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2.5/5
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Trick 'r Treat
(2007)
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Josh Bell
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Trick 'r Treat deserves points for avoiding cheap thrills and excessive gore, but its limited old-school charms are not nearly as impressive as its inflated reputation suggests.
Posted Oct 14, 2020
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2.5/5
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The Sunset Limited
(2011)
|
Josh Bell
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The movie feels stagey not only because of its limited physical scope, but also because of its stilted, formal speech, which Jones and Jackson deliver with an arch tone that often robs it of impact.
Posted Aug 06, 2020
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Hemingway & Gellhorn
(2012)
|
Josh Bell
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It features passionate love scenes, intense images of violence and heart-wrenching emotional moments. It's also often painfully melodramatic and hopelessly predictable despite depicting a (mostly) true story.
Posted Jun 03, 2020
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2.5/5
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Too Big to Fail
(2011)
|
Josh Bell
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Although it's handsomely directed and competently acted, Too Big, even with its narrow focus on the events of fall 2008, tackles too much story with too little narrative drive.
Posted Jun 26, 2018
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2.5/5
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Hostiles
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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It's a simplistic emotional arc that Cooper portrays with maximum self-importance.
Posted Jan 25, 2018
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1.5/5
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Maze Runner: The Death Cure
(2018)
|
Josh Bell
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A lot of scenes of characters running from one place to another, things exploding for no reason, and empty dialogue exchanges about saving and/or destroying the world.
Posted Jan 25, 2018
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2/5
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12 Strong
(2018)
|
Josh Bell
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The bravery of the real soldiers is buried under a mountain of hokey sentiment and rah-rah bluster.
Posted Jan 18, 2018
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3.5/5
|
Call Me by Your Name
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
It's a sensual celebration of young love and lust.
Posted Jan 18, 2018
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2.5/5
|
The Commuter
(2018)
|
Josh Bell
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Once the breakneck pace of the speeding train stops in the third act, all that's left is the increasingly elaborate and idiotic conspiracy storyline, which Michael has to unravel.
Posted Jan 11, 2018
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3.5/5
|
The Post
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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Molds real life into a crowd-pleasing story without sacrificing the underlying honesty.
Posted Jan 11, 2018
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4/5
|
I, Tonya
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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The movie's level of confidence and style immediately blows the preconceptions away.
Posted Jan 04, 2018
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3.5/5
|
Molly's Game
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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Sorkin lets his writing do the talking, and his words (delivered passionately by Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba, among others) carry the movie.
Posted Dec 21, 2017
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2/5
|
Downsizing
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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Part satire, part domestic drama, part political commentary, and almost all a disjointed mess.
Posted Dec 21, 2017
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3/5
|
The Shape of Water
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
Beautiful and occasionally moving, if not quite as emotionally rich as it aims to be.
Posted Dec 21, 2017
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3.5/5
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All the Money in the World
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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Features a number of taut, suspenseful set pieces and strong performances from Michelle Williams and Christopher Plummer.
Posted Dec 21, 2017
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3/5
|
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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Proves that there's no reason a movie that exists primarily to refresh a studio's intellectual property can't still be fun to watch.
Posted Dec 21, 2017
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2.5/5
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The Greatest Showman
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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The broad performances, simplistic emotions and slick songs might eventually win audiences over, but only because they're too worn out to resist.
Posted Dec 21, 2017
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2/5
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Ferdinand
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
The jokes are mostly painful, the voice work is perfunctory and the story's themes are muddled.
Posted Dec 14, 2017
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2/5
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Wonder Wheel
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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Allen's dialogue is so stilted and artificial that no amount of Serious Acting can make it convincing or meaningful.
Posted Dec 14, 2017
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3/5
|
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
[Johnson] does his best work in The Last Jedi when he stops trying for narrative complexity and just stages some cool outer-space action.
Posted Dec 13, 2017
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3.5/5
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Thelma
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
A mesmerizing story about a teenage girl whose repressed sexuality manifests itself in dangerous telekinetic and telepathic powers.
Posted Dec 07, 2017
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3/5
|
The Disaster Artist
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
It might not be as amusing as discovering the mind-boggling awfulness of The Room for the first time, but it's a decent intro to the madness.
Posted Dec 07, 2017
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3.5/5
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The Breadwinner
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
The filmmakers know when to pull back and lighten the mood, and the hand-drawn animation is always lovely and expressive.
Posted Dec 01, 2017
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2.5/5
|
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
For every genuine emotion that McDonagh evokes, he can't resist undercutting it by showing off.
Posted Nov 22, 2017
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3.5/5
|
Coco
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
It's the kind of story Pixar has told before, but there's enough variation to make it feel fresh.
