Monthly Archives: July 2015

Movie Review: “The End of the Tour”

It takes nothing away from “The End of the Tour” in labeling this Jason Segel/Jesse Eisenberg dramedy a “bromance.” Segel, the master of that genre on film (“I Love You, Man”) and TV (“How I Met Your Mother”), dons a … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Five Star” shows us the gang life without the cliches

Primo gets emotional about his kids. Bald and charismatic, a big, cuddly bear of a man with a Persian Empire beard and a vast collection of tattoos, he dotes on his autistic son, his little girl and his wife. And … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Northmen: A Viking Saga”

History credits the Vikings for discovering and attempting to colonize the New World. But in the movies, those rape-ruin-and-run raiders are always getting lost. They’re stranded on some foreign shore, forced to fight their way home. Richard Widmark had to … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Shaun the Sheep Movie”

The stop-motion animated maestros at Aardman get back to their clay animation comedy basics with “Shaun the Sheep Movie,” a dialogue-free romp that is a shear delight, shear perfection, if not quite a master-fleece. Sorry. A film of sight gags, … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Paper Towns”

A teen romance with most of the rough edges rubbed off, “Paper Towns” is as pleasantly bland as the city that is its setting — Orlando. That’s where Quentin (Nat Wolff of “Stuck in Love”) has pined away for neighboring … Continue reading

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Movie Review — “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation”

Jokier and more obviously derivative, “Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation” is the funniest “MI” picture, and maybe the worst of the series. It’s still an amusing Greatest Hits package, with Tom Cruise anchoring the action in a story that borrows from thrillers … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Vacation”

Nostalgia is an understandable, if perhaps misguided reaction to “Vacation,” a sequel/reboot of 1983’s “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” The soundtrack tugs at…something…every time Lindsay Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” theme song burbles back to life. And Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo reprise their … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “That Sugar Film”

“That Sugar Film” is Aussie director/essayist Damon Gameau’s attempt to do to Big Sugar what “Supersize Me” did to McDonalds. It’s a glib yet informative and sometimes entertaining re-hashing of everything we know about how bad sugar is for us … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Jimmy’s Hall”

“Jimmy’s Hall” is an eye-opening period piece that takes us back to the dark days of the Irish Police State. The British are non-entities in the post-Civil War Ireland of the 1930s. But the village that political exile Jimmy Gralton … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Call Me Lucky”

“Call Me Lucky” is another of those “the funniest comic you never saw” documentaries. Guys like Bill Hicks have earned them over the years. The bearish Bostonian Barry Crimmins is so unknown that it’s a bit of a shock to … Continue reading

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