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Archive for the ‘Popcorn movies’ Category

“THE IDES OF MARCH”: Waist deep in the Big Muddy

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , , on October 7, 2011| 7 Comments »

“THE IDES OF MARCH” My rating: B+ (Opening wide on Oct. 7)

101 minutes | MPAA rating: R

George Clooney, viewed by many as a liberal white knight who really ought to run for office, sends an answer of sorts with “The Ides of March.”

In this political thriller — directed and co-written by Clooney — the charismatic movie star plays a charismatic state governor who has thrown himself into Ohio’s presidential primary in a bid for the Democratic nomination.

Watching Clooney’s Mike Morris gracefully glide through debates, press conferences and stump speeches is a bit weird…it’s like a preview of what a genuine Clooney candidacy would be like. The Morris campaign even has a poster depicting the candidate in the same pop art/street graffiti visual language of that famous Obama image from ’08. Lefties will be swooning.

But this candy apple has a razor blade hidden inside.

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“MACHINE GUN PREACHER”: The Lord’s fury

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , , , on October 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Gerard Butler in "Machine Gun Preacher"

“MACHINE GUN PREACHER” My rating: B (Opens wide on Oct. 7)

127 minutes | MPAA rating: R

God doesn’t need more sheep, impassioned lay preacher Sam Childers tells his small-town Pennsylvania congregation. He needs wolves, men and women willing to fight — physically fight — against Satan.

The evocatively titled “Machine Gun Preacher” (it sounds like a Roger Corman exploitation effort) is very much about the wolf lurking inside the most pious of us.

The story of the real-life Childers — a ex-con who found Jesus, created a mission for orphaned children in the civil war-torn Sudan and became a sort of vengeful freedom fighter against the depredations of guerilla leader Joseph Kony and his notorious Lord’s Resistance Army — is simultaneously inspiring and deeply disturbing.

And in the hands of director Marc Forster (“Finding Neverland,” “Monster’s Ball,” “Stranger than Fiction”) and star Gerard Butler (who redeems his recent history of gosh-awful rom-coms) it becomes one of the year’s most unusual and challenging films.

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“50 / 50”: Half comedy, half tragedy, all satisfying

Posted in Art house fare, Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , on September 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen

“50 / 50” My rating: B+ (Opening wide Sept. 30)

99 minutes | MPAA rating: R

It’s one thing to make a raunchy comedy.

It’s another to tell a serious story about someone coping with a life-threatening disease.

But in a category all by itself is the ability to put those two seemingly contradictory genres together so that they complement each other rather than cancelling each other.

That’s the small miracle of “50/50,” based on screenwriter Will Reiser’s own bout with cancer.

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“TUCKER and DAVE vs. EVIL”: Backwoods buffoonery

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , on September 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine...rural oafs

“TUCKER & DAVE vs. EVIL”  My rating: C+ (Opening Sept. 30 at the Screenland Crossroads)

89 minutes | MPAA rating: R

The sly joke at the heart of “Tucker & Dave vs. Evil” is that the guys who are usually the heavies in backwoods horror stories — the bib overall-wearing, inbred hillbilly oafs — are the heroes this time around.

But nobody can figure it out.

Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dave (Tyler Labine) are two good ol’ boy idiots who do odd jobs and have just achieved their lifelong dream of owning a vacation home in the country.

Said home is a ramshackle cabin deep in the tick-infested woods, but for our proud mouth-breathing heroes it might very well be a beachfront estate in the Hamptons.

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“MONEYBALL”: It’s lonely at the top (and the bottom)

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , , , on September 23, 2011| 1 Comment »

 “MONEYBALL” My rating: B+ (Opening wide on Sept. 23)

133 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

It doesn’t sound all that cinematic: A baseball general manager uses statistical analysis to bridge the money gap between major market teams and the provincial have-nots.

Flow charts? Graphs? Sexxxxy.

And yet “Moneyball” is one of the year’s best films, a thinking person’s sports movie overflowing with humor, drama, terrific characters, drop-dead wonderful dialogue (courtesy of the writing dream team of Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin) and a low-keyed but absolutely wonderful performance from Brad Pitt.

