Author: Brandon Fibbs
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REVIEW: ‘Kids Are All Right’ better than alright
“The Kids Are All Right” is an odd little film to find in the middle of an overstimulated Hollywood summer. Heartfelt and funny, the film is like a cool shower on an oppressively hot day — refreshing and invigorating, the sort of unexpected surprise that catches you off guard and sticks with you for days.…
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Review: Premise of ‘Salt’ too bad to be true
I’m not ashamed to say I love these sorts of movies — espionage thrillers jammed to the gills with hairbreadth escapes, gladiatorial bouts and death-defying stunts. So it was disappointing when “Salt” turned out to be little more than a larger-budgeted episode of “24,” a double agent concept that started out successfully enough but quickly…
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REVIEW: Action thriller not worth its ‘Salt’
I’m not ashamed to say I love these sorts of movies — espionage thrillers jammed to the gills with hairbreadth escapes, gladiatorial bouts and death-defying stunts. So it was disappointing when “Salt” turned out to be little more than a larger-budgeted episode of “24,” a double agent concept that started out successfully enough but quickly…
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Review: ‘The Girl who Plays with Fire’ a warm-up for sequel
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” the first film in the Millennium trilogy by the late, incandescently popular Swedish author Stieg Larsson, was a cross between the achingly forlorn films of Ingmar Bergman and another spine-chilling, suspenseful novel similarly adapted into a mesmerizing film, Thomas Harris’ “Silence of the Lambs.” Bleached of color and at…
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REVIEW: Second ‘Girl’ installment doesn’t quite catch fire like the first
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” the first film in the Millennium trilogy by the late, incandescently popular Swedish author Stieg Larsson, was a cross between the achingly forlorn films of Ingmar Bergman and another spine-chilling, suspenseful novel similarly adapted into a mesmerizing film, Thomas Harris’ “Silence of the Lambs.” Bleached of color and at…
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REVIEW: ‘Inception’ one of the most mind-blowing movies you’ll ever see
GRADE: A+ Do you remember how you first felt upon leaving the original “The Matrix,” that shell-shocked sense of having been given a heady glimpse into another fully formed world, that feeling of suddenly possessing dangerous and unearthly knowledge, that giddy realization that you’d just witnessed something intellectually breathtaking and truly original? Prepare for…
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REVIEW: ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ captures rare brand of Disney magic
FILM OPENS TODAY Don’t tell my wife, but I love being wrong. At least when it comes to films. I’ll admit it, I came to “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” prepared to hate it. It had all the hallmarks of a film that would rub me the wrong way — produced by explosive-style-over-substance Jerry Bruckheimer and…
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Review: ‘Inception’ is an incredible, thrilling ride
Do you remember how you first felt upon leaving the original “The Matrix,” that shell-shocked sense of having been given a heady glimpse into another fully formed world, that feeling of suddenly possessing dangerous and unearthly knowledge, that giddy realization that you’d just witnessed something intellectually breathtaking and truly original? Prepare for those sensations all…
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MOVIE REVIEW: “Despicable Me” just okay
“DESPICABLE ME” Grade: B Cast: Voices of Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Elsie Fisher, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Julie Andrews Directors: Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud Theaters: Hollywood, Tinseltown, Carmike, Chapel Hills, Cinemark Rated: PG (for rude humor and mild action) Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes If “Despicable Me” were…
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REVIEW: Please, God, let this be ‘The Last Airbender’
Shortly before the release of his film “Signs,” Time magazine heralded writer/director M. Night Shyamalan as “the next Spielberg,” a moniker that has proved to be something of a millstone about the neck of an artist whose films since then have met with nothing but exponentially mounting contempt.Taking a break from his twist-prone suspense thrillers…