Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

There’s one thing to recommend—or maybe two—in Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s tediously stylized mayhem opus Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and that’s a delicious Eva Green as a scheming femme fatale who leads several men to doom. Green, who similarly elevated…

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What If

When writing a screenplay intended to be “offbeat,” it’s probably not a good idea to employ a shopworn and predictable plot, as is the case with the untenable new romantic “comedy” What If, starring a pair of otherwise accomplished actors playing exactly two conditions—haplessly…

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I Origins

Great films always divide viewers, and I Origins, and Mike Cahill’s superbly thought-provoking examination of skepticism, belief, science, religion, true love and the existence of the soul, will be no exception.  As his second picture, following 2011’s notable Another Earth, I Origins reveals Cahill’s…

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Edge of Tomorrow

A tale told with sound and fury signifying perhaps the best big-budget sci-fi action movie since Avatar, director Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow is proof positive that a summer superthriller needn’t be mindless, this one so innovative in its storytelling and satisfying in its…

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The Fault in Our Stars

It’s been some time since I’ve felt overwhelmed by a movie, or maybe just a character. Perhaps even longer since I fell in love with one. That happened a few days ago, and I think I still have butterflies. In the unabashedly tear-inducing movie…

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Maleficent

The main reason to see Maleficent, the new revisionist take on Sleeping Beauty featuring heavy doses of girl power and even more CGI, is its most special effect, a silky smooth performance by Angelina Jolie as the titular, anti-heroic villainess in spite of herself.  Heretofore…

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X-Men: Days of Future Past

Forget about it being a summer franchise picture, because X-Men: Days of Future Past is a thoughtful and thematically dense anti-blockbuster, a movie full of ideas that largely eschews huge action set-pieces through most of its running time in favor of a surprisingly compelling…

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