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B
idi amin dada
director: barbet schroeder
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I sat with mouth agape, at once amused and horrified at this documentary of Uganda's delusional former dictator Idi Amin, a man who kills thousands of his own people based on his psychic powers, trains his landlocked navy in Lake Victoria and his paratroopers on playground slides in preparation for his attack on Isreal, takes a collection of food and money for the people of Great Britain, and who blames the stagnant economy on the laziness of the Ugandan women. Really, you have to see it to believe it.
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reviewed by: sara |
May 2003 [link] |
recommend
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argo
director: ben affleck
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| Even though I knew how this very tense thriller set during the Iranian hostage crisis would end, I still sat at the edge of my seat with my arms folded across my chest and wondered why these guys didn't just use cell phones; then I remembered it was 1980, a time when you could also smoke on airplanes. Star Wars fans, check out the cool action figures. |
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reviewed by: jen |
October 2012 [link] |
recommend
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tropic thunder
director: ben stiller
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| Maybe I've read too much Henry Miller, but I sooo want to put an OF into the title to make it TROPIC OF THUNDER. Maybe I've dealt with too many crazy actors, but I found myself laughing when no one else in the audience was laughing. |
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reviewed by: jen |
August 2008 [link] |
recommend
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boiler room
director: ben younger
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| "Wall Street" meet "Young Guns", "Young Guns" meet "Wall" ; and the rest, as they say, is film history. Lame morality tale which proves, once and for all, that greed really is bad; meanwhile we have to watch Ben Affleck channel Alec Baldwin's character from "Glengarry Glenross" and the likeable Giovanni Ribisi just wanders around with his mouth slightly agape…..not a real hoot. |
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reviewed by: JohnLawton |
July 2000 [link] |
recommend
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cruise, the
director: bennett miller
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| Timothy "Speed" Levitch is an outrageous tour guide/philosopher/character definitely worthy of being the subject of this documentary. A fascinating b/w portrait of New York City and the man who is probably it's most uh intimate lover; the innocent scenes of Speed & his late beloved Twin Towers reverberate off the screen with unforseen tragedy. |
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reviewed by: raquel |
April 2003 [link] |
recommend
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kinsey
director: bill condon
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| Great performances by Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, and Peter Sarsgaard - plus lots and lots and lots and lots of talking about sex (with some actual sex). Interesting overview of Kinsey's work interspersed with flashes of humor featuring John Lithgow reprising his role from Footloose, Chris O'Donnell reminding us why he doesn't seem to be working that much anymore, and Timothy Hutton doing a decent impression of the actor J.K. Simmons (no, really). |
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reviewed by: rich |
December 2004 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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dreamgirls
director: bill condon
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| Halfway through this splashy epic movie musical, Jennifer Hudson steps out on a stage, sings THE song, and becomes such an oscar worthy hurricane that I wished the projectionist could rewind the film and play it again. Unfortunately, the rest of the film lacks dramatic coherence and seems to cry out 'give us oscars!' while poor Jamie Foxx gets trampled by a power sisterhood of high-C hitting super heroines. |
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reviewed by: jen |
February 2007 [link] |
recommend
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scotland, pa
director: billy morrissette
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| This well-acted black comedie transplants Shakespeare's "Scottish Play" to 1975 Pennsylvania, with a surprising result: one hundred and four consistently amusing minutes (a vast improvement on the source material). With regard to the soundtrack, I would only ask whether it is Freedom Rock -- and if indeed it is, recommend that you turn it up. |
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reviewed by: matthewS |
December 2002 [link] |
recommend
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stay hungry
director: bob rafelson
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| Set in the South; protagonist Jeff Bridges as descendant of Alabama landed gentry gets involved with a shady real estate scheme to buy up a city block and raze it to build a high-rise development, is assigned to get rid of "Thor's Olympic Spa", a gym that is impeding the sleazy development scheme, only to end up becoming friends with the Spa/Gym characters, including Arnold Schwarznegger as a philosophizing, bluegrass-playin', Mr. Universe wannabe. This film includes some of the most disturbing, random scenes (sex scenes and otherwise) ever in cinema, and should be noted for having a non-existent plot. |
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reviewed by: victoria |
February 2005 [link] |
recommend
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me, myself & irene
director: bobby & peter farrelly
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| Fellow Rhode Islanders the brothers Farrelly deliver another entertaining slice of gross-out comedy, only problem is things seemed a little more forced this time around. Watching this movie I got the impression that it wasn't as funny as it should have been and that everyone involved was trying way too hard to be shocking…. however if you like your albino humor and poop humor in one film (and I know I do), then there is something here for you. |
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reviewed by: JohnLawton |
July 2000 [link] |
recommend
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return to me
