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‘Annie’ [2014] Review: Leave This One in the Orphanage

Philip Brown — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 14:00:10 +0000

If this new version of ‘Annie’ had been made as a Will Smith/Willow Smith vehicle (and one glaring ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ reference remains in the script), the musical remake could have been a magical trainwreck. It would have been a feature-length ode to the ego of the wackiest family in La-La-land. Sadly, Willow...

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‘Sex Tape’ Review: Tracking Error

Philip Brown — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 14:00:20 +0000

A sex tape sex comedy sounds damn near impossible to screw up, especially with a pair of comedic actors as game as Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel at the center. Unfortunately, something went drastically wrong at some point during production. This placid flick is neither provocative nor funny. Nope, it’s shockingly dull and an unfortunate...

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Now Playing: Mixed ‘Counsel’

Luke Hickman — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:00:59 +0000

After blindly walking into ‘The Counselor’ with absolutely no knowledge of the story, aware only that it was written as Pulitzer Prize-winner Cormac McCarthy’s first original screenplay, I had to chew on it a long while before making up my mind. After several hours and much discussion with fellow critic friends, I’ve come to the...

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Now Playing: Lowered Expectations

Luke Hickman — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:00:22 +0000

I enjoy walking into screenings without knowing anything about the movie I’m about to see, but when I walked into ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’ and discovered which actors star in this ensemble comedy, I wished that I’d stayed home to watch ‘The Grey‘ instead. It’s not usually fair to judge a movie by...

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Weekend Box Office: Both ‘Cars 2’ and ‘Bad Teacher’ Blow Predictions Out of the Water

Luke Hickman — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:00:37 +0000

As expected, family-friendly ‘Cars 2’ raced to first place this weekend against crude adult comedy ‘Bad Teacher’. The surprising part? Both outgrossed their weekend predictions by more than $10 million. With terrible tracking and horrible reviews, ‘Cars 2‘ was only expected to draw between $50 to $55 million this weekend. It seems that the studio...

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Weekend Movies: ‘Cars’ Spins Out While ‘Bad Teacher’ Gets An “A”

Luke Hickman — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:00:12 +0000

There’s no question as to which new movie will be the weekend box office winner. ‘Cars 2’ is the family-enticing sequel to Pixar’s major merchandise seller ‘Cars‘, while ‘Bad Teacher’ is a raunchy, irreverent and relentlessly crude adult comedy that resembles ‘Bad Santa‘. Pixar flicks are always huge money-makers, even though this one definitely does...

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Now Playing: ‘Bad Teacher’ = A Finely Tuned Re-imagining of ‘Bad Santa’

Luke Hickman — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:00:15 +0000

Surprisingly, the writers of ‘Year One‘ have actually written a funny comedy. Even if it took stealing the plot of ‘Bad Santa‘ and changing the gender of the central character to do it, they finally produced something of note. They took a decent dark comedy, made it a tad lighter, and turned it into a...

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Now Playing: ‘The Green Hornet’ Stings

Drew Taylor — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:00:10 +0000

Someone must have thought it would be a good idea to do a comedic version of the classic serial ‘The Green Hornet’ (the conceit was originally Kevin Smith’s, when he was briefly in control of the property) with the guys behind ‘Superbad‘ and ‘Pineapple Express‘ writing and starring, and music video whiz Michel Gondry directing....

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Blu-ray Highlights for 11/30/10: What Are You Buying?

Josh Zyber — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:00:57 +0000

It’s the last day of November. There are officially only 25 shopping days left until Christmas. The studios know this. You’d think they’d release a more interesting batch of movies to buy on Blu-ray today. Here’s the week’s slate: ‘Avatar – 3D‘ (20th Century Fox – December 1st) ‘Bee Movie (Combo Pack)‘ (DreamWorks) ‘Fantasia/Fantasia 2000...

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Weekend Box Office: ‘Toy Story’ Stays on Top

Drew Taylor — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:00:23 +0000

Some pretty big heavy-hitters were added to the box office roller derby this weekend. Yet the combined star wattage of Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, and a bunch of unfunny, pot-bellied has-been comedians (Kevin James, David Spade, etc.) couldn’t dislodge our favorite toys from the top spot. The weekend box office showcased...

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Weekend Movies: Growing Up Is Hard to Do

Drew Taylor — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:00:40 +0000

Well, the (potentially) biggest movie of the week, Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz’s goofy fun ‘Knight and Day,’ opened on Wednesday. That leaves this weekend to a bunch of numskulls, and some potentially potent indie films, including a great new movie from one of the masters of French Cinema. Besides that, well… you could always...

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Now Playing: ‘Knight and Day’ is a Hoot (For a Little While)

Drew Taylor — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:00:49 +0000

Fox is worried about ‘Knight and Day,’ the high-impact action comedy that’s opening across the country today. It’s been widely reported that the film, which stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, just isn’t connecting. In fact, in a recent awareness poll, more people know about (and have considered seeing) the similarly themed Ashton Kutcher/Katherine Heigl...

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