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Oliver Stone loves making drug-trade movies, war movies and especially drug war movies. So a California drug war makes an ideal subject for his obsessions. Savages – the title flaunts its nihilistic appeal – fills the bill. Speaking of flaunting, Stone’s movie sports rich ingredients but nev…
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Salma Hayek -- Cleopatra Kingpin
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Dallas Buyers Club is another triumph for Matthew McConaughey. It’s also a vivid evocation of the gritty side of Dallas circa 1985, along with the chaos that accompanied the early years of the AIDS epidemic. However, like its lead character, the movie is self-satisfied to a fault, self-rightou…
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She's very popular in SF, NY and LA.
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A woman on the edge propels the oh-so-smart drama in this almost too clever movie. The story turns back in on itself time and again, not fully revealing its convergence till the end. An ultimately satisfying twist does come, though not before we’re asked to hang in through lots of puzzlingly se…
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OK, not from the movie, but Jennifer!!
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Narco-gang depravity meets its match when things go military on the Mexican border in Sicario, Spanish for “hitman”. A semi-successful Emily Blunt rebels against this turn of events. Semi-successful? Her performance, not her rebellion, which is unsuccessful. Yet the movie is much more than semi…
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Coming Thru!!
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The tangled web of deception surrounding James Bond reaches its nexus in Spectre, a more than serviceable installment in the Blond Bond Era. Daniel Craig’s 007 is once again a stone-cold assassin, reprising the gritty killer persona he established in Casino Royale and has doggedly pursued in …
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Monica Bellucci is spectacular.
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Masterminds starts off rock-and-roll, but soon becomes dumb-and-dumber, only not so funny or charming. Loosely “based on a true story”, it oscillates between parody and homage, albeit more the former given its deep SNL roots. Unfortunately, TV-quality sketch comedy bits don’t a great movie make…
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Comedy Great: Kate McKinnon
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Samurai cowboys save a poor village in ye old Mexico, riding in to one of the greatest themes of all time. Fifty years on, the all-star cast impresses less than the bravura music — the Marlboro jingle still arouses. The Magnificent Seven famously remakes Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai…
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Elmer Bernstein's Magnificent Theme
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“Do you realize I haven’t kissed you in over an hour?” says Charlton Heston to Janet Leigh at the end of Touch of Evil’s famous opening scene, three and a half minutes of directorial perfection. One long tracking shot, it features close-ups leading to long shadows, followed by long shots of cho…
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Touch of Genius: the legendary opening
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A merely OK movie can still be enjoyable if it’s got something outstanding about it. Primo buddies do the trick in 2 Guns. The rest of the cast and film? Less than stellar and just OK. Plus the title doesn’t help. 2 Guns is too blunt – so 2 speak. I wanted to bump up my final summa…
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Perfect buddies do their thing in 2 G...
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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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Zero Wolf: Holcane Warrior captain
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