Screen

Hocus poking

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If you were to divide your ticket price by the number of semi-nude male pelvic thrusts in the faces of women spectators, each hump costs you less than a penny. At times during Magic Mike XXL, I felt like I needed a “horny translator.” That is to say, when Channing ...

Brotherly love

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A mid all the promotional noise for Up in the Air and Avatar and the rest, it’s easy to overlook a drama like Brothers, with its plain-spoken title and stern subject matter...

Tolerable levels of cute

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We’ve all been there, that moment in time when destiny knocks on the door, and we’d rather just yell “Go away, I already have plans!” So it’s easy to identify with E.B., the drum-playing rocker in the lead role of Hop. His destiny? He has to take over for his dad as ...

A jumbled mess

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As a family demographic product, Rango has a million selling points, among them an unusually strong voice cast headed by Johnny Depp in tremulous-aesthete mode, a popular live-action director making his feature animation debut, and a twist on a genre temporarily back...

Chaotic, but ‘Pirate Radio’ works

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Richard Curtis makes romantic, sentimental and overlong...

Crisis of context

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I believe it’s a lack of context, not empathy. Because if it’s a lack of empathy, we’re screwed — doomed as a country, culture, maybe even species. The dismissal of the poor as bottom-feeding, system-exploiting moochers comes from not having a full perspective of ...

Details matter

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A man edges along the 21st-story ledge of a midtown New York City hotel. He’s an ex-cop and a convicted thief on the lam, straight out of Sing Sing, and he’s threatening suicide. Sam Worthington, of Avatar and Clash of the Titans, plays this character, Nick Cassidy, ...

Forgettable

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If you’ve ever seen an online profile picture, chances are you’re familiar with the pursed-lips, craned-neck, supposedly slimming contortion known affectionately as “the duckface.” Total Recall is the sci-fi tale of a quasi-postapocalyptic duckface war between Kate ...

Frightful remake

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Plenty gory, but graced by a jovial sense of humor and an enjoyably guts-centric use of 3-D, director Craig Gillespie’s remake of the 1985 vampire film Fright Night may not tickle the fancies of those who have a close personal friendship with the older version. I ...

‘Chipmunks’ sequel should’ve been roadkill

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"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel" is a kids...

The casino that Jack destroyed

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  Why would you make a documentary?” kingpin lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a.k.a. the Man Who Bought Washington, asked filmmaker Alex Gibney. “No one watches documentaries. You should make an action movie,” he advised, which, in the best possible sense, is what Gibney ...

Reel to reel | Week of October 11

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3,2,1…FRANKIE GO BOOM...