Category: adventure
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The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies [2014] ★★★
I wouldn’t call myself a Hobbit junkie, but I have certainly enjoyed following the odyssey of Bilbo Baggins and company over the past 3 years. Nothing can compare to the experience of The Lord of the Rings, but given the need to keep the series alive, I think Peter Jackson has done justice to J.R.R Tolkien’s intentions. While “Desolation of Smaug”…
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![The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1 [2014] ★★★](https://tlkabtmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/movkinjsy-0-fes.jpg?w=1024)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1 [2014] ★★★
Splitting a final book into two parts can be a burden, especially for part one. By that standard, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1” , the third film based on Suzanne Collins’ bestselling trilogy should be a placeholder, stuck between the first two films and the grand finale. That’s not entirely true here. “Mockingjay- Part 1”, which builds on the…
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Hercules [2014] ★★
After the crappy “Legend of Hercules”, I don’t think audiences needed to see another “Hercules” movie. Not so soon anyway. And yet Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson seems born for the role. The man is strong, funny and he knows how to entertain. Then director Brett Ratner comes along and decides to ruin everything. His movie,…
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Guardians Of The Galaxy [2014] ★★★
If every summer blockbuster or comic-book movie were as unexpectedly entertaining as Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy”, I’d greet the upcoming summer flicks with a lot more enthusiasm…but there aren’t many writer-directors as witty as James Gunn. Indeed, it’s the writing that sets his film apart from the crowd, in harmony with perfect casting, first-rate visual…
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Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes [2014] ★★★
Summer season takes an unexpected turn with “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”, a spectacular follow up to the 2011 hit starring Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke and directed by Matt Reeves. I couldn’t be more surprised to be honest. After 7 movies and Tim Burton’s crappy remake, the series has been milked hard, it’s…
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X-Men: Days Of Future Past [2014] ★★★½
“X-Men: Days of Future Past” is everything a comic book movie could hope to be: smart, original, exciting and funny. It is vastly superior to all the previous installments, and not just because it draws on one of the most admired stories in the series. Screenwriter Simon Kinberg has used the time travel concept as…
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 [2014] ★★½
Spidey fans went crazy when Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced that they were rebooting the series, just five years after Sam Raimi’s “Spider Man 3” hit theaters back in 2007. As a result, the first “Amazing Spider-Man” received mixed reviews by critics and fans upon release; some people praised Andrew Garfield’s performance while others…
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Noah [2014] ★★½
On the surface, Russell Crowe starring in a biblical tale directed by Darren Aronofosky (“Requiem for a Dream”, “Black Swan”) sounds like Oscar bait. It isn’t. And the sooner you accept it, the more fun you’ll have at this satisfying disaster movie (that’s what I’m calling it). Hearing Noah’s Australian accent (lol) is jarring at…
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier [2014]
Yes! Yes! Yes! We have a winner. Apologies if I’m fangirling, but how can I not? Marvel sequels are usually a tricky business, which means I couldn’t care less about “Iron Man 2” and “Thor: The Dark World“. By that standard, the Captain America sequel should follow in their footsteps. Not this time. “Winter Soldier”,…
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300: Rise Of An Empire [2014] ★★
This may sound harsh, but I’m getting Zach Snyder’ed out, at least with his “300” series. The loose cannon vibe that hooked me up in the 2007 original has turned into a sorry excuse of a sequel/companion piece. And yet at the screening I attended, many people loved it, while others said that they were…
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Pompeii [2014] ★★
What can you say about a movie that stars Kiefer Sutherland as a cruel Roman Senator? Some viewers (including me) may have silliness on their minds and I don’t blame them. I even felt a certain amount of wrath over the cheesy 3D effects, but the film itself isn’t as bad as I thought it…
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The Legend Of Hercules [2014] ★½
Another January dud. After last week’s horrible “Paranormal Activity”, “The Legend of Hercules” thinks it’s “Gladiator”. Talk about delusional. This is basically the story of Hercules (played by a dreadful Kellan Lutz), son of Zeus, who was betrayed by his stepfather the King and how he embarked on a journey to overthrow him and restore…
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47 Ronin [2013] ★★
Keanu Reeves keeps telling us that his career is not dead and buried just yet. He directed and starred in his own martial art movie “Man Of Tai Chi” earlier this year (which sucked by the way) and now he’s in a sloppy big budget fantasy adventure film called “47 Ronin”. He plays an outcast…
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The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug [2013] ★★★
Sequels are often mixed bags, but this follow up to last year’s “The Hobbit” is fast paced and highly entertaining, even if it’s no match to “The Lord of The Rings” trilogy. With so much exposition out of the way (which was part of the problem in the first movie), director Peter Jackson now has…
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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire [2013] ★★★½
Here is the jaw-dropping, heart-stopping movie we’ve been waiting for all year. Francis Lawrence follows up last year’s “The Hunger Games” with a stupendously entertaining sequel. If you didn’t see the first chapter in this three part film version of Suzanne Collins’ bestselling trilogy, get the DVD. Lawrence leaps into Part II with no patience for…
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Thor: The Dark World [2013] ★★½
Thor’s second solo adventure (third in total with “The Avengers“) forces the audience to run an obstacle before the fun kicks in. The end result is an enjoyable but easily forgettable ride, because the story never really takes hold. It’s far from being a bad movie, but it’s not as good as it ought to be,…
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Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters [2013] ★★
The sequel is livelier and slightly better than “The Lightning Thief”— the first of the films being made from Rick Riordan’s five “Percy Jackson” books. But that 2010 movie should have taught a lesson. Both films had potential: why not introduce a dyslexic ADHD boy and let him discover that he is a demigod and the son of…
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The Lone Ranger [2013] ★★
It’s pointless to describe “The Lone Ranger” because even it doesn’t know what it wants to be. The result is a long, often confusing film with an underwhelming performance by Armie Hammer as the title character. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) wanted to have fun with the concept of a western/action…
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Man Of Steel [2013] ★★★
Take a hike Brandon Routh, there’s a new Superman in town, and he’s younger, fiercer and stronger than ever before. Producer Christopher Nolan, who wrote the script with David Goyer, shows us a Superman caught in the act of inventing himself. The Man of Steel that Henry Cavill plays so potently in this fresh take is still discovering…
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![Iron Man 3 [2013] ★★★](https://tlkabtmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/20130423184409iron_man_3_theatrical_poster.jpg?w=864)
Iron Man 3 [2013] ★★★
Just when you wanted to forget all about the ”Iron Man” franchise (yes, part 2 sucked), along comes this primal blast of a second sequel, a potent reminder of what jazzed us about the first “Iron Man” film and the Marvel comics that inspired it. Must have been really hard coming up with a second sequel to a movie everyone…
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