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Cave of Forgotten Dreams
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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... captures the space, the texture, the quality of color of these ghost-like paintings, like shadows of the past captured on the cave walls.
Posted Nov 30, 2011
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The Smurfs
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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Call me Grouchy, but I say grown-ups should just say smurf it and avoid the film completely.
Posted Nov 30, 2011
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Beginners
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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[Director Mike] Mills... gives the film a celebratory passion in the quiet closeness of father and son and the playful first-person storytelling...
Posted Nov 16, 2011
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Larry Crowne
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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... lacks any sense of gravity. Hanks has too much moxie to let little things like unemployment and an underwater mortgage get him down...
Posted Nov 16, 2011
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Cars 2
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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Kids will be entertained and so will adults. I just didn't find myself particularly engaged.
Posted Nov 01, 2011
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Batman Year One
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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For a story constructed out of choppy slices, this is probably the most unified of the DC animated features.
Posted Oct 19, 2011
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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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Director Rob Marshall stages slapstick like dance choreography and action like a theme park ride. Which I guess is appropriate...
Posted Oct 17, 2011
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Captain America
(1990)
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Sean Axmaker
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... a real stiff, a corny piece of nostalgic pulp with cheap action, cheesy dialogue and a charismatically challenged leading man.
Posted Sep 30, 2011
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Bridesmaids
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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... a girl-bonding romp filled equally with outlandish bridal showers and alcohol-fueled slapstick aggression, grand romantic gestures and furtive sex, high couture and low blows.
Posted Sep 28, 2011
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Carlos Cavazo - The Carlos Cavazo Package
(1970)
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Sean Axmaker
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... a mesmerizing portrait of committed activist who transforms himself into a media-hungry rock star of an international terrorist.
Posted Sep 28, 2011
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(undefined)
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Sean Axmaker
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... a succession of brutal arena battles painted over in swaths of crimson CGI spatter and gaping wounds (a la 300) interspersed with softcore sex right...
Posted Sep 14, 2011
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Thor
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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... not to say that Thor is awful, simply uninspired, full of sound and fury and not much else.
Posted Sep 14, 2011
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Sands of the Kalahari
(1965)
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Sean Axmaker
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Cy Endfield explored similar themes in "Zulu" a year before but this comes off as pulp melodrama of the machismo variety.
Posted Aug 03, 2011
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Rio
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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There's lots of color, some gorgeous animation, a running beat of lively (if not always memorable) music and the energy of lovely tropical birds in flight. The rest is formula...
Posted Aug 03, 2011
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Skidoo
(1968)
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Sean Axmaker
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... Keystone Mobsters, with career criminals and fun-loving hippies colliding in a comedy of flower power, slapstick and psychedelia...
Posted Jul 20, 2011
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Limitless
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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It's not the science that's important, it's the momentum, the conceptual journey, the dynamism of the head games and chemically-enhanced battle of wits...
Posted Jul 20, 2011
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Of Gods and Men
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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... as powerful a film you'll ever see about faith, commitment and the courage of one's convictions.
Posted Jul 05, 2011
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Barney's Version
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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Director Richard J. Lewis never quite gets a handle on the sprawling storyline and stumbles over the tonal shifts... but Giamatti holds the center together.
Posted Jul 01, 2011
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A Thousand Clowns
(1965)
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Sean Axmaker
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... there's something disingenuous about presenting defiant purposelessness and unemployment as an act of courage.
Posted Jul 01, 2011
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Tetsuo: The Bullet Man
(2009)
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Sean Axmaker
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The backstory satisfies a certain urge to know but lacks the gonzo mystery and waking nightmare horror of the original...
Posted Jul 01, 2011
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Kiss Me Deadly
(1955)
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Sean Axmaker
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... delivers a pulp punch while it savagely satirizes the entire hardboiled mythos with its bare-knuckle brutality, flights of purple prose dialogue and he-man chauvinism ...
Posted Jun 27, 2011
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Red Riding Hood
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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... this gorgeously-mounted production fails to rouse the primitive ferocity of the primal beauty and the beast tale.
Posted Jun 14, 2011
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Battle: Los Angeles
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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... this humorless film as unimaginative -- and as exhausting -- as you can get.
Posted Jun 14, 2011
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Another Year
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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There's a lot of anger and misery around them and yet it's amazing how this film... can also be so warming and affirming.
