Category: The Twenty-First Century
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Deadpool [2016] ★★★½
“Deadpool” is everything an R-Rated superhero movie could hope to be: fast-paced, hilarious and incredibly entertaining. And yet I have to admit that I didn’t know what to really expect given its odd (but brilliant) marketing campaign (oh, Betty White) and the fact that Ryan Reynolds fucked up (excuse the language but it is an…
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Pride And Prejudice And Zombies [2016] ★½
I swear I’m not making this up. Someone actually decided to butcher Jane Austen’s classic story by adding zombies to the plot. Bad move. Based on the 2009 novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, the movie follows five sisters in 19th Century England and their quest to marry wealthy businessmen while having to deal with an army…
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![The Choice [2016] ★½](https://tlkabtmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/the_choice_1sht_f.jpg?w=1024)
The Choice [2016] ★½
This terrible tearjerker from the king of cheese himself Nicholas Sparks could well be his worst ever. You know who Sparks is, the guy who writes bestselling romance that become awful movies, such as “Dear John”, “The Last Song” and “Safe Haven”. The newest Sparks is “The Choice”, about two neighbors who meet and fall in love.…
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How To Be Single [2016] ★★½
It doesn’t break any new grounds, but “How To Be Single” provides light entertainment for anyone seeking a chick flick for Valentine’s weekend. Built on a template that’s familiar to anyone who has seen such movies as “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and “He’s Just Not That Into You”, this comedy uses an engaging cast that includes Dakota…
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The Finest Hours [2016] ★★½
As far as sea disaster movies go, this one isn’t bad. But if there’s anything I learned from Hollywood it’s that a true story doesn’t always guarantee a great movie, and “The Finest Hours” is proof of that. But at least I can begin on a positive note: Chris Pine is a very likable actor…
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Youth [2015] ★★★½
“Youth” is a beautiful, must see movie starring one of my all time favorite actors: Michael Caine. Caine is an actor of stature who is also a movie star with genuine glamour. In Paolo Sorentino’s masterful film, he plays a retired orchestra conductor who is spending his summer in a luxury spa in beautiful Switzerland…
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Dirty Grandpa [2016] ★
The worst movie of the year so far has a fine chance of retaining the title for the rest of the year. Robert De Niro’s career hits all time low (give him an award for worst performance already), playing a perverted grandpa (*cringes*) who goes on a road trip with his grandson (the always horrible…
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Sisters [2015] ★★½
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are a funny duo. We know it. They know it. So watching them in a movie together for the first time since 2008’s “Baby Mama” sounds like an instant hit. Well…not entirely. But at least I can begin on a positive note: Fey and Poehler are both well cast as 30-…
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Concussion [2015] ★★½
“Concussion” is far from being a perfect movie, but it has an intriguing story to tell and just the right actor to bring it to life: Will Smith. Smith, like you’ve never seen him before, plays Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic neuropathologist who uncovers the shocking truth about brain damage in American football. While the story…
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Ride Along 2 [2016] ★½
Because the first one wasn’t bad enough, here comes part 2, a dreadful collection of ridiculously stupid gags that director Tim Story tries to polish, to no avail. Kevin Hart is now a rookie cop who is trying to prove himself (once again) to his soon-to-be brother in law, played by Ice Cube. That’s right…
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Our Brand Is Crisis [2015] ★★½
A flop in the United States back in October, the underrated “Our Brand Is Crisis” may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for a political satire set in the 21st Century, I thought it was entertaining and fiercely honest. Sandra Bullock is well cast as an American campaign strategist called “Calamity” Jane Bodine ,who…
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The 5th Wave [2016] ★½
The first science-fiction flop of the year is a dull, uninspired mess that rips off pretty much every “deadly alien attack” movie ever made. Chloe Grace Moretz can’t save a cheesy script, playing a girl who is constantly on the run from an alien attack, as she desperately tries to find her missing brother. The…
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The Forest [2016] ★★
“The Forest” is one of those horror movies with an intriguing plot but not enough ideas to keep it going. It goes without saying that Game of Throne’s Natalie Dormer makes the overall result feel less terrible than it actually is. She plays a woman who travels all the way to Japan to search for…
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Daddy’s Home [2015] ★½
I love it when everyone is busy with award season and yet studios insist on dumping their worst movies thinking we wouldn’t notice. Well we do notice, especially when it’s a painfully unfunny comedy starring two actors that deserve much much more: Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. Ferrell plays a stepdad who is trying to…
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Spotlight [2015] ★★★½
No other 2015 movie will shock you more than “Spotlight”, a powerful take on what went down in 2001, when The Globe’s investigative team followed every lead to expose the story of sexual abuse within the Boston Catholic church. Director Tom McCarthy, who was clearly inspired by the 1970’s classic “All The President’s Men”, couldn’t…
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The Danish Girl [2015] ★★★
Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”) transforms himself yet again in the superior drama “The Danish Girl”, playing Danish painter Einar Wegener, who became an icon in gender-reassignment surgery back in the 1920’s. Everything adds up perfectly well in Tom Hooper’s dazzling film, which profiles not only Lili Elbe, the woman who emerges from…
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The Hateful Eight [2015] ★★★
Only Quentin Tarantino can make a Western film that feels and looks like a stage play and get away with it. I’m talking about “The Hateful Eight”, Tarantino’s 8th feature film and second consecutive Western. If you’re down with that, you’ll have to endure a surprisingly slow first act as we meet the story’s weird but…
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The Revenant [2015] ★★★½
Prepare yourself for the most tension-filled Western film you’ve seen in a very long time. Writer director Alejandro González Iñárritu follows up last year’s Oscar winner “Birdman” with another spectacular film. “The Revenant” is an epic 156 minutes survival story set in the cold West, circa 1823. Leonardo DiCaprio gives a brutal, Oscar worthy performance as Hugh…
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The Big Short [2015] ★★★
Want to see how a bunch of guys predicted that the economic bubble was about to burst before it even happened? Step up for “The Big Short”, a thrillingly intense look at what went down before the financial world collapsed in 2008. Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt play these men, a bunch of…
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Brooklyn [2015] ★★★
“Brooklyn” is a low key, likable film with all the right ingredients to call it a “crowd pleaser”. I’ve been a fan of Saoirse Ronan ever since she played Briony Tallis in 2007’s “Atonement”, and in “Brooklyn” she finally gets the chance to shine in her own love story. She plays an Irish girl who leaves her…
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