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Rumor Has It
OK 66 Points 2005

More drama than comedy makes Rumor Has It more trouble than it’s worth, especially for a middle-aged dude like me. Romcoms are good when they’re funny and sexy. Rumor Has It nails sexy but wiffs funny.

Jennifer Anniston is more irritated than comedic, yet still sexy as hell. Thus, this "c…

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WikChip Video Great Bit by 2 Great Stars
The Conversation
Good 66 Points 1974

The Conversation was one of Francis Ford Coppola’s celebrated early Seventies movies, nominated for Best Picture and winner of the Palme d’Or. Deeply accomplished, occasionally fascinating, a time capsule of San Francisco from 1973, it nonetheless disappoints all these decades later.

The min…

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WikChip Video Coppola talks 'The Conversation' in 1974
The Barefoot Co...
Great 66 Points 1954

Ava Gardner plays a moviestar inspired by Rita Hayworth and Humphrey Bogart a writer-director inspired by Joseph L. Mankiewicz in The Barefoot Contessa, Mankiewicz’s takedown of movie business amorality. A glamorous movie about showbiz mendacity, it is both brilliantly self-aware and gorgeous t…

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WikChip Video Classic Golden Age Scene
48 Hrs.
Great 66 Points 1982

Big time action-comedies kind of got started with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs. Big stars, big action, big laughs – big time. Walter Hill was an action guy, a Western action guy. Directing megahunk Nolte, with a never funnier Murphy, set in San Francisco, his big hit paved the way f…

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WikChip Video "New Sheriff in Town" Reggie Hammond
The Long Goodbye
OK 66 Points 1973

More an oddball curiosity than a successful movie, The Long Goodbye dropped a Forties private-eye story into the Seventies. Robert Altman used that juxtaposition to show how times had changed in the twenty years since the Raymond Chandler novel on which the movie is based came out. That it does…

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WikChip Image Altman directs van Pallandt & Gould
The Naked Gun
Great 66 Points 1988

Still LOL funny after all these years, The Naked Gun’s inspired lunacy retains its comedic potency.

Leslie Nielsen’s obtuse police detective played off a rogue’s gallery of evil archetypes, from the Ayatollah and other 1988 Axis of Evil bastards, to a local crime lord, earning legendary stat…

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WikChip Video Taking down an Axis of Evil
Get Shorty
Really Great 66 Points 1995

Is there a more enjoyable Elmore Leonard movie or charismatic John Travolta movie than Get Shorty? So what if it’s a trifle, a light crime-comedy. It’s a movie about the love of movies, which it celebrates with sleek Hollywood panache, rich Elmore Leonard flair and charming details. In short, *…

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WikChip Video Chili Palmer gets lost in Touch of Evil
Barton Fink
Great 66 Points 1991

The Coen Brothers are writers as much as directors, making Barton Fink – a satiric tribute to tortured writers and the demonic pull of Hollywood – more than a little self-reverential. Oops, did I say reverential? Referential, self-referential.

Either way, it’s one of their best movies, not…

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WikChip Video "It's the carrot that wags the dog." ...
Out of Sight
Really Great 66 Points 1998
Out of Sight and into the pantheon of crime-comedies – start with Stephen Soderburgh directing George Clooney in an Elmore Leonard story. Speaking of gorgeous, J-Lo gets into the trunk with G-Cloo.

Other positives: Bright bluesy opening; Danny DeVito’s Jersey Films producing; Clooney, youn…

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WikChip Image Trunk Spooning: Meet Cute Classic
The Wild One
OK 66 Points 1953

The Wild One is an iconic movie better now as an iconic image and line than a motion picture experience. The image? Marlon Brando as an outlaw biker, inspiring popular culture for the next half-century. The line?

Whattaya got?

You don’t have to be a Jeopardy whiz to k…

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WikChip Image "Whattaya got?"