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The Others
(2001)
|
Jimmy O
|
Films like this survive on atmosphere and tone, like du Maurier stories, and the filming is so skillfully done that I found myself wishing that Amenábar wouldn't take the story where I knew he was going to.
Posted Oct 30, 2018
|
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6/10
|
Friends With Benefits
(2011)
|
Stephen Himes
|
A Central Station flashmob of a movie.
Posted Aug 01, 2011
|
|
6/10
|
Bad Teacher
(2011)
|
Stephen Himes
|
The only way to understand this movie's argument about performance pay is to imagine Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker watching it.
Posted Jul 26, 2011
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8/10
|
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
(2011)
|
Stephen Himes
|
Harry Potter isn't about the wand choosing the wizard; it's about what education should be about: transforming imagination into reality.
Posted Jul 15, 2011
|
|
8/10
|
Everything Must Go
(2010)
|
Stephen Himes
|
Will Ferrell isn't stunt casting--his size and deadpan are essential to the character.
Posted Jul 05, 2011
|
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4/10
|
The Beaver
(2011)
|
Stephen Himes
|
Jodie Foster invites us to laugh at this guy who talks through a puppet, then scolds us for doing so.
Posted Jul 05, 2011
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4/10
|
The Hangover Part II
(2011)
|
Stephen Himes
|
More a horror than a comedic film, as if Todd Phillips is making a kind of "Heart of Darkness" argument with Bangkok as his backdrop.
Posted Jul 05, 2011
|
|
4/10
|
Bridesmaids
(2011)
|
Stephen Himes
|
By filling the plot hole of Lillian's cluelessness with explosive diarrhea, the film undermines the whole "Apatowian Female Comedy" idea.
Posted Jul 05, 2011
|
|
9/10
|
Midnight in Paris
(2011)
|
Stephen Himes
|
"Midnight in Paris," a parable about romanticism and nostalgia, recalls Early Owen as much as Early Woody.
Posted Jul 05, 2011
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|
5/10
|
Larry Crowne
(2011)
|
Stephen Himes
|
"Larry Crowne" is made precisely for people like Larry Crowne.
Posted Jul 05, 2011
|
|
2.5/5
|
The Hangover Part II
(2011)
|
Jimmy O
|
Director Todd Phillips Should be Given Credit for Making a Darker, Edgier Film But A Lot of the Shock is Lost with Predictable Material.
Posted May 30, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
Super
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
An Interesting, Shocking Look at the Religiosity of the Superhero Myth.
Posted May 11, 2011
|
|
3.5/5
|
Rabbit Hole
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
Not as Depressing as You Fear...and that's no Faint Praise.
Posted Feb 08, 2011
|
|
3/5
|
Blue Valentine
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
An Endless Barrage of Misery and Depression Punctuated by Great Acting. Being Breathless Doesn't Make Quality Cinema.
Posted Feb 07, 2011
|
|
2.5/5
|
The Dilemma
(2011)
|
Jimmy O
|
Howard Tries to Have Fun with a Touchy Subject But the Good Drama Gets in the Way of his Lame Jokes.
Posted Jan 25, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
Somewhere
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
Coppola Gets Too Close by Making a Vapid Picture of Fatherhood That's Too Shallow for any Deep Moments.
Posted Jan 13, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
Fair Game
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
Liman Digs Into the Personal Life of Those On the Edge and Finds Something Nicely Human. A Great Political Flick
Posted Jan 08, 2011
|
|
2/5
|
The King's Speech
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
A stuffy melodrama tailored for the therapist acting-a-thon. A tragic combo.
Posted Jan 04, 2011
|
|
4/5
|
True Grit
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
The Coens Return the Western from the post-Modern to the Classic in this Fun, Briskly Poetic Flick.
Posted Dec 25, 2010
|
|
3.5
|
The Fighter
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
David O. Russell Gives Us a Good Boxing Film But Nothing Groundbreaking. Christian Bale's Eating Disorder Really Shines.
Posted Dec 24, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
Black Swan
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
Ballet can be Hell, and Aronofsky Never Lets You Forget It.
Posted Dec 06, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
127 Hours
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
More Intense than Any of Franco's Work in "General Hospital".
Posted Nov 30, 2010
|
|
2.5/5
|
Due Date
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
I Think the Movie Lost me When Robert Downey Jr punched out a ten-year old.
Posted Nov 27, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
Unstoppable
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
A Great Blue-Collar Thrill Ride.
Posted Nov 27, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
Woody Allen Makes One of His "Couple" Films Particularly Enhanced by Hopkins' Realistic View or Mortality.
Posted Oct 20, 2010
|
|
1.5/5
|
My Soul to Take
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
While there's much to like about the ideas and atmosphere, Craven can't muster much out of his characters or script to form an interesting message.
