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Four Christmases
Awful 66 Points 2008

Painfully unfunny. The movie starts off cute, then immediately goes into the can, with perhaps one humorous scene stuck somewhere in the middle. The premise of a self-absorbed yuppie couple getting emotionally tortured by their self-absorbed divorced families means that the humor is all based o…

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Taken
Very Good 98 Points 2008

This surprisingly effective revenge thriller plays better than its formulaic trailer might suggest. The mix of A-List star, well written script and competent direction injects plenty of life into an implausible set-up and the resulting cat-and-mouse games.

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WikChip Image A-List Star Slumming = Movie Worth Se...
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$5 a Day
Good 83 Points 2008

A smalltime con artist reconnects with his reluctant son as they scam their way cross-country in $5 a Day. The whole thing has an understated lunacy to it that evokes a bygone era.
Indeed, it feels like an old-time movie set in the Rap Era.

$5 a Day has three main assets: classic Christo…

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WikChip Image Ageless Stone: charisma & sex appeal
Changeling
Really Great 83 Points 2008

Polish up the acceptance speeches. Changeling deserves a passel of trophies, though Best Picture isn’t one of them. The difficult story – while expertly told – ends up a mildly exhausting slog, one not worth enduring for anyone not wanting to visualize the most elemental of maternal nightmare…

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The Wrecking Crew
Great 83 Points 2008

Fans of the Beach Boys, Glen Campbell, the Mamas & the Papas, Sonny & Cher or Nancy Sinatra should seek out this documentary about the unsung musicians who made their music for them. The Wrecking Crew wasn’t an official name for the group. These independent studio players didn’t have an officia…

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WikChip Video Carol Kaye stars on Good Vibrations.
Milk
Great 89 Points 2008

An immensely well done piece of agitprop, built around Sean Penn’s Best Actor performance and featuring Gus Van Sant’s most fully realized directing effort, this admirable biopic presents a world apart, yet right next door to the one in which most of us live and were raised.

Straights needn’t …

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WikChip Image Sean Penn displays a lightness of being.
I Love You, Man
Great 71 Points 2009

Bro-larious. 40% LOL, which is damn good, plenty sufficient and about all you can expect, really. The movie amusingly skewers many demographics: brides and grooms, marrieds and singles, slackers and young professionals, gays and straights, not to mention that ever self-indulgent cohort – LA ass…

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Shrink
Good 17 Points 2009

Kevin Spacey is a natural as a weed-addicted psychotherapist to the stars on a downward spiral. Thanks to Kevin and the wacky cast of characters around him – all of whom behave in eccentric and badly behaving LA kind of ways, this movie is actually pretty funny. It is however a drama, with deep …

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This Is It
Great 78 Points 2009

Michael Jackson – like Elvis – left the building at a shockingly young age, inadvertently bestowing this rehearsal documentary to posterity. It’s quite the confection, demonstrating the singular brilliance of an otherworldly showbiz creature while leaving us wanting more.

The movie makes clea…

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WikChip Video This - in long form - Is It.
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Star Trek
Great 131 Points 2009
Big Fun

An old friend made new, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek deserves Gene Roddenberry’s blessing from the deep space hereafter. Cultural fountainhead for four decades now, Roddenberry’s creation bequeathed into the zeitgeist green-skinned alien hotties, “Phasers on stun,” "Beam me up Scotty,…

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WikChip Image Uh oh San Francisco
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