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Anthropoid
Great 17 Points 2016

An extraordinary story about the assassination of SS General Reinhard Heydrich – the butcher of Prague. This famous chapter in history has plenty of drama, suspense , and a shocking account of the Nazi treatment of both the innocent and the complicit. The resistance from the Czech and Slovaks …

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Their Finest
Great 66 Points 2016

Their Finest is an exceptionally fine movie, a post-modern take on the decidedly earnest Greatest Generation, British variety. Unfortunately, it takes exceptional effort to find a theater where it’s playing.

Speaking of exceptional, Gemma Arterton, Sam Clafin and Bill Nighy are exceptionally…

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WikChip Video Bill Nighy steals the show as a minor...
Free State of J...
Really Great 83 Points 2016

Newton Knight is a newly essential Matthew McConaughey role that finally knights Newt Knight as a true American hero. Even more, Free State of Jones is an only-in-America story, so corny it could only be true. A deeply moral white man frees enslaved blacks and marries a black woman during the C…

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WikChip Video CBS Sunday Morning feature on Newt Kn...
God of War
Great 66 Points 2017

The Chinese vs. the Japanese in the 16th century makes for a great martial-arts war movie, full of Shaolin vs. samurai, kung fu vs. karate. This Chinese production tells the tale from the Chinese POV, with Japanese pirates raiding peaceful Han Chinese villages and engaging in war crimes as part o…

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WikChip Video Serious Business
American Assassin
Good 66 Points 2017

The War Against Islamist Terror gets short shrift in the nearly risible American Assassin, which starts well, powerfully well, but then goes mostly downhill. Quality aside: Sequel or No Sequel? That is the question. This origin story sets a low bar, yet made money, so why not a sequel. It’ll al…

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WikChip Video Lame conversation misses the point
Megan Leavey
Very Good 83 Points 2017

This is a damn good Iraq War movie, apolitical and told through the eyes of Marines who walked through the sands of hell. Plus, it’s a great Marine Corps movie overall. So why did it flame out at the theaters?

Start with the bad title. Megan Leavey is easy to say once you hear it, but is kin…

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WikChip Video The real Megan & Rex at Yankee Stadium
Dunkirk
Really Great 83 Points 2017

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk sets a new standard in faux cinéma vérité, so extreme is its IMAX-sized verisimilitude. As to its subject, it’s not as if the Miracle of Dunkirk has been ignored in World War II movies, most recently forming the backdrop of Their Finest

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WikChip Video Historical Context of Dunkirk
Darkest Hour
Great 83 Points 2017

Instead of The King’s Speech, Darkest Hour is The Prime Minister’s Speeches, Churchill’s speeches at the outset of WWII. It fixates on Sir Winston’s galvanizing addresses to Parliament and the British people during the darkest hour for the UK, and for all of civilization. His words ignited …

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WikChip Video Even the trailer is stirring!
Wonder Woman
Really Great 83 Points 2017

Miss Israel kicks ass as Wonder Woman. But that’s not all, not by a long shot. Wonder Woman is a perfect superhero movie, deeply of the genre, yet soaring above it. That puts it in the small pantheon of DC movies, deadly earnest in the DC tradition, a la The Dark Knight

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WikChip Video That's right, the women are smarter.
Journey's End
Good 17 Points 2017

Major drama focusing on the deep feelings of fear and dread from British Officers stuck in a dugout in Aisne in 1918. The Germans are about to come over the wall, and it took unbelievable bravery to overcome raw nerves where the reward was death and destruction. The movie was a bit overbearing …

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