Posted Nov 22, 2017
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3.5/5
|
Lady Bird
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
Lady Bird is only beginning to mature by the time the movie ends, but as a filmmaker, Gerwig proves that she's already there.
Posted Nov 16, 2017
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2.5/5
|
Justice League
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
It never does more than fulfill its minimum obligations.
Posted Nov 16, 2017
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|
3.5/5
|
Wonderstruck
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
Haynes and his talented young actors capture the overwhelming joy that can come from discovering the secrets of the world.
Posted Nov 09, 2017
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|
2.5/5
|
Tragedy Girls
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
Tragedy Girls never quite gets below the surface of online narcissism, as much as it strains for relevance.
Posted Nov 09, 2017
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|
3.5/5
|
The Florida Project
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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It's a celebration of the camaraderie and optimism of people whose lives could be seen from the outside as desperate or sad.
Posted Nov 09, 2017
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2.5/5
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Murder on the Orient Express
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
It's hard to think of a good reason to bring this familiar character's most familiar adventure to the screen yet again, and Branagh never quite finds one.
Posted Nov 09, 2017
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2.5/5
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The Killing of a Sacred Deer
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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Lanthimos knows how to push buttons and antagonize his audience, but here it just serves to make his movie less effective.
Posted Nov 02, 2017
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3/5
|
Thor: Ragnarok
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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Waititi creates a fun, relaxed vibe among Thor and his allies, particularly the now more articulate Hulk and the sullen, perpetually drunk Valkyrie.
Posted Nov 02, 2017
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2/5
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All I See Is You
(2016)
|
Josh Bell
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The story is slow and vague, with underdeveloped hints at a '90s-style erotic thriller or a romantic weepie.
Posted Oct 26, 2017
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2.5/5
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Thank You for Your Service
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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It's an admirable effort that never quite transcends its hokey educational trappings.
Posted Oct 26, 2017
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|
2/5
|
The Snowman
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
The movie is disjointed and sometimes hard to follow, with scenes that start or end abruptly, narrative threads that go nowhere and poorly inserted flashbacks.
Posted Oct 21, 2017
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3/5
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1922
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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It's a solid, straightforward thriller that gets the job done without much fuss, and it lands somewhere in the upper-middle of all King movie adaptations.
Posted Oct 19, 2017
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2.5/5
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Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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The closing title cards convey just as much information -- and are nearly as entertaining -- as any of the preceding scenes.
Posted Oct 19, 2017
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2/5
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Only the Brave
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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About as narratively satisfying as reading a memorial plaque.
Posted Oct 19, 2017
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3.5/5
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The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
Even the minor characters get their moments to shine, and the cumulative effect of Stories is akin to a rich collection of literary fiction.
Posted Oct 12, 2017
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3/5
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Happy Death Day
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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Nobody will bother reliving this movie over and over again, but it's a refreshingly good time while it lasts.
Posted Oct 12, 2017
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3/5
|
Marshall
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
The courtroom drama is pretty entertaining, even if it's completely predictable and often played very broadly.
Posted Oct 12, 2017
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3.5/5
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Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
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Robinson uses a conventional structure to tell an unconventional story, making her subject both radical and relatable in the process.
Posted Oct 12, 2017
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2/5
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Victoria & Abdul
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
Dench's fearsome performance isn't worth much in a movie that so cheaply dismisses its own real-life subjects.
Posted Oct 05, 2017
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2.5/5
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The Mountain Between Us
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
[The romance is] an awkward afterthought to an already sluggish adventure story.
Posted Oct 05, 2017
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3.5/5
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Blade Runner 2049
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
Moody, methodical and meticulous, with stunning visuals, strong performances and a sci-fi story that's more ponderous than thrilling.
Posted Oct 05, 2017
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3/5
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American Made
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
What Doug Liman's breezy film lacks in verisimilitude it makes up for in entertainment value, at least for a while.
Posted Sep 28, 2017
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3.5/5
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Battle of the Sexes
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
Stone and Carell give such charismatic performances that it's hard not to get caught up in the spectacle of it all, even if the outcome was determined 40-plus years ago.
Posted Sep 28, 2017
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3/5
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Stronger
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
The final act gives Jeff the conveniently uplifting happy ending that the genre warrants, but his journey there is tougher and more honest than usual.
Posted Sep 21, 2017
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2.5/5
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The LEGO NINJAGO Movie
(2017)
|
Josh Bell
|
Three movies into the animated Lego franchise, the once-unexpected has become formulaic, and the pop-culture quips and meta-humor have started to run a bit thin.
Posted Sep 21, 2017
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