director: bonnie hunt
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| Here's an unlikely pitch for a romantic comedy: a guy and his wife are happily married (is there any other way), said wife dies and she's an organ doner, woman need's heart transplant and get's the dead wife's heart: flash forward to a year later, widower and woman meet and fall in love. I really liked this movie quite a bit, from start to finish I enjoyed it; while there are no big surprises in it, it's funny and well-acted and it has a lot of cool old people in it. |
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reviewed by: JohnLawton |
July 2000 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
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happy accidents
director: brad anderson
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| Entertaining little charmer about a woman who thinks she's met the right guy until he tells her that he's from the future. Anderson has a great directing style (if you haven't seen his 1998 film Next Stop Wonderland, it's worth a look) and the cast is incredibly likeable, things get a touch predicatable towards the end but it's fun getting there. |
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reviewed by: JohnLawton |
August 2001 [link] |
recommend
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the family man
director: brett ratner
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Decent, well intentioned film which is another take on "It's A
Wonderful Life". Nicolas Cage may have taken his first step
back to a real acting career, but there is something lacking in
the film; it's like all the pieces are there but it doesn't look like
the picture on the box. |
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reviewed by: JohnLawton |
January 2001 [link] |
recommend
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42
director: brian helgeland
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| If you want to see the Dodgers actually score some runs, you should see this movie because their current 80 million dollar line up can't seem to do it, and I hope the game this afternoon proves me wrong. Also, Harrison Ford is in it along with that guy from Scrubs and that guy from Firefly. |
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reviewed by: jen |
April 2013 [link] |
recommend
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humanite
director: bruno dumont
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| From the incredible opening shot on, this disturbing film pulled me in and wormed it's way under my skin. A very unique take on the detective film which might not be for all tastes but will definitely follow you around for days. |
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reviewed by: JohnLawton |
August 2000 [link] |
recommend
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x-men
director: bryan singer
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| Probably the first comic book movie since the first two Superman movies to actually get it right, I thoroughly enjoyed this film from beginning to end. It takes the time to actually develop some of the characters and Ian McKellen is an amazing villain and there's just enough action and cool visuals to keep you wanting more. |
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reviewed by: JohnLawton |
August 2000 [link] |
recommend
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x2
director: bryan singer
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| Suspend your disbelief and hold onto your jockstraps boys and girls; this movie is as good as your Marvel Comic Book fantasies ever imagined it could be. After the show, my only nagging questions were, 1) when will X Cubed make its debut, and 2) why the heck didn't Fridgidaire boy save Prof. Jean Grey with his iceboy powers? |
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reviewed by: nate |
May 2003 [link] |
recommend 4 thumbs up
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superman returns
director: bryan singer
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The physics are finally correct, first off, at least as close to reality as I've ever seen, and if you are within an hour-and-a-half of an IMAX 3-D showing, you are in for an incredible visual ride; I didn't have to think once, nor did I necessarily need to (but ultimately would have welcomed), as I had been to Spoiler City and back quite a few times, returning with much nuggetry concerning certain effects sequences, makings-of, soundtrack, and plot elements, all adding up to a basic notion of what I was getting into, namely, the most expensive movie ever made (both in man-hours and fan-trust capital, not to mention on WB/DC's dime with an openly gay director helming, an unknown as the lead, and 150 million in marketing alone) — before the movie began, I looked at Sarah and thought to myself, "boy, I care too much about comic book heroes."
Superman returned, very different, knowing where he came from (not existing) and not exactly knowing where he or his contemporaries (and progeny?) are heading (oblivion, are are all of us when our respective Kent family farms are bought, buckets kicked, daisies pushed, and we're just talking about movies here), but he's apparently "always around" and here to stay; It would thus do him some good to learn to stop farting around with bank robberies, bald lunatics and anorexic columnists and save more than just New Yorktropolis, act less like a self-obsessed, separation-anxiety patient and prouder-than-thou interloper (if not downright stalker at times) and more like, well, someone who exists in the real world with the rest of us audience members (decent director, great Luthor, new suit, that first real shot of him on the shuttle-plain, blowy hair, or incredible motion-graphics software technicians aside) — fun as hell, though, so go see it with someone you can kiss and discuss with afterward.
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reviewed by: alec |
June 2006 [link] |
recommend 2 thumbs up
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igby goes down
director: burr steers
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| After getting over my disappointment that this wasn't a fellatio filled gay porn vehicle for Macaulay Culkin’s brother, I was totally charmed by this little New York City, Holden Caulfield-esque, Coming Of Age flick. Second sentence: Claire Danes’ panties. |
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reviewed by: mattyj |
October 2002 [link] |
recommend 2 thumbs up
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