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The Girl with t...
Great 66 Points 2010

Hollywood must be licking its chops to remake this Swedish hit. Chockablock with career-making roles, combining fashionable anti-capitalist politics with feminist blood-lust, and striking a crisply efficient thriller tone, it suffers only from a poor title, not that that matters given how huge t…

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WikChip Video Good trailer, great movie.
Apocalypto
Great 66 Points 2006

Half anthropological study, half snuff film, Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto is fascinating and often breathtaking. Oh yeah, it’s also gratuitously violent, giving full reign to its creator’s sick taste for hand-to-hand savagery.

Mad Mel’s movie canvases a panoply of Mayan curiosities: human sacrif…

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WikChip Image Zero Wolf: Holcane Warrior captain
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." ...
American Gigolo
Great 66 Points 1980

American Gigolo kickstarted the Eighties. It made the Seventies suddenly – instantly – yesterday. Unkempt & brassy gave way to sleek & sophisticated, disco to New Wave. How? Gere wearing Armani, driving a Mercedes, listening to Blondie in Schrader’s glimmering California masterpiece, that’s…

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WikChip Video The Call Me intro defined the Eighties
Interview with ...
Great 66 Points 1994

Looking for a real vampire movie? Baroque, bloody, bawdy, not to mention strict with the rules, Interview with the Vampire fits the bill. Indeed, Anne Rice’s celebrated novel led to a quintessential vampire movie: star powered, obsessively detailed and expansively imagined. Even mature movie…

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WikChip Video Feast Your Fangs, er... Eyes on This
Bad Lieutenant:...
Great 66 Points 2009

It’s a good thing that bad blood and a bad title don’t trump brilliant execution of a great set-up, because otherwise Bad Lt. NOLA wouldn’t be such a wildly entertaining time at the movies. But it is. Oh man is it ever. Dark comedy gets no more grim, nor rarely as LOL funny as here. Think o…

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WikChip Image Anthropomorphic Projection of Reptili...
Hud
Very Good 66 Points 1963

Paul Newman wanted to be bad and got his wish with Hud. He plays a charismatic asshole, a user and abuser whose evil becomes increasingly evident as the movie rolls along. Three Oscars came in its wake, though King Cool himself had to be satisfied with just a nomination. Think Hud would’ve s…

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WikChip Image His unwanted attention brought her an...
Blood Work
Very Good 66 Points 2002

Prime Clint, the reluctant avenging hero, forced here to battle a faulty heart and a cleverly playful serial killer. This understated classic proves that even Eastwood’s minor movies tend to be tautly paced, cleverly constructed and richly satisfying.

The clever construction comes from the co…

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WikChip Image Wanda De Jesus: Clint loves strong wo...
Dogtooth
Pretty Awful 66 Points 2009

“Dogtooth” is a curiously unappealing title, even given this celebrated movie’s self-conscious weirdness. Somehow Dogtooth made my Gotta View List, so I ultimately got around to viewing it. What a mistake.

It tells the story of a wealthy and robotic Greek family who use code for common wor…

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WikChip Image Sex that is unsexy & unthreatening
Mulholland Falls
Good 66 Points 1996

Glamorous L.A. noir from back when real men wore fedoras makes Mulholland Falls a high calorie treat. A sultry Jennifer Connolly cavorting with John Malkovich and Nick Nolte makes it a guilty pleasure. Cheesy dialogue makes it a bit tough to swallow.

Should this luxo crime thriller be bett…

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WikChip Image Malkovich & Connelly make the movie