghost’s Really Great and BrianSez’s Barely OK. My Good reflects the movie’s stellar cast and glimmering Vegas visuals. That said, it ain’t good in any moral sense. In fact it’s a sociopathic cesspool that not on…
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FBI partners Ryan Reynolds & Ray Liotta
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Hands of Stone is a ham-fisted biopic of boxing great Roberto Durán. Raging Bull it’s not, notwithstanding Robert De Niro in a major role. That said, it does provide clear insight into Durán’s impoverished childhood, rise to prominence and fall from grace after his “No Mas” capitulation to Suga…
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Ana de Armas has star quality.
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Quentin Tarantino defines True Romance more than the major stars who are in it – Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson & James Gandolfini included – or its big-time director, Top Gun Tony Scott. Pulp fiction and Mexican standoffs mark…
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Crazy Kids
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Charismatic, disorienting and brooding, Animal Kingdom presents the truthy tale of an infamous crime family, including their murder of two Melbourne cops. The brooding gets a bit much by the third reel, weighing down what would otherwise be a great true-crime movie. The charisma comes from …
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Infamous crime family, charismatic movie
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