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A Most Wanted Man
Very Good 83 Points 2014

Noted mostly as Philip Seymour Hoffman’s cinematic swan song, A Most Wanted Man is also a clear-eyed look at the long twilight struggle that we in the West have with the Islamists who are trying to kill us. Hoffman goes deep – real deep – as a 21st century German intel officer trying to keep Ha…

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WikChip Video 60 Minutes revisits Philip Seymour Ho...
Snowpiercer
Pretty Bad 83 Points 2013

Ridiculous, cliche ridden and gleefully cruel is a hell of a trifecta, and yet Snowpiercer nails all three. In fairness, I clicked STOP after 15 minutes, seriously sickened and sadly stupefied, only the second time out of thousands of movies watched that I’ve not stuck it out till the end.1 B…

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Insomnia
Very Good 83 Points 2002

The great Christopher Nolan directs Al Pacino and an oh-so-serious Robin Williams in an icy thriller. For fans of taut detective dramas, it’s all good.

A clever cat-and-mouse tale, Insomnia triggers the mind altering condition of its title via Alaska’s summertime sun – all day n’ all night …

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WikChip Video Originally overlooked. Worth watching.
Nightcrawler
Really Great 83 Points 2014

Nightcrawler is L.A.‘s Taxi Driver, with Jake Gyllenhaal’s morally vacuous street prowler supplanting Robert DeNiro’s demented urban loner. Dan Gilroy’s movie delivers a freakish amount of cinematic energy, exposing the nightmares of Los Angeles in particular, and our Eyewitness News society …

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WikChip Image Humanity? Hell no, keep filming.
The Imitation Game
Very Good 83 Points 2014

A father of computer science and nerdy war hero makes a fine subject for a rather dreamy biopic. Oh yeah, Alan Turing was also a persecuted gay man, back when homosexuality was criminalized in Great Britain. The Imitation Game thus has several storylines running through it, perhaps explaining w…

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WikChip Image The real Alan Turing, with a rare smile
Run All Night
Great 83 Points 2015

Run see Run All Night if Liam Neeson bonding, then brawling with Ed Harris sounds like your cup of tea. It sounded like mine, and was. The two venerable actors certainly don’t disappoint in their manly duet.

Formulaic in the extreme, RAN still has lots to like, starting with a great cast t…

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WikChip Image Genesis Rodriguez stuns at the premiere
Kill Me Three T...
Great 83 Points 2014

Kill Me Three Times is a terrifically entertaining piece of pulp fiction. Three deadly sins – wrath, greed, lust – play out in darkly comic circumstances. Set in a sunny beach town, it’s a ripper from Down Under.

The mere seven person cast seems larger. Simon Pegg ably anchors it as a hitman…

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WikChip Video Wrath, Greed & Lust = Great Movie
Ex Machina
Really Great 83 Points 2015

Ex Machina deserves the fulsome praise it has received from professional and amateur critics alike. Intellectually intriguing and erotically provocative, it unsheathes surprises and turnabouts to the very end. However, it does have a glaring flaw, one that deserves attention before further exam…

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WikChip Image Alicia's Ava: female plays fembot
San Andreas
Great 83 Points 2015

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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WikChip Video Sia's mournful California Dreaming
Lord Of War
Very Good 83 Points 2005

Letting Cage Be Cage: tight writing, fine casting, clever and well executed cinematic shooting and cutting. Deviously clever topicality.

This movie is – if nothing else – a meditation on war at its most despicably awful. Lord of War depicts wars that are not "the continuation of politics by …

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