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Butter
Pretty Bad 66 Points 2012

Butter is rancid, a comedy devoid of laughs and full of bile. No LOLs, no guffaws, not even a single smile gets triggered by its steady stream of condescension. Mean spiritedness in a comedy can work, so long as the movie brings the laughs. If it’s unfunny, then it’s just smug, catty and mean…

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WikChip Image A figment of Hollywood imagination
Cosmopolis
Barely OK 66 Points 2012

The poster tells the tale. Robert Pattinson starring in a David Cronenberg movie of a Don DeLillo book is all you need to know about Cosmopolis. A deeply surreal fable about the evil rich as embodied by a soulless manqué sums it up. Oh yeah, bloody wounds get inflicted. It is a David Cronenb…

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WikChip Image Financial vampire in 4 wheel stretch ...
Quartet
OK 66 Points 2012

Senior citizen cinema is experiencing somewhat of a boomlet now. Quartet typifies the trend, spinning a gently comedic story about old flames who reunite in a retirement home for musicians and opera singers. It’s a pleasant enough movie, albeit too formulaic to be really interesting.

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WikChip Image Now that's a retirement home.
My Awkward Sexu...
Good 66 Points 2012

From Canada comes a fresh and often funny sex comedy. It is what it says it is: high concept applied to low regions. Thus you get sleeping sex, a bright and poppy production, and a jilted accountant flying off to Toronto for pictorial proof that other girls find him attractive. Did I mention t…

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WikChip Image Man Whore gets the party started
Birdmen: The Or...
Really Great 17 Points 2012

I’ve done some crazy stuff in my younger years, including hang gliding, but these guys have the biggest ‘cohones’ that I’ve ever seen. Making plans to step off a cliff, zoom past a rapidly approaching hillside, and judging when to pull the chute. An amazing thing to see. In Birdmen, you’ll lea…

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End of Watch
Great 83 Points 2012

I avoided End of Watch when it came out in 2012, thinking it was just a steroidal TV Cop Show, moviestar Jake Gyllenhaal notwithstanding. Then David Ayer’s movie demanded attention, given BrianSez’s effusive review and Ayer’s recent mas…

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WikChip Video Cop Dogma in Outstanding Open Scene
This Means War
Pretty Bad 66 Points 2012

Woof. This Means War lacks charm, laughs and sexiness. How’s that last happen with the scrumptious Reese Witherspoon being fought over by Chris Pine and Tom Hardy? Leading men don’t get much hotter.

Blame bad directing, worse writing and a general lack of chemistry between these normally …

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WikChip Image The look on Reese's face? Vocational ...
Broken City
Very Good 66 Points 2013

A tremendous cast makes short work of an overwrought but underdone story in Broken City. Crowe, Wahlberg and Zeta-Jones are the single-namers, and Kyle Chandler should be. They’re not all. The strong supporting cast includes Barry Pepper, luscious Natalie Martinez and engaging newcomer Britn…

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WikChip Image Katherine Zeta-Jones' star turn
Mama
Good 66 Points 2013

Ghost stories should all be as good as Mama, as should Jessica Chastain performances. While the teens in Mama’s PG-13 demographic may not care about Chastain, we adults dragged along for the ride do. Fortunately everyone will value seeing a first-rate ghost story – spooky, startling, affectin…

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WikChip Image Nothing vulnerable about this Chastain
Side Effects
Very Good 66 Points 2013

Tangled murder mystery, 2013 psychiatric variety, thy name is Side Effects. Shrink meds have become a defining phenomena of our therapeutic age, yet brain doctors lack diagnostics beyond human observation. Still. No imaging, no blood tests but for some side-effects. Side-effects plus murder …

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WikChip Image There she is, all happy. Great acting.