Heck, Bennett Miller’s film even made me appreciate Jonah Hill. It’s that good.

Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill

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“CONTAGION”: Not with a bang but a whimper

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Gwyneth Paltrow...not feeling so good

“CONTAGION’’ My rating: B (Opening wide on Sept. 9)

105 minutes |MPAA rating: PG-13

There’s no shortage of big names in the cast, but the real star of “Contagion” is filmmaker Stephen Soderbergh.

His latest is a hypnotic juggling act, a carefully calibrated mashup of characters and situations that proves him a master storyteller.

This time the maker of “Traffic,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Che” and “Out of Sight” (and, yes, the “Ocean’s” flicks) delivers a “what if?” thriller about a killer flu pandemic that puts mankind on the ropes.

“Contagion” paints a grim but fully-detailed picture of how we’d react in such circumstances, and it’s not pretty.

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“DRIVE”: Love and hate in LA

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , , , on September 9, 2011| 2 Comments »

Ryan Gosling as The Driver

“DRIVE”  My rating: B- (Opens wide on Sept. 16)

100 minutes | MPAA rating: R

There are parts of “Drive” that I absolutely loved.

There were others that made me shake my head in disbelief.

Talk about leaving a film with mixed feelings!

“Drive” cements my suspicion that Ryan Gosling is an absolutely great actor.

And it introduces to mainstream American audiences Nicolas Winding Refn, a Danish filmmaker of tremendous talent.

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“WARRIOR”: When brothers brawl

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , on September 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“WARRIOR” My rating: B (Opening wide on Sept. 11)

139 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

In outline there’s nothing terribly original about “Warrior,” which follows the well-tested dictates of your typical “fight” movie.

You’ve got your training montage. You’ve got your chatty TV sportscasters giving us the blow-by-blow even as we’re watching the bout unfold before our eyes. You’ve got your dramas outside the ring spilling over into the brawl inside the ring.

Happily this melodrama from writer/director Gavin O’Connor tosses in a few welcome changeups. And it’s been so well acted that even the familiar somehow seems fresh.

At heart “Warrior” is the story of a fractured family somehow coming together in the fury of a mixed martial arts tournament.

Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) returns to his blue-collar home town after an absence of nearly 15 years. He’s an angry young man (more…)

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‘THE GUARD”: Irish redneck savant

Posted in Art house fare, Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , on September 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Brendan Gleeson

“THE GUARD” My rating: B+ (Opens wide on Sept. 2)

96 minutes | Audience rating: R 

Brendan Gleeson has always been a great actor, but he’s spent most of his life in supporting roles.

“The Guard” won’t change that, but it should.

This absolutely wonderful film from first-time feature director John Michael McDonagh (who also penned the script) finds Gleeson dominating every second he’s on screen in a role tailor-made for his imposing physical presence and bullish personality.

The movie is a crime saga, a buddy flick, a black comedy…but most of all it’s a terrific character study of a guy we’re not sure we like, but who grabs our attention and won’t let go.

Gleeson here plays Sgt. Gerry Boyle, a member of the Guardia (Ireland’s national police force) stationed on the west coast near Galway.

Boyle is fat, cynical and sarcastic…at first glance he might be the Hibernian equivalent of a redneck Southern sheriff. (more…)

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“ATTACK THE BLOCK”: These kids are more than alright

Posted in Popcorn movies, Uncategorized, tagged , , on September 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

John Boyega and Jodie Whittaker defend their block

“ATTACK THE BLOCK” My rating: B (Opening Sept 2 at the Studio 30)

88 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“Attack the Block” hits the ground with all four limbs moving like the Coyote in a “Road Runner” cartoon, and it doesn’t let up until nearly 90 minutes later.

Along the way Joe Cornish’s low-budget alien invasion flick manages to be funny, scary, exciting and even socially relevant, though not so much so as to slow things down.

Set in a London public housing high rise (they’re called “estates,” which is a pretty classy word for a pretty grungy environment), the film follows a gang of disaffected teens who turn from mugging strangers to confronting an invasion of voracious alien creatures who have dropped from the sky.

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