Monthly Archives: July 2015

Movie Review: Gyllenhaal gets ripped for “Southpaw”

He had to look good on a horse so he could make Westerns, be convincing in uniform for his combat films, be sexy in romances and romantic comedies and look like he can take a punch for his boxing picture. … Continue reading

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Box Office: “Ant-Man” and “Trainwreck” underperform, “Minions” fades

It looked like a $60 million weekend for Marvel/Disney’s “Ant-Man.” Good reviews helped this B-team effort from Marvel to a healthy Midnight Thursday opening and beefy Friday. But the air went out of the balloon a bit Saturday, and Fanboydom … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Lila & Eve”

The great Viola Davis struggles to bring the gravitas of grief to “Lila & Eve,” a thriller about a mother in search of the people who killed her teen son in a random drive-by. But when grief gives way to … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “A Hard Day”

Here’s a Korean thriller ready made for a Hollywood remake. A detective is summoned away from his mother’s funeral by a panicked call from his office. Internal Affairs is onto the squad-wide bribery and they’re all in the deep stink. … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Trainwreck”

Amy Schumer, America’s new R-rated sweetheart, wrote and stars in what should be her break-out film, “Trainwreck,” playing a sweeter and funnier version of the comic persona she’s created. She plays a woman who has taken Dad’s “Monogamy isn’t realistic” … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Irrational Man”

The jaunty Ramsey Lewis jazz instrumental “The In-Crowd” underscores “Irrational Man,” Woody Allen’s latest film. It’s a gratingly dischordant pairing, Allen’s mostly-serious riff on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” set up as some sort of daft existential comedy. And it’s … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Ant-Man”

Paul Rudd brings his Everyman/Funnyman humor and humanity to the Marvel Universe in “Ant-Man,” a formulaic comic-book thriller enlivened, a bit, by his engaging lead performance. It’s yet another “origin myth” within Stan Lee’s empire, and much of its nearly … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Ardor”

The Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal always seems on the lookout for movies with a message. And in films such as “No,” about an ad writer who concocts a strategy for defeating the Chilean dictatorship at the polls, or “Babel” … Continue reading

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Movie Review” The Stanford Prison Experiment”

August of 1971, 24 male students of Stanford University acted out the roles of guards and inmates at a “prison” created for a psychological experiment. “The flip of a coin” determined who was to be a guard and who portrayed … Continue reading

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Movie Review: McKellen shines despite the thin mysteries of “Mr. Holmes”

He’s being cagey, this old man introducing himself to the woman he’s been following. “I am, by disposition, a hobbyist,” he says, mysteriously. This, after he’s told her the scent she’s wearing and other details about herself she wouldn’t expect … Continue reading

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