MovieSorter

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Elvis
Very Good 66 Points 2022

Elvis coulda been titled Baz given its near fatal dose of writer-director Baz Luhrmann’s overwrought style. Elvis Presley was no stranger to overwrought style, so the cinematic marriage works to a point. That point gets reached when Baz dwells on the overwrought story of Col. Tom Parker, notwit…

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Creed II
Very Good 66 Points 2018

Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky franchise lives on, now centered on a new generation and an African-American hero. This all works and provides a dose of social relevance, making Creed II a solid entrant in the Rocky canon. It’s also a better than average boxing movie, largely because it follows the …

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WikChip Image Behind most good men is a father figure
Hands of Stone
Good 66 Points 2016

Hands of Stone is a ham-fisted biopic of boxing great Roberto Durán. Raging Bull it’s not, notwithstanding Robert De Niro in a major role. That said, it does provide clear insight into Durán’s impoverished childhood, rise to prominence and fall from grace after his “No Mas” capitulation to Suga…

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WikChip Image Ana de Armas has star quality.
Paul Blart: Mal...
None Yet 0 Points 2015
Good Kill
Really Great 83 Points 2015

Obama’s War on Terror comes alive in Good Kill. Set in 2010, after the second POTUS to prosecute the Islamist War dramatically escalated drone warfare, it unflinchingly portrays the toll on airmen and their families from a new kind of combat in an incompetently defined war. Albeit fictional, it…

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WikChip Video Trailer for a thrilling & important m...
The Big Short
Great 66 Points 2015

The Big Short isn’t the Big Lie, but isn’t far from it either. The government hides just offscreen in Adam McKay’s seriocomic docudrama about the epic falsehoods that consumed the banking industry in 2008.

Falsehoods one and two were Washington’s ability to safely stimulate homeownership amo…

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WikChip Video Margot Robbie in a bubblebath
Eye in the Sky
Really Great 86 Points 2015

21st century war gets personal in the heart-pounding Eye in the Sky, one of the best 21st century war movies yet.1 Helen Mirren’s steely colonel directs a global military response to Islamist terror, adroitly coordinating activity in Kenya, Nevada, Hawaii, Bejing and Singapore from two rooms …

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WikChip Video Director & actor Gavin Hood talks tur...
Think Like a Ma...
None Yet 0 Points 2014
The Expendables 3
Very Good 66 Points 2014

Barney Ross makes his third and likely last big screen appearance in The Expendables 3, an overstuffed moviestar montage. Sylvester Stallone has gathered a new crop of kick-ass action heroes to go along with his returning set of aging action heroes. Add Mel Gibson as the super-villain and you e…

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WikChip Video The Movie In Brief
The Incredible ...
Barely OK 66 Points 2013

Magic is making the incredible seem real, per The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. Comedy magic is making the recognizable irresistibly funny, per me. Alas, this movie lacks comedy magic.

One wry smile, but no LOLs and no guffaws get triggered by its strenuous jokes. Pity too, because the cas…

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WikChip Image Try screwing this up. They did.