Category: 3/4
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La Famille Bélier [2014] ★★★
I’m a bit late coming to this movie, but having heard good feedback, I was looking forward to it. It’s easy to see why now. “La Famille Bélier” is a charming, funny film with winning performances; in short, a crowd-pleaser. Louane Emera (a semi-finalist in the second season of The Voice France) plays Paula, a young girl…
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It Follows [2015] ★★★
If you’re a sucker for horror movies, then “It Follows” is the scarefest for you. It’s one of the best and most original horror flicks I’ve seen in a very long time. Writer-director David Robert Mitchell has clearly been inspired by the likes of John Carpenter and Wes Craven. But Mitchell adds something extra special to this…
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Avengers: Age of Ultron [2015] ★★★
Step up, Avengers junkies, and see the summer 2015 blockbuster that you’ve been waiting for since 2012. Like the first Avengers movie, “Age of Ultron” tries to stuff part of the Marvel universe (past, present and… future?) into one movie. The character overload may leave newbies dazed and confused. But fans are in for an exhilarating rush.…
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5 To 7 [2015] ★★★
Here’s a surprising treat: a sweet, bracingly original, wholly entertaining film from writer director Victor Levin with a solid part for Anton Yelchin. In fact, every role is perfectly and inventively cast, which makes the movie almost hard to resist. The unusual plot involves aspiring writer Brian (Yelchin), who gets into a passionate love affair with a glamorous French woman (Bérénice Marlohe…
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Child 44 [2015] ★★★
Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy are two of the best actors on the planet. So the idea of teaming them up for a tense, Stalin era thriller seems more than promising. And the story is perfectly set up: we meet Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy), a war hero turned secret policeman in the U.S.S.R. His job involves hunting down suspected…
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Cinderella [2015] ★★★
I didn’t expect to like the live-action version of “Cinderella” as much as I did. I love Disney and their classic animated movies but I’m not a huge fan of their live-action films (“Alice in Wonderland” and “Maleficent”, to name a few). In an era of movie redundancy and repetition, I suppose it’s pointless to question…
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Deux Jours, Une Nuit [2014] ★★★
I never thought a straightforward story could be so gripping, until I saw “Deux Jours, Une Nuit”. It gets inside your head and heart, rubbing your emotions raw. Marion Cotillard, who was Oscar nominated for her outstanding performance, plays a worker at a small factory who, upon being released from the hospital (where she has been…
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Chappie [2015] ★★★
From the poster and trailer you might think is another “Transformers” movie (God forbid), when in fact, “Chappie” is a Sci-Fi movie from Neill Blomkamp, the man who gave us the superior “District 9” and “Elysium”. Despite a lack of stars or a recognizable filmmaker, “District 9” put many big budget Hollywood blockbusters to shame and established Blomkamp as…
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Big Eyes [2014] ★★★
After “Dark Shadows” and the animated feature “Frankenweenie“, director Tim Burton tackles something completely different for a change. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, he scores yet another bullseye by telling the real-life story of Margaret Keane, the woman whose paintings of sad, big-eyed children baffled America in the 1960’s. The only problem was that her husband…
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Kingsman: The Secret Service [2015] ★★★
Guns, gadgets, spies, over-the-top action scenes. That’s the juice of classic Bond movies. It’s also the juice in “Kingsman”, an incredibly entertaining piece of comic book movie that dares you to dive into its own madness. Allow it. Chances are, you won’t be seeing a spy movie as fresh and clever for quite some time (“Spectre”…
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A Most Violent Year [2014] ★★★
Who doesn’t love a good crime drama? “A Most Violent Year”, a potent, propulsive film written and directed by J.C. Chandor (the underrated “Margin Call“, “All Is Lost”) is exactly that and more. Oscar Isaac is dynamite as Abel Morales, an immigrant out to live the American dream in 1981 New York. He is the…
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Still Alice [2014] ★★★
“Still Alice” deals with Alzheimer’s disease. I thought you should know that before you cringe and stop reading. But just in case you decide to stick around, I will tell you that while it’s not an easy movie to watch, it’s still a rich and rewarding experience. That Julianne Moore gives an honest, empathetic performance should…
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American Sniper [2014] ★★★
Does Clint Eastwood ever sleep? At 84, he’s directing an edge of your seat war movie about Chris Kyle, a real-life Texan Navy SEAL who served four terms of duty in Iraq. The reenactment of harrowing real-life events is as believable as any movie could hope to be, and while the outcome of the story was foretold…
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Escobar: Paradise Lost [2014] ★★★
Confession: Despite my admiration for Benicio Del Toro, I wasn’t expecting much from “Escobar: Paradise Lost”. I was wrong. First of all, no one who cares about organic film acting (the opposite of showing off) will want to miss del Toro’s magnificent performance as Escobar, the Colombian kingpin who was often labeled “The King Of Cocaine”…
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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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St. Vincent [2014] ★★★
“St. Vincent” is one of the nicest surprises of the year. It entertained me and left me with a feeling of satisfaction that’s all too rare these days. The story is best described as a comedy, but like many of the best films in that genre it’s rooted in truth: honest observations about family and friendship.…
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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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Locke [2014] ★★★
That’s Tom Hardy behind the wheel. He’s Ivan Locke, a Brit, driving from Birmingham to London in real time. He’s a husband and father driving away from his biggest job ever as a construction manager because his one night stand is having his baby tonight in a London hospital. He’s also about to call his wife and…
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A Most Wanted Man [2014] ★★★
Philip Seymour Hoffman was one of the best actors on the planet. For more proof, feel free to check out “A Most Wanted Man”, Anton Corbijn’s tense spy thriller, based on John le Carré’s 2008 novel, in which Hoffman gives a performance that is flawless in every detail. He plays Günther Bachmann, a German intelligence operative who…
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Big Hero 6 [2014] ★★★
Talk all you want about technique, but a good animated film depends on story and character, and it’s those vital ingredients that make “Big Hero 6” so fresh and entertaining. It’s also a pleasure to see a movie meant for kids that’s clever but not too reliant on visuals. The hero here is a boy…
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