Posted Jun 11, 2011
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The Man Who Would Be King
(1975)
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Sean Axmaker
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... one of the most rousing adventures of the 1970s.
Posted Jun 11, 2011
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The Stunt Man
(1980)
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Sean Axmaker
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The film twists and turns from scene to scene, carrying the audience on the some whirlwind mind-game...
Posted Jun 11, 2011
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True Grit
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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... the most accessible and successful (financially speaking) film of their career.
Posted Jun 11, 2011
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The Merry Widow
(1925)
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Sean Axmaker
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Stroheim revels in the mind-blowing decadence of the playground of royal existence...
Posted May 26, 2011
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Laila
(1929)
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Sean Axmaker
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... there is an elemental power from the film's location shooting in the mountains of Norway.
Posted May 26, 2011
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Blue Valentine
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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... a crucible for very powerful performances and a convincing relationship in all its contradictions.
Posted May 26, 2011
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The Mechanic
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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... a minor pleasure to see an action film that makes a virtue of lean, mean action stripped to the essence.
Posted May 26, 2011
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Gnomeo & Juliet
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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... shenanigans play out to a score of classic Elton John songs (and two new ones) and a script crammed full of pop-culture references and Shakespeare puns.
Posted May 26, 2011
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I Am Number Four
(2011)
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Sean Axmaker
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... strictly fourth-rate young-adult sci-fi thriller. However you rank it, it's by the numbers...
Posted May 26, 2011
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Repo Chick
(2009)
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Sean Axmaker
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The new film from Alex Cox is not a sequel to his cult classic Repo Man but a thoroughly screwy social satire...
Posted Feb 13, 2011
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Doctor Who
(1996)
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Sean Axmaker
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... plays like the missing link between the original run and the 21st Century BBC revision, or maybe an evolutionary offshoot that never thrived.
Posted Feb 13, 2011
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The Refuge
(2009)
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Sean Axmaker
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The films of François Ozon constantly offer alternative family units and this elusive French drama (originally titled "Le Refuge") offers yet another.
Posted Feb 13, 2011
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Tamara Drewe
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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[Stephen] Frears brings a light touch and a knowing compassion to this pastoral romantic farce...
Posted Feb 13, 2011
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The Romantics
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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... isn't so much a romantic comedy as a lightweight indie ensemble drama that never quite gels.
Posted Feb 13, 2011
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Let Me In
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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In many ways, Matt Reeves' vision is both more feral and more vulnerable than the Swedish original...
Posted Feb 01, 2011
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Monsters
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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... give Edwards props for making the effort, and for so effectively creating a convincing portrait of the world under siege from a slow, evolutionary invasion.
Posted Feb 01, 2011
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The A-Team
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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... the set pieces are a confused mess and the character chemistry too weak to hold together the sloppy script despite good casting.
Posted Dec 21, 2010
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The Town
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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... a well-tooled thriller with a tough edge and an impressive professionalism.
Posted Dec 21, 2010
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Salt
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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... director Phillip Noyce drives the film at a breakneck pace to keep the audience from noticing the convenient coincidences and oversights. It's a rush for all that...
Posted Dec 21, 2010
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Walt & El Grupo
(2008)
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Sean Axmaker
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... less probing documentary than colorful press release for the paternal Disney...
Posted Dec 03, 2010
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The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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... at least director David Slade pulls the film from the doldrums of the second film and sends the fur flying across the lush Pacific Northwest backdrops in the climax.
Posted Dec 03, 2010
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Toy Story 3
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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It's funny, warm, clever, exciting and touching, a story of friendship and imagination and a last blast of childhood joy...
Posted Nov 04, 2010
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Winter's Bone
(2010)
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Sean Axmaker
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[Debra] Granik's rich sense of place and culture has the convincing detail of authenticity, and it avoids any sentimentality of Southern rural poverty or kin loyalty.
Posted Nov 04, 2010
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Crumb
(1994)
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Sean Axmaker
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(An) offbeat and often uncomfortably revealing portrait of the legendary underground comic book artist Robert Crumb and his brothers, Maxon and Charles...
Posted Aug 11, 2010
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Nine
(2009)
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Sean Axmaker
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[Director Robert] Marshall and screenwriters Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella can only muster a ridiculous American fantasy of Italian culture and la dolce vita.
Posted May 04, 2010
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It's Complicated
(2009)
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Sean Axmaker
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Yes, there still are movies made for grown-ups in Hollywood, few and far between they may be.
Posted May 02, 2010
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