• Real Steel

    by  • October 11, 2011 • 0 Comments

    RealSteel

    Directed by: Shawn Levy
    Starring: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangelie Lilly, Kevin Durand
    Rated: PG-13 for some violence, intense action and brief language

    Disney has many strengths, and “Real Steel” plays to two of them: telling heartwarming tales about underdogs and offering sweet stories about kids and parents bonding. The latter sometimes spills over into laughably twee territory, but “Real Steel” manages to avoid that. No, this is not a groundbreaking art film. This is a movie to see if you want to watch giant robots fight and maybe get a little sniffly watching an underdog father-son team learn to care about each other while beating the odds.

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    Killer Elite

    by  • October 3, 2011 • 0 Comments

    Killer Elite

    Directed by: Gary McKendry
    Starring: Jason Statham, Robert DeNiro, Clive Owen
    Rated: R for strong violence, language and some sexuality/nudity.

    There are few things quite so sad as a film whose premise and cast promise awesomeness but whose execution falls flat on its face. “Killer Elite” should be a ton of fun — it’s an international assassin flick starring Jason Statham and Robert DeNiro as assassins and Clive Owen as an ex-SAS officer trying to stop them. There’s enough badassery in just those three actors that this should have been a blast of a film. Unfortunately, it’s not. It has all the flaws of old-school 80s action flicks but none of the charm.

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    Moneyball

    by  • September 27, 2011 • 0 Comments

    Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill in "Moneyball"

    Directed by: Bennett Miller
    Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Chris Pratt, Robin Wright, Stephen Bishop
    Rated: PG-13 for some strong language

    A movie about the pioneering use of cost-benefit analysis in baseball shouldn’t be exciting, but somehow, “Moneyball” is. It traces the efforts of general manager Billy Beane to turn around the failing Oakland A’s using the statistics knowhow of Yale economics geek Peter Brand. For all its math geekery and talking, it’s really an underdog sports movie. This is a flick that will crack you up and make you clutch your armrest in equal measure.

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    Warrior

    by  • September 13, 2011 • 0 Comments

    warrior

    Directed by: Gavin O’Connor
    Starring: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison
    Rated: PG-13 for sequences of intense mixed martial arts fighting, some language and thematic material.

    Films in which boxing or other forms of physical violence stand in for verbal communication between men are hardly new, but “Warrior” sets its conversation-with-fists in the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) competitive arena. As a bonus, it stars two actors who manage to deliver not only believable combat stunts but impressive performances as well. This is no ordinary sports film.

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    The Debt

    by  • September 4, 2011 • 0 Comments

    thedebt

    Directed by: John Madden
    Starring: Helen Mirren, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas
    Rated: R for some violence and language

    Moral ambiguity is a staple of the espionage thriller genre. Spies, assassins, and their targets and employers tend not to be people at the all-good end of the ethical spectrum. “The Debt” takes that idea and runs with it, but rather than making for a thought-provoking, exciting film, it turns into a potentially very uncomfortable one.

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    Rise of the Planet of the Apes

    by  • August 7, 2011 • 0 Comments

    riseoftheplanetoftheapes

    Directed by: Rupert Wyatt
    Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, John Lithgow, Freida Pinto, Brian Cox, Tom Felton
    Rated: PG-13 for violence, terror, some sexuality and brief strong language.

    Prequels are by definition at something of an advantage — knowing even the basic plot of the stories that take place after them means that you have at least general knowledge of how the prequel must end. “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” definitely has this problem; even folks who haven’t seen the other “Planet of the Apes” movies know how things wind up. Even so, the characters (both human and ape) are engaging enough to draw viewers into the film.

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    Cowboys & Aliens

    by  • August 1, 2011 • 0 Comments

    cowboysandaliens

    Directed by: Jon Favreau
    Starring: Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford
    Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of western and sci-fi action and violence, some partial nudity and a brief crude reference.

    Westerns and alien invasion flicks both have their cliches, and the idea of mashing the two together is a clever one — that kind of genre smashing has done well in the past (“Shaun of the Dead” remains my favorite example). “Cowboys & Aliens” held great promise when its previews first started showing, and while it doesn’t quite live up to its potential, it’s still a lot of fun.

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    Captain America

    by  • July 25, 2011 • 0 Comments

    captainamerica

    It’s still summer, and “Captain America” is a summer superhero movie if there ever was one. It takes us to a 1940s America where the little guy can achieve beyond his wildest dreams, and where good people can destroy evil with tenacity, luck, and a strong jawline.

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    Viva Riva!

    by  • July 4, 2011 • 0 Comments

    vivariva

    Directed by: Djo Munga
    Starring: Patsha Bay, Manie Malone, Hoji Fortuna
    Rated: R for strong sexuality, graphic nudity, brutal violence, language, and some drug use.

    The Democratic Republic of Congo is a very different place from the settings of most gangster films we see here in the States, but “Viva Riva!” would be right at home in a collection of underworld movies. This is a mostly by-the-numbers tale of a young criminal trying to make it big. Filmed in French and Lingala, the subtitles may provide a gloss to cover the occasional flaws for some.

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    Beginners

    by  • June 27, 2011 • 0 Comments

    Written and Directed by: Mike Mills Starring: Ewan McGregor, Melanie Laurent, Christopher Plummer, Goran Visnjic Rated: R for language and some sexual content

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