Category: 2/4
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Welcome To Me [2015] ★★
“Welcome to Me” offers Kristen Wiig a juicy role (think less “Bridesmaids” and more “The Skeleton Twins”) and she delivers. What’s more, she is surrounded by a talented cast that brings out the colors in Eliot Laurence’s funny, often dramatic screenplay. With all these good ingredients involved, it’s a shame that the movie left me…
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Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising [2016] ★★
Unlike many people, I wasn’t a fan of the first “Neighbors” movie, released a couple of years ago. But since the movie was an instant box office hit, a sequel sounded like a no-brainer. Take the exact same ingredients, turn the frat into a sorority, bring in Chloe Grace Moretz as the head of the…
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Bastille Day [2016] ★★
Idris Elba shows ass kicking skills in “Bastille Day”, a Luc Besson kind of action thriller that starts out well enough but runs out of steam way too early. Elba, 43, looks ripped and ready, playing a former CIA agent who teams up with a con artist (Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden) to take down…
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Demolition [2016] ★★
There are some good moments in Jean-Marc Vallée’s movie about a man trying to deal with the loss of his wife in the most unusual ways. Jake Gyllenhaal plays that man, an investment banker who randomly starts sending complaint letters to a vending machine company. These letters soon turn into a series of confessions about his…
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The Divergent Series: Allegiant [2016] ★★
I don’t know about you but I’ve reached a point where I can’t tell the difference between “The Divergent” series and “The Maze Runner” series anymore. These movies seem awfully similar to me and to be honest, it’s becoming redundantly redundant. Even the fact that the final chapter is being divided into two parts for…
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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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Victor Frankenstein [2015] ★★
Did we need another retelling of the classic Mary Shelley story about Dr. Frankenstein and his monstrous creation? Hell no. But Hollywood doesn’t give a damn what we think. So here we are. James McAvoy (so good in tons of other movies) plays young Victor Frankenstein. Daniel “Harry Potter” Radcliffe plays his assistant Igor. You…
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The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials [2015] ★★
As someone who liked the first “Maze Runner” movie, I was quite disappointed with this 2nd installment. For one, the element of mystery is gone. There’s also less suspense and tons of new characters. I’m sad to report that I couldn’t care for any of them. It’s too bad. Dylan O’Brian, who did a fine…
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American Ultra [2015] ★★
I have no faith in myself to speak coherently about this silly farce. But I do have faith in Jesse Einserbeg. Yes, I liked “Zombieland” and “The Social Network” that much and I’m eager for his next, “Batman Vs Superman” with Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill. Ok so here are the facts: Einsenberg goes crazy in “American Ultra”…
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The Transporter Refueled [2015] ★★
Alright folks let’s play a fun game called “Can you tell the Transporters movies apart?”. Probably not. So to make things easier, Hollywood replaced Jason Statham with the much younger Ed Skrein as former special-ops mercenary Frank Martin. His latest mission? Help a femme-fatale and her three partners get revenge against a sinister Russian kingpin. Not an…
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Hitman: Agent 47 [2015] ★★
I may sound like a party pooper but didn’t we agree that Hollywood should stop making movies based on famous video games? “Super Mario Bros”, “Resident Evil”, “Silent Hill”…to name a few. Then there’s “Hitman”. The first attempt goes all the way back to 2007. The movie opened to mostly toxic reviews; in short: fans…
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The Gallows [2015] ★★
Prepare your Dramamine and get ready for another “found-footage” horror movie that doesn’t add much to the genre, despite an intriguing premise. A group of friends decide to break into their high school at night and sabotage the stage where a deadly freak accident took place twenty years earlier during a play entitled “The Gallows”.…
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She’s Funny That Way [2015] ★★
I like Peter Bogdanovich. In the early 1970s, when he made “The Last Picture Show”, “Paper Moon” and “What’s Up, Doc?”, he was ranked alongside Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. But things didn’t go quite as planned, especially in the last 20 years. Now he’s directing another screwball comedy that feels a lot like recycled…
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San Andreas [2015] ★★
History has taught us that disaster movies rarely rise to their potential. “Armageddon” and “Deep Impact” in the 90’s (sue me), “The Day After Tomorrow” and “2012” in the past decade, and now “San Andreas”, directed by Brad Peyton and starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson”. Despite its impressive visual effects, this earthquake popcorn flick fails…
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Poltergeist [2015] ★★
Do we really need a remake of Tobe Hooper’s 1982 horror classic that spawned several sequels? Not really. But the people behind this remake knew that a few more bucks could be squeezed out of the Bowen family, whose suburban home is haunted by evil forces. You know the drill, unless you’ve never seen a horror movie before.…
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Hot Pursuit [2015] ★★
Sofia Vergara (“Modern Family”) can be funny. Reese Witherspoon is a great actress who can play comedy or drama equally well (see “Walk The Line”). They both deserve a better vehicle than this mildly funny, forgettable comedy that shamelessly rips off every road movie ever made. Witherspoon plays Cooper, a by-the-book San Antonio cop assigned to escort Daniella (Vergara),…
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Beyond The Reach [2015] ★★
You can’t blame Michael Douglas for trying. At 70, he looks ripped and ready, playing Madec, a billionaire businessman who loves hunting. Then there’s Jeremy Irvine, who plays Ben, a local guide who takes him to the Mojave Desert. Things get messy when Madec accidentally shoots a local man and Ben wants to abide by the law. But Madec has other plans…
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The Age Of Adaline [2015] ★★
Like a cute puppy, this romantic drama starring Blake Lively as a woman who doesn’t age will wag its tail so you’ll find it irresistible and take it home. Not this time. There’s nothing terribly wrong about “The Age of Adaline”, it’s just that it rarely rises to its potential. And the movie does have…
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The Forger [2015] ★★
John Travolta is well cast (believe it or not) as a thief who has to work with his father (the great Christopher Plummer) and son to forge a painting by Monet and steal the original. Sounds simple enough. But the film bites off more than it can chew, trying to tackle a difficult father-son relationship and a complex…
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The Water Diviner [2014] ★★
A lot of people were full of praise when “The Water Diviner” was released back in December. I wasn’t. If looks were everything, Russel Crowe’s epic directorial debut would have been the movie of the year. But a corny script bloated with shameless sentimentality can wear you down. Crowe pushes way too hard (and it shows) as farmer…
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