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‘Wonder’ Review: Why Isn’t Eric Stoltz Playing the Dad in This?

Philip Brown — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 13:00:07 +0000

‘Wonder’ is designed for the express purpose of making you cry, and co-writer/director Peter Chbosky (‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’) is prepared to suck those tears out of your face by any means possible. The movie is an assault on your heartstrings to the extent that viewing the big maudlin exercise in manipulation can...

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‘Cars 3’ Review: Better than Necessary

Philip Brown — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 17:00:35 +0000

While the ‘Cars’ movies typically divide critics unlike any other Pixar movie, they also routinely rank among the most successful Pixar products and sell the most toys. So here we go again with another tale from this anthropomorphized automobile universe that seems to have few rules beyond presenting as many toy-worthy characters as possible. Thankfully,...

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‘Masterminds’ Review: Sublimely Silly

Philip Brown — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 14:00:10 +0000

‘Masterminds’ is just a little bit too weird for its own good. That’ll be exactly what makes the proud few who fall for this collection of eccentricity to fall deeply and what will drive everyone else away. Fair enough. The best comedies tend to be divisive. ‘Masterminds’ is definitely one of the funniest movies I’ve...

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‘Zoolander 2’ Review: Acceptable, If Nothing Special

Philip Brown — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 14:00:50 +0000

Comedy sequels ain’t easy. Like hearing the same joke twice, it just won’t be quite as funny the second time, no matter how amusing the telling. Only a handful of examples manage to match or top their originals, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. That’s certainly true of ‘Zoolander 2’, a sequel that...

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‘No Escape’ Review: Sweaty Suspense

Philip Brown — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 19:00:10 +0000

A tense thriller that never lets up for a second, ‘No Escape’ is an unexpected little late summer gem. It’s dialed up high on action and suspense with only the bare minimum of setup necessary to get there, featuring a pair of unexpected action leads who do their jobs tremendously well, and one old veteran...

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‘She’s Funny That Way’ Review: Not That Funny

Philip Brown — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 16:00:39 +0000

Of all the great American directors of the 1970s, few have suffered a fall from grace as dramatically as Peter Bogdanovich. His latest effort, ‘She’s Funny That Way’, doesn’t do much to suggest that the filmmaker has much left in the tank. To be fair, it has also clearly been reworked endlessly in editing. It’s...

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‘Inherent Vice’ Review: A Hazy Noir Masterpiece

Philip Brown — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 20:00:29 +0000

Set in early 1970s Los Angeles and very much indebted to the auteur-driven masterpieces that came out of Hollywood in that era, ‘Inherent Vice’ is a stoner detective art film. You might even be tempted to call it the first of its kind, were it not for the fact that Robert Altman’s ‘The Long Goodbye’...

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‘Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb’ Review: When Will This Night End?

Philip Brown — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:00:22 +0000

The ‘Night at the Museum’ series refuses to go away despite being a consistent punching bag. In this third title, the franchise is as charmingly mediocre as ever. These movies aren’t art, nor do they offer particularly interesting entertainment. However, they do what they do fairly effectively, and the cast that has signed onto the...

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‘Are You Here’ Review: Are You Funny? No.

Philip Brown — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 16:00:46 +0000

Some movies are horrible because they were made by people who should never be allowed to own a camera or pretend to act. Then there are horrible movies made by such talented people that the failure is inexplicable. ‘Are You Here’ is one of the latter and should be avoided by anyone who likes any...

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Now Playing: Grand ‘Hotel’

Philip Brown — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 20:00:58 +0000

In his latest movie, ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, Wes Anderson has created a murder mystery wrapped in a caper, hidden in action movie, that’s ultimately another of his broken family fables. Somehow it all works. In fact, it’s rather wonderful and just might be his finest film since ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’. Like all Anderson movies,...

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Weekend Movies: Summer Crashers

Luke Hickman — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 17:00:54 +0000

This weekend offers a batch of preemptive mainstream counterprogramming that would be destined to drop like a rock even if ‘Man of Steel’ wasn’t opening next week. The biggest release this weekend tries to recreate the sparks that flew between Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in last decade’s ‘Wedding Crashers‘. Twentieth Century Fox hopes for...

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Now Playing: About 417,000,000 Results (0.22 Seconds)

Bryan Kluger — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:00:37 +0000

Much like ‘Wedding Crashers’, the pairing of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in ‘The Internship’ seems to have potential for a lot of gut-busting laughs. Unfortunately, just like last time these two got together, we end up with a bland paint-by-numbers comedy that provides only a couple of laughs. Not making the situation any better,...

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