Even though it happens mostly in England, this movie is a classic American
action movie. Lots of gun action? Check. Lots of dead bad guys? Check.
Lots of honorary American Gerard Butler kicking ass and taking names?
Double, triple, quadruple check.
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9 users found this review useful
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It’s always painful when a franchise lurches back to life, much more so when
the original was so well regarded as launching a genre. Seventeen years on,
this direct sequel feels more like the reanimated remains of a rotting corpse
than a new installment.
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9 users found this review useful
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It’s easy to dismiss Pixar’s current trend of chasing sequels as nothing but
creative laziness, but this follow-up to a 2003 film has turned out to be more
than a worthy successor, giving us the full tale on one of the most
memorable characters the studio ever created. Thumbs way up.
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9 users found this review useful
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This movie is great—everything is so beautiful! The evil queens, the costumes,
the castles, star-crossed lovers, Chris Hemsworth…
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9 users found this review useful
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I am sick and tired of the animated movie switcheroo: you take your kids to
something with a bunch of fuzzy animals that won’t drive you nuts, and the
movie ends up being about cutesy violent warriors that can’t die.
Apparently, the only character who can die is the main character’s mom.
Good job, Hollywood.
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8 users found this review useful
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I wish I lived the life in this movie! Gabby is a medical student who’s in a
relationship with Ryan, but while he’s out of town, hunky Travis whisks her off
her feet and literally wins her heart when he and Ryan get into a fight. I can’t
say I want to end up in a coma, but after Gabby recovers, she and Travis do
basically live happily ever after, so it all worked out in the end.
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8 users found this review useful
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This story about a black garbage collector in Pittsburgh whose experiences
prevent him from sharing in his son’s success strikes a deeply human chord.
What makes this film remarkable is how beautifully it guides us on a journey
of hurt and redemption.
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8 users found this review useful
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With the return of director Paul Greengrass at the helm and Matt Damon as
the compelling lead, this explosive fifth film breathes very welcome life into a
franchise that had started to go stale.
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8 users found this review useful
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Call me a curmudgeon, but I struggle to find the merit in yet another liveaction,
CG-laden adaptation of a fairy tale. This movie is especially
egregious: Why bother using the Snow White branding if you’re going to
make a movie that bears absolutely no resemblance to the source material?
Sometimes I think all of Hollywood would curl up and die if they didn’t have
the coattails of already-established franchises to ride on.
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7 users found this review useful
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It’s the latest cinematic vogue to spotlight damaged or unstable women in
the name of girl power. Certainly, this film was based in a position to capture
the zeitgeist defined by movies like Monster and The Girl With the Dragon
Tattoo. Unfortunately, something must have gotten lost in translation from
print to screen.
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7 users found this review useful
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Schmaltzy, joyless and predictable, the only sparks to be found in this film are
in the writer’s name. If you were looking for sparks of passion between the
main characters or a general spark of creativity, I’m afraid you’ve come to
the wrong chick flick.
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7 users found this review useful
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This whole movie feels like somebody bet the director he couldn’t make an
uninteresting film about aliens. “No way can you make aliens boring, dude.”
“Challenge accepted! I’ll set the movie at a snail’s pace, use a weird blue
filter to remove all joy from every shot, cast a set of lifeless mannequins as
leads, make the aliens disappointing CGI squids that live inside of giant
unmoving potato chips, and focus the entire plot on a dry, academic
breakdown of the linguistic hurdles involved in first contact! Bwahaha!”
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7 users found this review useful
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Viola Davis absolutely earned her Academy Award in a heartbreaking film
full of stellar performances. Her character is the film’s barometer, by which
we measure the actions of a tragically flawed lead. Overall, this is a
wonderful film full of grace and power.
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7 users found this review useful
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Why do directors hate numbers so much? When I go to see the Nth
installment of a series, I expect it to be called “Series Name N: Return of the
thing!”, not just “Series Name… again” or even
worse “Main Character”. If numbered sequels were good enough for
Star Wars and Die Hard then they’re good enough for this
knock-off spy movie nonsense. Just to clear things up for first-time
viewers, this movie is NOT the first in its series—it’s the fifth.
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7 users found this review useful
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It’s almost comical to compare this film to Gone Girl, against which it comes
up particularly short. This movie is a shadow of the former by any metric—the
source material, the characters, the narrative, the twist. It’s as if they spent
the entire budget securing Emily Blunt.
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6 users found this review useful
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It’s amazing how large of a juggernaut the original was for its time, given its
shoestring budget of $60,000. This sequel expertly delivers by returning to the
Maryland woods where it all began and expanding on the supernatural
horror and legends that made the first movie a classic of the genre.
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6 users found this review useful
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This latest feature by American stop-motion animation studio Laika is a brave
movie about a brave boy who is thrust into an adventure straight out of the
tales his mother told him. The art style does especial service to the narrative,
making the entire film look and feel as if it’s a moving woodblock print.
Absolutely a joy to behold.
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6 users found this review useful
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This maudlin Denzel Washington vehicle holds a dim candle to the original
Broadway production. Then again, it’s hard to win against James Earl Jones.
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6 users found this review useful
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A happy whirlwind of color, 3D dazzle and kick-punch madness, this
franchise continues to grow like its portly protagonist, who learns to become
his best through a journey of learning about self-worth and belonging.
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5 users found this review useful
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Honestly, I was sold as soon as I heard this film had both Aaron Eckhart and
Morgan Freeman. This film gave me more of what I wanted, plus Brits. I hope
there’s a sequel.
