Category: 3/4
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Nebraska [2013] ★★★
Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” is basically an old fashioned road movie with terrific acting, beautiful cinematography and a delightful soundtrack. Watching a film as mature, moving and thoughtful as this one renews my faith in American movies and reaffirms Payne’s status as one of the most unique storytellers of his generation. He has also bestowed the…
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Philomena [2013] ★★★
Judi Dench has emerged as one of the finest actresses alive, in films like “Shakespeare in Love”, “Iris” and “”Notes on a Scandal”. With her performance in “Philomena”, she reaches a new plateau, playing a real-life Irish woman named Philomena Lee, who had sex fifty years ago, gave birth to a child at a local…
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RoboCop [2014] ★★★
Good news, RoboCop fans. Jose Padilha’s remake adheres to the character’s roots and in a way, proves superior to the 1987 version starring Peter Weller. I admit: I had low expectations at first. As it turns out, the film was way better than I expected, and I mean way way better. The 1987 movie was…
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Lone Survivor [2013] ★★★
“Lone Survivor”, about a Navy Seal team who went behind enemy lines to kill a Taliban leader in Afghanistan in 2005 opened in limited release in December (the official wide opening date was January 10th) to qualify for year-end awards. The fact that the movie collected two Oscar nominations should suggest how good it is.…
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Enough Said [2013] ★★★
I’ve enjoyed most of Nicole Holofcener’s movies (“Please Give”, “Friends with Money”) but she has outdone herself with “Enough Said”. Her characters are real, richly drawn and utterly believable. With a light of comic touch, and without a whiff of pretension, she manages to explore some of the craziness of adult relationships, creating superior entertainment.…
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Saving Mr. Banks [2013] ★★★
If you love movies, “Saving Mr. Banks” is hard to resist. It paints an evocative picture of Hollywood and the methodology of filmmaking, circa 1961, while offering juicy roles to Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks, two of the finest actors of their generation. It has a different flavor from most movies I’ve seen in 2013,…
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American Hustle [2013] ★★★
It’s damn hard to dislike any movie directed by David O. Russell (“The Fighter”) and starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Renner. O. Russell, who did such a fine job with last year’s “Silver Linings Playbook”, follows it up with the highly entertaining “American Hustle”. It has so many good…
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Frozen [2013] ★★★
Disney’s take on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” is a tuneful, entertaining, great looking animated feature that will capture the hearts of young kids and adult movie buffs alike (that would be me). All the classic Disney ingredients are here: a heroine we can root for, an unlikely hero who has to prove himself, a colorful…
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The Spectacular Now [2013] ★★★
This little gem 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. Like “The Way Way Back” earlier this year, “The Spectacular Now” is rooted in truth and offers honest observations about relationships, adolescence and independence. Miles Teller plays…
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The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty [2013] ★★★
Don’t expect anything standard from this uniquely funny, unpredictably tender and unapologetically weird movie. Ben Stiller, dropping the usual goofy faces, has never done anything this deeply felt. As a director and star of the show, he has crafted one of the most enjoyable films of the year. Based on James Thurber’s short story, “The Secret…
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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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Ghadi [2013] ★★★
As a writer, actor and observer of Lebanese way of life, Georges Khabbaz just keeps getting better and better. Now he offers us “Ghadi”, a remarkably entertaining and thoughtful movie, and a solid feature debut behind the camera for Amin Dora, who directed the series “Shankaboot” a few years ago. Every detail of this modest…
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Captain Phillips [2013]
“Captain Phillips” stars Tom Hanks, whose name cannot be uttered without thinking of the Academy Awards. Fair enough. He’s one of the best actors of his generation. Now he’s teaming up with director Paul Greengrass (“The Bourne Trilogy”, “United 93”) to tell a story that made global headlines in 2009. Hanks plays Richard Phillips, captain…
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The Best Offer [2013] ★★★
Art, Mystery, obsession , betrayal. That’s “The Best Offer”, a Hitchcockian film that gets in your head and stays there. Geoffrey Rush, erasing all memories of “The Pirates of the Caribbean” series, delivers yet another memorable performance as Virgil Oldman, an art auctioneer who is well-known in the art world, so much in fact that his…
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Disconnect [2013] ★★★
Here’s a cautionary tale that starts in your face, and keeps coming at you right through the closing credits. That’s no easy achievement, especially when it’s a movie that deals with the dangers of social media (you heard me). In the style of “Magnolia”, “Crash” and “Babel”, first time feature director Henry Alex Rubin and his writer…
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The Way Way Back [2013] ★★★
How do you take a familiar premise and turn it into one of the most enjoyable indie movies of the year? For answers, see the engaging new comedy “The Way Way Back” which introduces Liam James and Sam Rockwell (“Matchstick Men”, “Moon”) as you’ve never seen him before. Nat Faxon and Jim Rashare are mainly sitcom actors, but…
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About Time [2013] ★★★
There’s no reason “About Time” should play as well as it does; it’s formulaic and predictable. But it flows so well, and the cast is so likable, that it’s hard to resist. As a writer, director and observer of relationships, Richard Curtis (“Notting Hill, “Love Actually”) just keeps getting better and better. This time, he has chosen time…
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The World’s End [2013] ★★★
Leave it to the brits to turn a one joke premise into one of the funniest movies of the year. “The World’s End”, the third collaboration between director Edgar Wright and comic duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost made me laugh from start to finish. Much of this has to do with the likability of…
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Turbo [2013] ★★★
It’s not “Kung Fu Panda” or “Monsters Inc”, but “Turbo” has enough charm and colorful characters to entertain kids and adults alike. The unusual hero here is a snail called Theo who dreams of competing in the Indianapolis 500. Of course that’s no easy task for a snail, that is until it gains superpowers during…
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The Conjuring [2013] ★★★
“The Conjuring” is quite simply the most chilling movie I’ve seen in a very long time. It comes at you like a beast in the dark. Credits go to director James Wan (“Saw”, “Insidious”) who decides to use familiar techniques to haunt his audience. And damn it, it works like a charm. Based on paranormal investigator…
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