MovieSorter

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Burn After Reading
Good 115 Points 2008

This modern farce picks up a decent head-of-steam, but rarely becomes LOL funny, and ultimately suffers from its makers’ oddball sense of timing and irony. Bottom line: a lesser Coen Brothers comedy, worth watching but not treasuring.

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WikChip Image If only the movie were this funny.
Taken
Very Good 98 Points 2008

This surprisingly effective revenge thriller plays better than its formulaic trailer might suggest. The mix of A-List star, well written script and competent direction injects plenty of life into an implausible set-up and the resulting cat-and-mouse games.

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WikChip Image A-List Star Slumming = Movie Worth Se...
3 Replies
  • BrianSez – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
  • jasonhurwitz – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
  • Wick – Excellent review Tom. I hadn't heard anything about...
The Kingdom
Very Good 96 Points 2007

The Hollywood action movie treatment gets applied to Islamist terrorism in the center of Arabian Oil power in The Kingdom. The result is an entertaining and enlightening show that has more than enough relevance to raise it above run-of-the-mill popcorn fare.

Several mainstream media critic…

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Body of Lies
Good 83 Points 2008

Given the dismal state of Islamist terror movies, this surprisingly evenhanded thriller tops the heap, though its disjointed plot comes together slowly and Leonardo DiCaprio’s CIA character lacks charisma. Fortunately he’s flanked by two great actors, the estimable Russell Crowe and the slickly …

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Hanna
Very Good 83 Points 2011

Action thrillers come no more accomplished than Hanna, brilliant director Joe Wright’s latest and perhaps greatest film. Profiling a genetically-modified 16 year old girl who would put 24’s Jack Bauer to shame, Wright finds ample opportunity for his trademark bravura filmmaking along with a …

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WikChip Image Jessica Barden: Girl's got starlet po...
Safe House
Good 83 Points 2012

Denzel Washington as a badass CIA agent gone rogue is reason enough to watch Safe House. Good thing, since the rest of the movie is just OK: weakly acted aside from the superstar, ridiculously plotted, unconvincingly over-the-top in its action. Plus it’s consumed with a WikiLeak-like passion …

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WikChip Image Summa Cum Laude Movie-star Charisma
Act of Valor
Great 83 Points 2012

Think of Act of Valor as real US Naval Special Warfare come to cineplexes, not as a normal war movie. Thus the valor is certain, the acting not so much.

Directed by a couple of former stuntmen and starring a bunch of active duty SEALs, it is earnest in the extreme and often wooden in its no…

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WikChip Video Real bullets make this a unique movie
2 Replies
  • BrianSez – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
  • Wick – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
The Bourne Legacy
Good 83 Points 2012

The first Bourne-less Bourne sequel felt more like a slog than a thrilling chase. Then its climax felt like a pause, which it is … for the next episode. So after more than two hours of frenetic activity, it wasn’t clear the movie was actually over. Some legacy.

Let’s stipulate that most r…

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WikChip Image Norton: Soulless jerk, yes. Gravitas,...
5 Replies
  • Wick – Regarding "Wick's Review":http://www.viewguide.com/m...
  • BrianSez – Regarding "Wick's Review":http://www.viewguide.com/m...
  • Wick – Regarding "Wick's Review":http://www.viewguide.com/m...
  • BrianSez – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
Argo
Really Great 83 Points 2012

Two political movies were released this third weekend before the Obama retention election – one on heroic capitalism, the other recreating a little known cloak-and-dagger success during the Iranian Hostage Crisis, an otherwise dismal chapter in American history. The second movie – Argo – is th…

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WikChip Image Making a fake hit movie
Zero Dark Thirty
Really Great 83 Points 2012

Zero Dark Thirty tells the truthy tale of the deadly hunt for Osama bin Laden, making it one of the most potent political movies of all time. The certain reverberations are hard to predict. Wikileaks? Wikiflick.

It starts with a dark screen, then a title card. September 11, 2001. Scre…

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WikChip Image Toe-to-toe over how to find bin Laden