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5 users found this review useful
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Like any proper noir, this thriller is unafraid to delve into the strange and
sordid lives of its protagonists in service of the greater mystery. The all-star
cast knocks it out of the park, although my particular favorite is Allison
Janney, who serves as valuable counterweight to the rich drama that
unfolds.
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5 users found this review useful
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If you think this movie is just a retread of the first, you’re wrong. There are new
characters, new scary things, a new look at the found-footage genre, and
of course new ways for people to mysteriously go missing. Highly
recommend this movie if you’re looking for a reason to wear those brown
pants.
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4 users found this review useful
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It’s always been a lot of fun watching the two superheroes that drive this
franchise: on one side, you’ve got Mr. Star-spangled America and on the
other, you’ve got the ridiculous genius billionaire playboy. They’re like oil and
water! This movie does a fantastic job of getting to the heart of what drives
these heroes, and seeing them actually oppose each other really packs a
punch.
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4 users found this review useful
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Like the mysterious, monolithic alien structures that drive the film itself, this
deeply thoughtful blockbuster has much hidden beneath the surface.
Ostensibly a story about communicating with extraterrestrials, the narrative
has much more to say about the strength and perseverance of people put
into impossible situations. This ultimately optimistic movie is a welcome breath
of fresh air.
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4 users found this review useful
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Ever since Disney’s Aladdin, no animated feature can resist signing up big
names for big characters. This is the first such venture for Matthew
McConaughey, and it’s hard to say he was a positive contribution to a
clumsy film that was already tent-poled by A-listers. Without fail, his drawl
breaks immersion in a movie that is ostensibly set in Japan.
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3 users found this review useful
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Something smells fishy in the theater, and it’s this flop of a movie. Imagine
the following: An animated children’s movie comes out about a bunch of
adorable ocean creatures, and everybody falls in love with it. Then, a few
years later, a sequel comes out that involves the SAME adorable ocean
creatures, but this time instead of having an adventure, we’re delving into
the existential horror that afflicts them due to the very real and adult mental
illness that one of the cute little fish is struggling with. That is this movie.
Oddly dark, tone deaf to its audience of kids, and totally not worth your
time.
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3 users found this review useful
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This movie is spastic unbearable schlock. If I’d wanted to spend 90 minutes
watching hairy overweight weirdos eat dumplings and attack each other, I
would have gone to dinner with my in-laws.
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2 users found this review useful
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This movie stands as immortal proof that no matter how much Hollywood Alist
talent, advanced CGI and money you have, you still cannot save a film
which has a sufficiently stupid premise. Serving as both sequel AND prequel
to its predecessor, this fairy-tale themed nightmare is a blight on the career
of everyone who worked on it.
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2 users found this review useful
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What would life be like in a world where individuals have the power to level
entire cities? The Russo brothers tackle this difficult question in a fun, actionpacked
film which does credit to its beloved brand. Whose side will you
choose?
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2 users found this review useful
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A horribly disappointing sequel from director Babak Najafi, the action
sequences in this train wreck are so bad they make Paul Greengrass’s
camera-shaking nonsense look like high art.
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1 user found this review useful
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Hollywood’s response to superhero fatigue: double-down. Then double
down again. Then throw in a bunch more superdudes until we have
absolutely no idea who we’re seeing or what they do, then have them fight
each other for stupid contrived reasons until nothing makes sense anymore
and I walk out of the theater and get drunk. At least they toned it down on
the helicarriers this time.
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1 user found this review useful
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Like its sister film, Sicario, this new venture by Denis Villeneuve explores the
capability of the people to rise to meet the challenges set before them. In
this case, the conceit is the threat of a mysterious alien race that talks in
Jackson Pollock paintings, but Amy Adams’s acting elevates a story about
grief, time, communication, compassion and, ultimately, catharsis.
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1 user found this review useful
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Stop me if this plot sounds familiar: A little kid with dead parents is forced by
the actions of an evil relative to embark on a 90-minute quest rife with
toyetic companions and marketable enemies in order to gain vague set of
superpowers that involve believing in yourself, somehow allowing the kid to
defeat a full-grown adult with infinitely more knowledge, experience and
power. Pour a little Japanese-flavored batter into that tired old mold, frost it
with some musicality and voila! You’ve got this uninspired CGI cupcake.
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1 user found this review useful
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The romance between leads Benjamin Walker and Teresa Palmer absolutely
sparks in this movie. If you’re looking for a good excuse to laugh, cry and
indulge in some romantic wish-fulfillment, this is the film for you.
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1 user found this review useful
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This shapeless entry to a once-beloved franchise feels utterly lifeless and
perfunctory. I mean sure, it hits all of the obligatory standbys like shaky-cam
fight sequences and globetrotting espionage, but the whole enterprise feels
like the last sad twitches of a well-beaten dead horse. If I had to sum this
unfortunate movie up in single word, I would call it “stillborn”.
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1 user found this review useful
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Watching this film is kinda like going out for drinks with your coworkers, then
getting trapped listening to one of them drunkenly cry about their recent
breakup all night: you thought you were signing up for some lighthearted fun
with a couple people you sorta like, but you ended up getting a cringingly
awkward look into their horrifying personal issues. Slap a cutesy ocean motif
on that, and you’ve pretty much got this movie. I would erase this from my
mind if I could.
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1 user found this review useful
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