I enjoyed the book more, yet the film version of the initial Stephanie Plum adventure is not bad. Katherine Heigl quickly becomes comfortable in the role and isn’t hesitant to allow Plum to act foolishly or talk too much. Plum […]

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I have liked many of John le Carré’s espionage novels, which chronicle in exhaustive detail the intricacies of how international spycraft is truly manifested. Le Carré’s books are long, and somewhat difficult to initially penetrate, because they are so filled […]

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Other than the performance of Meryl Streep as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” of the title, and a superb makeup job in getting Streep to look gentrified, this apologetic look at Thatcher’s rise to power in […]

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Some movies are essentially plays staged on film, and Roman Polanski’s version of Carnage certainly qualifies. Its story concerns two pairs of parents who meet to discuss one child’s bullying of another. The drama (and some comedy) plays out in a […]

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Mark Wahlberg has impressively progressed from a teenaged troublemaker to a polished actor. He’ll never be an Olivier, but Wahlberg possesses the intensity and sincerity to put across tough, physical roles that also require streetwise smarts. He is a perfect […]

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Steven Spielberg has long been a fan of the internationally popular Belgian / French comic strip “The Adventures of Tintin,” and finally has directed a movie adaptation of the same name. It is fast-paced, almost absurdly energetic, with enough action, […]

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Offbeat films are often offbeat simply to attract attention (and, at this time of the year, awards), and The Artist is certainly offbeat.  Not only is it (mostly) silent, but it’s filmed in black and white.  Those facts are bound to […]

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I didn’t do well in my college psychology class, so I don’t know the real history involving psychoanalysis and its early progenitors, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, et al. David Cronenberg has made A Dangerous Method, which depicts how Freud (Viggo […]

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If cinema was like reality television, in the sense that everyone eventually would have the opportunity to star in their very own movie just being themselves, then Young Adult would, I think, be typical of what would be made.  Jason Reitman’s […]

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Short review:  I like the original better. Long review:  David Fincher’s take on the first of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling books is intense and gruesome, which pertains to both violence and sex; particularly violent sex.  Yet Fincher’s film is also picturesque […]

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