The lack of originality isn’t The Family‘s biggest offense. Actually, there’s something cheerily familiar about its derivative premise: A mob family is on the run after Dad (Robert De Niro) turns evidence against his fellow gangsters. Their CIA agent (Tommy Lee Jones) has placed them in France—just go with it—where they move from one small […]
Film
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Still the Greatest
Another Muhammad Ali documentary, and still not enough!
According to Sports Illustrated, there wasn’t any 20th century figure on whom more ink was expended than Muhammad Ali, the repeat heavyweight champion boxer and one of the most important civil rights heroes of the '60s. In more recent years, that fascination with Ali seems to have turned to another medium—and one which truly showcases […]
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Space Mountain Man
Vin against nature in Riddick
There are supposedly only a few stories out there: man against nature, man against self, man against society, and man against man. Not content with any of those, 2000's low-budget sci-fi flick Pitch Black mashed up all four. The result was a low-fi, clever chunk of violent pulp, starring Vin Diesel as Riddick, a conflicted […]
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A True Underdog Story
Bending Steel tells the straight story
Although there is plenty of flexing and grunting, Bending Steel is a surprisingly soft and intimate story about a 43-year-old New York man who decides to become a sideshow strongman at Coney Island. Certainly there are scenes when the strongmen straighten out horseshoes and, veins bulging, smash nails into pieces of wood (without the use […]
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Why Romantic Comedies are Bad for You
Twenty Million People is realistic romance, sort of
The modern romantic comedy is a joke. The genre fosters the fantasy of charming men who stalk ex-lovers through airports (creepy), come to the church to break up your wedding (annoying), and Peter Gabriel fans who are willing to stand stoically in the rain with boom boxes all in the name of undying love (also […]
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Terrible Memory Lane
The Butler succeeds in spite of itself
Between 1952 and 1986, Eugene Allen served as part of the White House's service staff, personally attending to the administrations of eight American presidents. Jackie Kennedy gave him one of Jack's ties as a memento after the president was shot. He drank root beer with Jimmy Carter at Camp David. He was a VIP at […]
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Another Michael Cera Delight
Crystal Fairy a Beach Party Through The Doors of Perception
Mescaline is a psychoactive substance that has been used by humans for more than 5,000 years. Native to Chile, the San Pedro cactus is one of the few sources of mescaline in the world. Crystal Fairy is in part a movie about this cactus. Crystal Fairy follows the standard equation of a late summer flick. […]
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Reality more violent than the movies
The Act of Killing made me want to vomit, in a good way
Spoiler alert, of sorts: Weak stomachs need not attend. Here’s the simplest way to explain this award-winning documentary: Anwar Congo, the very real and still living and celebrated father of the right-wing paramilitary organization Pemuda Pancasila in his native Indonesia, and a group of his aging friends were asked to make a film re-creating their […]
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British Invasion
Pints, nostalgia, robots and The World’s End
Nostalgia rots your insides, holding you back and preventing you from accomplishing anything new. This is a hard, unsentimental truth, one usually taught by too many heartbreaks or too many awkward reunions. Gary King (Simon Pegg) still hasn’t learned it. Still rocking the battered Dr. Martins and Sisters of Mercy T-shirt he’s had since he […]
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The Dawn of Swayze’s Career
Red Dawn is a rambunctiously fun time capsule
It shouldn’t be a complete surprise that the director and screenwriter of 1985’s Red Dawn first climbed into fame for Dirty Harry, in which he put the words, “Go ahead, make my day” into Clint Eastwood’s mouth. John Milius is not a household name, but he has left his manly marks all over American pop […]
