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Les Misérables
Barely OK 78 Points 2012

People want to love Les Miz and many have, including the Oscars and a fellow ViewGuider. Fair enough. Beloved is beloved, especially when a blockbuster movie doesn’t stint on production values or star power. Sometimes however, an ugly truth is hiding right in plain sight, or in plain earshot…

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WikChip Image Samantha Barks stands out in a crowd
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Casablanca
Perfect 73 Points 1942

The best movie ever is still fresh, funny, romantic and captivating after all these decades. Try it as a date movie, perfect for him and for her. After all, “we’ll always have Paris.”

Casablanca remains important because it transcendently dealt with life-and-death political challenges, nam…

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Slumdog Million...
Perfect 72 Points 2008

Slumdog Millionaire couldn’t be more of the moment if it was named President-elect Barack Obama: a Mumbai movie that delivers world class entertainment about a Muslim media sensation. The three kids at its center aren’t religious or radical, though their profound victimization makes it easy to…

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WikChip Video Slumdog Millionaire: Trailer
Dangerous Liaisons
Really Great 67 Points 1988

Five big-names starring in “the best period film”1 make Steven Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons really great. Frears, he of The Queen, employs Michelle Pfeiffer, Glen Close, a nubile Uma Thurmond and a horny John Malkovich in bringing Christopher Hampton’s …

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WikChip Image They are impressive. The cast, that is.
The Philadelphi...
Very Good 66 Points 1940

Call me crazy, but I find The Philadelphia Story inferior to Bringing Up Baby, its contemporaneous cousin. Katherine Hepburn’s comeback movie – the picture that cemented her status as a hit-making star – is a very fine romcom and an understandable member of seven American Film Institute all-t…

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WikChip Image Starburst: Grant, Hepburn, Stewart
This Means War
Pretty Bad 66 Points 2012

Woof. This Means War lacks charm, laughs and sexiness. How’s that last happen with the scrumptious Reese Witherspoon being fought over by Chris Pine and Tom Hardy? Leading men don’t get much hotter.

Blame bad directing, worse writing and a general lack of chemistry between these normally …

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WikChip Image The look on Reese's face? Vocational ...
The American Pr...
Very Good 66 Points 1995

The American President succeeds grandly as a romantic comedy and ironically as a revealing peek into cushy Democratic pieties, of which Aaron Sorkin and Rob Reiner’s 1990s movie is a cinematic catechism.

It focuses on a likeable man in the third year of his Presidency who is animated primari…

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WikChip Video Cushy Left Wing values turned up to 11.
Heartbreaker
Good 66 Points 2010

The French sure know how to concoct clever romantic comedies. If only the execution were up to snuff, Heartbreaker would be a classic of the genre. Oh bien, it screams for an American remake anyway. Hollywood simply has to cast their version better for a monster hit.

Heartbreaker mask…

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WikChip Video Romantic Comedy, French Flair
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
Salmon Fishing ...
OK 66 Points 2012

An awkward title and stilted premise suggest an awkward movie. It is. It’s also very British. Imagine that.

Its two strong leads can’t do much but look great. Well they can also sound great, which they do.

Still ain’t enough, as we say here in the States.

Back to the title, what’s up…

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WikChip Image Oddball Setting for a Romance