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Movies
Uninspired Sci-Fi /Action Storyline
Based on a short story written in 1952 by science fiction writer/fantasist Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles), A Sound of Thunder marks the return of Peter Hyams (Timecop, The Relic) to the science fiction genre. Viewers familiar with his work will look at his return with skepticism, doubt and, maybe, a smile or two. Alas, even low expectations remain unmet by the time A Sound of Thunder fades to black and the end credits mercifully roll. More
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Movies
True love never dies
In A Very Long Engagement, visionary French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet seduces and bombards viewers with a poetic arsenal of mournful, dreamlike imagery that rivals, if not exceeds, the imagination of Tim Burton and the craftsmanship of Francis Ford Coppola, yet ultimately fails to communicate fully the love, pain, and suffering of its heroine, which are trammeled by the film's rich visual tapestry and lack of traditional plot, character, and theme development. More
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Movies
return of the mack
Author Nick Hornby has cornered the market on writing about despicable yet likable white guys. Immature, self-absorbed men with major emotional problems like the inability to communicate with anyone else but themselves. Hand them a sign that says "The End is Near" and they could instantly turn into your average neighborhood weirdo. But Hornby's too smart for that and so are the characters he creates. In About A Boy, you are introduced to the paradisial life of Will Freeman (Hugh Grant). More
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Movies
A Smart, Subversive Comedy
Directed by Steve Pink (High Fidelity, Gross Pointe Blank) and written by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, Accepted is -- surprise, surprise -- a refreshing comedy with consistently strong laughs, a message that's more subversive than offensive and characters for whom it is worth rooting. For adult moviegoers, the absence of scatological humor is a definite plus, although it may not be enough to convince them to see Accepted in a movie theater. More
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Movies
An Invitation to a Celebration, Best Refused
Julie Taymor’s latest would be better suited to the stage than screen, where its lavishly choreographed song-and-dance numbers and elaborate sets would easily overshadow its unexceptional story and needless indulgences. We’ve all heard the one about the wild children of the 60s who rejected the stodgy conservatism of their parents’ generation and embraced revolution -- at least for a time. Re-imagining that story as a musical set entirely to the music of the Beatles (and performed by the likes of Bono and Joe Cocker) is ambitious but, in the end, a noble failure. More
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Movies
What the hell is going on?
The assignment sounded easy enough. See the new Charlie Kaufman-Spike Jonze joint, Adaptation, mull it over, and write a review on the film, due the next day. More
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Movies
An Assassin with an Attitude
If you've stayed up late watching Liquid Television on MTV, then you've already been acquainted with Aeon Flux. I guess it's taken ten years for someone to finally step up and get the animated series, full of dark undertones, surreal elements and experimental notions, out of the cult archives. Karyn Kusama (whose first film was the outstanding Girlfight) has tackled this potentially disastrous task with flare. More
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Movies
Cinema Paradiso
Set in the innovative and architecturally fascinating Museum of Cinema in Turin, Italy, Davide Ferrario's About 'Midnight ('Dopo mezzanotte') is a simple, age-old romance for people who love old films. One evening Martino (Giorgio Pasotti) rescues Amanda (Francesca Inaudi) from the police and keeps her safe within the palatial confines of the museum where he works as a night watchman. He loves to project random movie reels from the museum's vault onto the large screen in the cinema, and now he has a visitor to convert to the appeal of cinema's magical possibilities. More
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Movies
Not Worthy of Clever Title
Originally slated for an April 2003 premiere, Against the Ropes gets its long awaited (insert sarcasm here) opening this weekend after two more abandoned release dates and a host of criticism regarding the facts presented by the film. Inspired by the life of Jackie Kallen (Meg Ryan), Ropes follows the career of one of the first and most famous (or perhaps notorious) female managers in boxing history. As the story goes, Kallen traded in her secretarial shoes to manage no-name street hustler Luther Shaw. More
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Movies
Another Movie Centered on a "Dramatic" Spelling Bee
After Spellbound and Bee Season, do theatergoers need another film where a spelling bee plays a key part in turning around the lives of the central characters? Probably not, but Akeelah and the Bee, an "underdog" story centered on an eleven-year old, inner-city African-American girl who competes in the national spelling bee, was written more than half a decade ago by writer/director Doug Atchison. Atchison's film is badly timed, since Akeelah and the Bee will be criticized for being derivative, but Atchison's film still manages to work on an emotional level, while touching on thought- provoking issues. More
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