Although Lee Daniels’ newest film, The Butler, features some terrific actors (including Oprah Winfrey in her acting return to the big screen after more than a decade), it is a strange amalgam of a movie that will probably satisfy few […]
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Dallas Buyers Club (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
Another entrant in the “based on a true story” movie sweepstakes is this fact-based drama centered on the efforts of Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) to survive his exposure to HIV in the 1980s. Apart from a few visual anachronisms, the […]
Continue reading »Philomena (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Movies “based on a true story” are all the rage this season, and some of them, like Captain Phillips and this one, are very good indeed. Truth is often stranger than fiction, and fictionalized truth — in the form of movies […]
Continue reading »Homefront (2013) ☆ ☆
I wasn’t expecting much from this Southern style revenge action flick, so I was pleasantly surprised by certain elements of it. The story has a former DEA agent (Jason Statham) and his young daughter trying to build a new life […]
Continue reading »The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
I have had strong reservations regarding this series; without reading any of Suzanne Collins’ source novels I had (and continue to have) an averse reaction to its basic premise of kids being forced to kill other kids. There’s enough violence […]
Continue reading »All is Lost (2013) ☆ ☆ 1/2
One person shows are difficult to pull off in cinema. On stage, at least the person is usually telling stories directly to an audience and a connection is made. On film, the audience is invisible and the person is on […]
Continue reading »Last Vegas (2013) ☆ ☆ 1/2
The key to enjoying the new comedy Last Vegas is to enjoy watching its acclaimed and talented cast cut loose. Four older men (Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro and Kevin Kline) head to Las Vegas to celebrate perpetual bachelor […]
Continue reading »Ender’s Game (2013) ☆ ☆
I was unaware of how popular this series of Orson Scott Card books has been over the years — enough to spawn a total of thirteen titles — but the premise seems like a natural for the movies. At least […]
Continue reading »Gravity (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
I’ve been mourning the dearth of quality science-fiction for a long time. Somewhere along the line fantasy became more popular than science, special effects began to overwhelm narrative and personal melodrama became standard storytelling currency. I yearn for the days […]
Continue reading »Don Jon (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
I have to admit that I was surprised by the content of this new movie written and directed by lead actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Ostensibly it is a romantic comedy with strong sexual content; in reality (in my opinion, of course) […]
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