Category: GENRE
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Inferno [2016] ★★½
It’s been a decade since Ron Howard’s big screen adaptation of the controversial “The Da Vinci Code” hit theaters and was met with a negative reaction from critics and audiences alike. “Angels & Demons” followed in 2009 and despite its muddled plot, it was a much more superior film. Now the third installment (once again starring the…
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The Girl On The Train [2016] ★½
From the trailer and synopsis you would think this is a solid thriller, much like David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” in which Ben Affleck’s wife disappears without a trace. But from the opening scene, something was off. “The Girl On The Train” is a tedious film; badly scripted, awkwardly acted, and just downright ridiculous at times.…
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USS Indianapolis: Men Of Courage [2016] ★
Id’ rather shoot myself in the foot than watch a Nicolas Cage movie these days. I know that. You guys know that by now. And yet, judging from the synopsis, you would expect a decent tribute to the crew of the USS Indianapolis, who were stranded in the Philippine Sea for five days after delivering the…
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Deepwater Horizon [2016] ★★
It’s the worst oil spill in American history. April 20, 2010, 35 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico, a deepwater drilling rig explodes, killing 11 people and injuring many others. Director Peter Berg depicts the events leading up to the explosion, and I gotta tell you folks, I couldn’t care less for…
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Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children [2016] ★★½
Tim Burton’s “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” is a showcase for spectacular visual effects, a top notch production design, and endless movie references (I could swear the opening scene was straight out of Ed Wood’s “Plan 9 from Outer Space”. And look, there’s a tribute to Ray Harryhausen’s skeleton army from “Jason and the…
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Hell Or High Water [2016] ★★★½
The movie with the worst trailer also turned out to be one of the year’s finest crime dramas. Working from a fierce script by Taylor Sheridan (“Sicario”. Need I say more?), director David Mackenzie sucks us in with incredible skill. The movie opens with Chris Pine and Ben Foster (both absolutely sensational by the way)…
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The Magnificent Seven [2016] ★★★
Early reviews from the Toronto film festival dismissed this movie as a mere attempt to remake yet another Hollywood classic. I confess: I cringed at the idea at first. The 1960 film starring Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner and Charles Bronson (which in turn was based on Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese masterpiece “Seven Samurai”) stood the test of…
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Storks [2016] ★★★
As someone who had no idea what to expect from this animated feature, I actually left the theater with a smile on my face. This movie is a treat for kids (the screening I attended was packed with kids and they all cheered and applauded at the end) and, I daresay, for adults as well.…
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Café Society [2016] ★★½
Woody Allen’s love letter to Hollywood and New York in the 1930’s is everything you would expect from the man himself: beautiful cinematography, endless movie references and an elegant production design. And yet, “Café Society” is nowhere near his best work. It’s far from being a disaster; in fact I had a good time watching…
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Blair Witch [2016] ★½
Originally promoted as “The Woods”, the people behind this piece of shit of a movie later on revealed the “shocking” news: this was indeed a sequel to the surprise hit “The Blair Witch Project”. Clever stunt. I just wish the movie itself lived up to its hype. In trying to replicate the success of the…
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Snowden [2016] ★★
Movies derived from recent events are always intriguing to watch because they tend to reveal background stories we don’t know about real-life figures like Edward Snowden, the man who leaked classified NSA documents that show how America is monitoring us 24/7. Reading about this in the news a few years ago made me curious to know…
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The Light Between Oceans [2016] ★★★
Filmmaker Derek Cianfrance has already proven himself so many times with movies like “Blue Valentine” and “The Place Beyond The Pines”. Here’s a director who knows exactly how to tell a story, and his latest effort, “The Light Between Oceans”, is completely immersive. It charts the destiny of a couple, played by Michael Fassbender and…
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When The Bough Breaks [2016] ★½
I cringed so many times during “When the Bough Breaks”. Most times when Morris Chestnut and Jazz Sinclair had scenes together. He plays a married man who desperately wants a baby with his wife (Regina Hall). Problem is: they can’t conceive unless they hire a surrogate mother. That would be Anna (Sinclair) who turns out…
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Bridget Jones’s Baby [2016] ★★½
Not quite as good as the 2001 original (confession: I’ve seen it over a dozen times), and far from being as bad as “The Edge of Reason”, “Bridget Jones’s Baby” falls somewhere in between. By trying to replicate the success of the first film, this sequel falls a bit short, but I still had a…
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Swiss Army Man [2016] ★★½
“Swiss Army Man” is unlike any other movie you will see this year. It is, at once, grandiose and gimmicky. While I was less taken with the film at its purposeless conclusion than I was midway through, it still offered me a unique moviegoing experience. Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who refer to themselves…
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Pete’s Dragon [2016] ★★½
A Disney movie in every aspect, “Pete’s Dragon” is bound to entertain young kids as they discover the magical world of little Pete and his only friend: a dragon named Elliot. They both live in the dense forest of the Pacific Northwest, away from human contact, until one day, a park ranger (Bryce Dallas Howard) finds…
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Kickboxer: Vengeance [2016] ★
A disaster from start to finish, this dumb “sequel” to the 1989 film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme follows Kurt Sloane (Alain Moussi) and his quest to avenge the death of his brother who was brutally killed by the fighter Tong Po (David Bautista, clueless). You know the film’s in deep trouble when even the fight…
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The Manchurian Candidate [1962] ★★★★
Regarded as the quintessential political satire of the 1960’s, “The Manchurian Candidate” is also meant to provoke paranoia and fear as an American patrol is captured and brainwashed by Chinese communists during the Koran war. One soldier, Raymond Shaw (a terrific Laurence Harvey), has been programmed for a top secret mission: to murder a presidential…
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Ben-Hur [2016] ★½
Somebody owes me a goddamn explanation: how do you remake William Wyler’s 1959 epic “Ben-Hur” starring Charlton Heston in his Oscar winning performance without screwing it all up? The answer is: you don’t. This new version, directed by Timur Bekmanbetov and starring Jack Huston (Heston, Huston. Get it?) in the title character feels rushed, truncated…
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Sully [2016] ★★★
“Sully” marks the first time director Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks have ever worked together on a film, so naturally, expectations were more or less high. The result is superior moviemaking, and a powerfully emotional experience from start to finish. Based on a true story that happened on January 15 2009, the movie focuses on Captain…
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