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Movies: "Despicable Me 2"
You’ve got to love the fact that “Despicable Me 2” unhorsed “The Lone Ranger” at the box office. Disney -- the godfather of animated movies -- trumped by an animated movie! (Of course, the mouse...
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Movies: "The Bling Ring"
“Let’s go to Paris. I want to rob.” When misfit high schooler Marc (Israel Broussard) gets this text on his phone, he knows just where he and his new best friend Rebecca (Katie Chang) are headed....
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Movies: "20 Feet from Stardom"
Do you know these names: Lisa Fischer, Patti Austin, Stevvi Alexander, Claudia Lennear or Tata Vega? If you love rock ‘n’ roll or soul music, you should. They’re the sweet-sounding background...
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Movies: "The To Do List"
What’s not to like about Aubrey Plaza? Her deadpan role as April Ludgate on “Parks & Recreation” is second only to Nick Offerman’s meat chomping Ron Swanson among the supporting players of that...
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Movies: "Fruitvale Station"
Arriving on the heels of the George Zimmerman trial, this is a fact-based movie about another horrific incident: the fatal shooting of an unarmed, young black man by an Oakland, California transit cop....
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Movies: "2 Guns"
Actually, there are a lot more than two guns in this slickly-made action movie. There are a couple of direct references to the work of the late, great action director Sam Peckinpah (“The Wild...
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Movies: "Lee Daniels' The Butler"
“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” (they had to add the director’s name to the title to avoid conflict with an earlier movie titled “The Butler”) is a heartfelt and often moving story about an African-American...
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Movies: "Blue Jasmine"
After his disappointing “To Rome with Love,” Woody Allen is back in top form with this heartbreaking comedy, loosely based on “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Our modern-day Blanche DuBois is Jasmine (she...
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Movies: "Closed Circuit"
As we all know by now, London is loaded with closed circuit TV cameras and this sleek political thriller makes full use of them, starting right from the get-go, as we see multiple screen shots of a...
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Movies: "The Spectacular Now"
It’s back to school time, and just to remind us older folks what that was like, there have been a spate of recent, serious movies about high school age kids. You know, first loves, sex, real or...
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Movies: "The Family"
French filmmaker Luc Besson has made some terrific action movies, including “La Femme Nikita,””Leon: The Professional” and “Ronin.” While it does have its moments, “The Family” is not one of his...
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Movies: "Gravity"
Mexican writer/director Alfonso Cuaron blew me away with his dystopian action movie “Children of Men” back in 2006. Now he’s done it again with the most realistic space adventure since Kubrick’s...
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Movies: "Enough Said"
I love Autumn. The weather turns crisp, the lawn doesn’t need mowing every week and the movies become so much better. Case in point: “Enough Said,” a sweet, funny film about adult relationships,...
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Movies: "Captain Phillips"
British filmmaker Paul Greengrass brought a visceral documentary style to such powerhouse movies as “Bloody Sunday” (2002), “United 93” (2006) and the best of the Jason Bourne adventures (“The Bourne...
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Movies: "Short Term 12"
Snuggled into the cineplex opposite such monster hits as “Gravity” and “Captain Phillips” is this small slice of reality, written and directed by 30-year old filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton (“I Am Not...
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Movies: "The Fifth Estate"
The trouble with this newfangled computer age is it just doesn’t make for very compelling cinema. Hey, if you want to see a bunch of people tapping away at their keyboards, just look up from your...
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Movies: "The Counselor"
Dark doings south of the border. Fast cars, guns and snazzy parties. A big drug deal goes awry and the naive man in the middle finds himself the target of a vengeful and remorseless Mexican drug...
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Movies: "12 Years A Slave"
“The past is never dead,” wrote William Faulkner. “It’s not even past.” That old Southerner’s observation certainly holds true for this movie, in which we are called upon to witness the ugly truth...
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Movies: "Dallas Buyers Club"
In his earlier film career, Matthew McConaughey seemed lazy and laid-back, letting his well-toned body do most of the acting for him. But with this year’s “Mud” and now “Dallas Buyers Club,” he is...
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Movies: "American Hustle"
With its clever script, terrific cast and 1970s vibe, here’s a movie to put a spring in your step and a song in your heart (maybe by America or Steely Dan), even if it is all about corruption.“Some of...
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