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 | More Like A Rough Cut, Unpolished Gem Directed by Michael Radford ([b]The Merchant of Venice[/b], [b]Il Postino[/b], [b]1984[/b]) and written by Edward Anderson, [b]Flawless[/b] is a 60s-set heist film starring one old pro, Michael Caine, and co-starring another, less-old pro, Demi Moore, wending their way through a maze of mostly predictable obstacles on their way to a big money day, a serious beatdown, and pleasant smiles all around. Although [b]Flawless[/b] is smoothly paced, skillfully directed, it is far from the perfection suggested by the title. However, it’s as entertaining as a character-first, heist-second film can be.More |  | Actually, It is Just a Game Loosely based on (actually "inspired by") Ben Mezrich’s non-fiction bestseller, [b]Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions[/b], [b]21[/b] is an underwritten, clichéd, implausible, contrived film that fits all too neatly into the rise-fall-redemption narrative structure we’ve seen countless times before. Directed by Robert Luketic ([b]Monster-in-Law[/b], [b]Win a Date with Tad Hamilton![/b], [b]Legally Blonde[/b]) from Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb’s screenplay, [b]21[/b] is part morality play, part wish-fulfillment and pure Hollywood hokum.More |  | Yet Another Asian Horror Remake Just when you thought it was safe to venture back into your local multiplex, along comes [b]Shutter[/b], the latest in a seemingly inexhaustible series of Asian horror remakes. [b]Shutter[/b] closely follows the original film, co-written and co-directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom’s and released in Thailand five years ago. Outside of a semi-interesting premise involving so-called “spirit photography” and a handful of effective scares, lethargic pacing, superficial characters, and a weak mystery storyline undermined the original. That didn’t stop producers from picking up English-language remake rights, of course.More |  | Surprisingly Fun, Entertaining Family Film [b]Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who![/b], the fourth CG animated feature-length film from Twentieth Century-Fox’s animation division, Blue Sky Studios ([b]Ice Age[/b], [b]Robots[/b]), is, as the name suggests, an adaptation of Dr. Suess’ (a.k.a. Theodore Suess Geisel) beloved children’s book, [b]Horton Hears a Who![/b] First adapted for a 1970 television special with Geisel ([b]The Cat in the Hat[/b], [b]Green Eggs and Ham[/b], [b]How the Grinch Stole Christmas[/b]) on script and Chuck Jones handling animation duties, [b]Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who![/b] showed up on television screens on an almost annual basis, ensuring generations of fans.More |  | Highly Entertaining Heist Flick In 1971, a daring bank heist of the Lloyd’s Bank on Baker Street in London netted the bank robbers more than 500,000 British pounds. A ham radio operator overhead the bank heist in progress, but Scotland Yard failed to find the bank location in time. Lloyd’s Bank also held safe deposit boxes owned by a cross-section of London’s political players and members of the criminal underground. Four days of intense media coverage ended when the British government issued a gag order, a so-called “D-Notice,” forbidding the press from continuing their coverage. Almost forty years later, questions about the Baker Street robbery remain unanswered.More |  | An Oscar-Worthy Foreign Film Directed and adapted by Stefan Ruzowitzky ([b]All the Queen's Men[/b], [b]Anatomie[/b], [b]Die Siebtelbauern[/b]) from Adolf Burger’s book, [b]The Counterfeiters[/b] ("Die Fälscher"), the 2008 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, explores the moral and ethical dilemmas confronted by concentration camp inmates during World War in Germany. The men, mostly, but not exclusively Jewish, were handpicked for their skills, talents, and experience to participate in the largest counterfeiting scheme in history, codenamed “Operation Bernhard.”More |  | A Whimsical, Gossamer-Thin Fairytale It’s taken all of two years for [b]Penelope[/b], an earnest, romantic comedy/fantasy (think [b]Beauty and the Beast[/b] in reverse) starring Christina Ricci and James McAvoy and produced by co-star Reese Witherspoon, to see the light of day or rather the darkness of a movie theater. Written by Leslie Caveny ("Everybody Loves Raymond") and helmed-by-first-time-director Mark Palansky, [b]Penelope[/b] may not have been worth the wait. As a pleasant, unchallenging fable with a simple, straightforward message about believing in and loving yourself, [b]Penelope[/b] is set in a fantasy world far, far away from our own.More |  | Who Says Hollywood Doesn’t Make Right-Wing Propaganda? The next time a right-wing pundit makes a crack about “liberal Hollywood", [b]Vantage Point[/b] should be rolled out as Exhibit A to prove them wrong. With a cast of well-known actors -- none named Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, or Chuck Norris -- [b]Vantage Point[/b] plays out like a right winger’s wet dreams about the so-called “war on terrorism", down to the kind of paranoid fears about government infiltration that Senator Joe McCarthy played on for political advancement in the 50s.More |  | Rushmore Wannabe Structured to follow Wes Anderson’s [b]Rushmore[/b], the sine quo non of coming-of-age tales centered on a brilliantly eccentric young man coping badly with the early onset of adulthood, [b]Charlie Bartlett[/b] is, unfortunately, an uneven, derivative imitation from editor-turned-director Jon Poll and screenwriter Gustin Nash that nonetheless manages to satirize high school cliques (again), random authority figures, our prescription drug-happy culture, and, with that, the psychiatric profession.More |  | Do You Have the Crazy? Written, edited, shot, and directed by Atlanta-based filmmakers David Bruckner, Dan Bush, and Jacob Gentry, [b]The Signal[/b] premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where it garnered critical buzz and appreciative audiences for its blend of post-millennial angst, social commentary, and blood-stained, post-apocalyptic survival horror. At the time, Magnolia Pictures picked up stateside distribution rights for [b]The Signal[/b]. Unfortunately, horror fans have been forced to wait more than a year. Luckily for those same horror fans, [b]The Signal[/b] is more than worth the one-year wait.More |
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