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Lost in America’s reputation exceeds its reality. Modestly funny in 1985, its four memorable scenes live on in the mind’s eye, but fail to sustain this mere 91 minute movie. Turns out its nest-egg wasn’t enough. Not that it doesn’t have a great line here and there.
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"Oh I know, you mean the $100,000 box."
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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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Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky franchise lives on, now centered on a new generation and an African-American hero. This all works and provides a dose of social relevance, making Creed II a solid entrant in the Rocky canon. It’s also a better than average boxing movie, largely because it follows the …
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Behind most good men is a father figure
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Who’s on first? Tom Cruise to start, until Dustin Hoffman outshines him in an acting duet for the ages. Rain Man is all that and much more, a wonderful movie full of charm, humanity and insight. It won the Big Four Oscars in 1989 – Best Picture, Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman), Best Director and Be…
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The Oscars were once revered.
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Elvis coulda been titled Baz given its near fatal dose of writer-director Baz Luhrmann’s overwrought style. Elvis Presley was no stranger to overwrought style, so the cinematic marriage works to a point. That point gets reached when Baz dwells on the overwrought story of Col. Tom Parker, notwit… |
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When everybody rates a movie as Five Star, calling it one of the greatest ever made, the stakes are high. Expectations of perfection prevail. Expectations, meet Sullivan’s Travels, a perfect Golden Age movie. Sullivan’s Travels is a movie about the movies, about comedies mostly, from whi…
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Lake's legs in Head's costumes
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Yes I did and I’m glad I did, saw San Andreas, in 3D and everything. Having long since become a Californian, I felt ready for its disaster movie ethos of If you love something, destroy it on the big screen. Fortunately, San Andreas is a consummately manipulative and charming blockbuster….
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Sia's mournful California Dreaming
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Matthew McConaughey rode the tiger (yet again) in the under-titled Gold, the truthy tale of a hard-living, third-gen miner who never ever gives up hope. This Weinstein Company release revels in peeping at the rise, fall, rise and fall of a quasi-rapacious capitalist kook. From the Left, revenge…
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Gold digger closes in on paydirt
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The Peter Principle personified: Kevin Spacey reached his level of incompetence by writing, directing and starring in Beyond the Sea, a surreal biopic of Bobby Darin. The starring part was mostly fine. The writing and directing parts, not so much. Darin’s terrific songs make the movie an…
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Kate Bosworth models Sandra Dee
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Not Money, “Money” being Swingers’ buzzword for winning. Granted the movie stood out in the mid-90s for its over-the-top retro sensibilities and for introducing Vince Vaughn’s charming jerk act to a wide audience. Those attributes and an achingly lovely Heather Graham are all that recommend i… |