Posted Oct 18, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
The Social Network
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
Fincher and Sorkin Have Created a Film Whose Truth is as Subject as it's Presented on Facebook Itself. A Dark, Entertaining Parable.
Posted Oct 09, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
Devil
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
"Devil" is Effectively Creepy but Still has M. Night's Shaky Take on Faith and Religion.
Posted Sep 26, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
Machete
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
"Machete" Makes For Interesting Politics if Not For a Fully Satisfying Flick Due to Problematic Casting.
Posted Sep 09, 2010
|
|
3.5/5
|
The American
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
An Effective Thriller or a Chance for Clooney to Hang in Lake Como? Go with the Former.
Posted Sep 07, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
The Last Exorcism
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
"The Last Exorcism" Starts Out as a Sharp Religious Satire But Kind of Forgets That When Angling for "Paranormal Activity" Scares.
Posted Sep 06, 2010
|
|
2/5
|
The Expendables
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
Stallone Can't Choose Between Thoughtful Meditation of Age and Violence or Just a Cheesy Throwback to the mid-80's. A Pity.
Posted Aug 28, 2010
|
|
3.5/5
|
Piranha
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
Aja rejects the victim mentality of horror for the past ten years and crafts a legit throwback to the classic slasher doubling as Morality Play. Well done.
Posted Aug 26, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
Edgar Wright Experiments with Video Game as Artistic Flourish and Succeeds Despite the Weakness in Structure and Cast.
Posted Aug 17, 2010
|
|
1.5/5
|
The Kids Are All Right
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
While Certainly Not its Intent, this Film is So Vapid in its Plot and Empty in Character It Ends Up Being Anti-Gay in Message.
Posted Aug 11, 2010
|
|
2/5
|
Grown Ups
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
Dugan and Sandler Prove That, When it Comes to Humor and Sentiment, The Failure to Invest in Your Characters is a Fatal Flaw.
Posted Jun 29, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
Knight and Day
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
An Elegantly Simple and Nicely-Made Summer Flick That Doesn't Quite Have the Tension Its Title Suggests.
Posted Jun 22, 2010
|
|
4/10
|
The A-Team
(2010)
|
Stephen Himes
|
Ocean's Eleven if conceieved by Tony Scott.
Posted Jun 20, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
Winter's Bone
(2010)
|
Jimmy O
|
Take it from a genuine hillbilly that this is a true and powerful statement on the tragedy of Ozark life.
Posted Jun 18, 2010
|
|
6/10
|
Ghost Writer
(1989)
|
Stephen Himes
|
Polanski creates a sublime image of Tony Blair: A man who traps himself in a storm-battered glass house because he lacks the courage of his convictions.
Posted Jun 10, 2010
|
|
7/10
|
MacGruber
(2010)
|
Stephen Himes
|
Perhaps a satire of Nicolas Cage's Jerry Bruckheimer movies.
Posted Jun 10, 2010
|
|
5/10
|
Letters to Juliet
(2010)
|
Stephen Himes
|
Asking Juliet Capulet for relationship advice is a little bit like asking John McCain for campaign consulting, isn't it?
Posted May 17, 2010
|
|
0/5
|
Kick-Ass
(2010)
|
Stephen Himes
|
It's deeply immoral to turn a ten year old girl into The Bride from "Kill Bill" and pretend it's just a cartoon.
Posted May 13, 2010
|
|
5/10
|
Date Night
(2010)
|
Stephen Himes
|
Instead of shooting for 'It Happened One Night,' it opts for being 'The Hangover' for married people.
Posted Apr 08, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
Hot Tub Time Machine
(2010)
|
Stephen Himes
|
John Cusack's response to the canonization of John Hughes.
Posted Apr 06, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
Michael Jackson's This Is It
(2009)
|
Stephen Himes
|
'This is It' is tied together by an aesthetic that can only be called Synthetic Intimacy.
Posted Jan 08, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
(2009)
|
Stephen Himes
|
To say 'Precious' is exploitative because it's bleak is to argue that Jonathan Kozol shouldn't have written 'Savage Inequalities' because it shows urban schools in a bad light.
Posted Jan 08, 2010
|
|
2.5/5
|
The Young Victoria
(2009)
|
Stephen Himes
|
If Molly Ringwold had taken a shot at 'respectability' in a Merchant Ivory Oscar-bait film, this might have been the perfect screenplay.
Posted Jan 08, 2010
|
|
3/5
|
Crazy Heart
(2009)
|
Stephen Himes
|
The difference between 'Crazy Heart' and 'The Wrestler' is the quality of the female characters.
Posted Jan 08, 2010
|
|
4/5
|
Me and Orson Welles
(2008)
|
Stephen Himes
|
Linklater shows how Welles' hubris take him from the Caesar of his own theater to playing Falstaff on 'The Dean Martin Show.'
Posted Jan 08, 2010
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