 2013 Paramount Pictures. Rating: 3 out of 5 starsWhew. That was my first reaction to G.I. Joe: Retaliation (opening today), the sequel/re-boot to the horrible, childhood-memory destroying, offensive 2009 crap-heap, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
Disclaimer: There is no bigger fan of G.I. Joe than this guy. I grew up (spoiled perhaps?) with every single G.I. Joe action figure, including those that you had to mail away for, like the hooded Cobra Commander, Super Trooper or Sgt. Slaughter. Heck, I even had the massive, 7-foot long U.S.S. Flagg in my basement, the toy battleship that sold about 10 units worldwide.
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 Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Run Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes, Rated PG Starring (voices of): Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman, Clark Duke Written & Directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon) & Kirk De Micco (Space Chimps) Patching together elements from other popular movies that have come before it, The Croods (opening today), still manages to be passable family entertainment.  Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Crime
Run Time: 1 hour, 34 minutes, Rated R Starring: Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, James Franco Written and Directed by Harmony Korine (Gummo, Mister Lonely,Trash Humpers, writer of Kids ) Talk about a buzz-kill. Spring Breakers (opening today) is getting tons of attention for the career u-turns of its three up-until-this-point wholesome actresses, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson. All three have found fame in kid-friendly fare on the Disney Channel (Gomez) to High School Musical (Hudgens) to Pretty Little Liars (Benson). Now, they join controversial writer/director Harmony Korine for an R-rated sex-crime fantasy meant to catapult them into the world of adult entertainment.  Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Action, Thriller
Run Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes, Rated R Starring: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Dylan McDermott, Morgan Freeman, Finley Jacobsen, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Cole Hauser, Rick Yune Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, King Arthur, Brooklyn's Finest) It's no mistake that Olympus Has Fallen (opening today) is chock-full of talented actors. That's not necessarily typical of big-budget action movies, but Olympus Has Fallen is not your average action movie. Until it becomes one about mid-way through.  Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama
Run Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Elle Fanning, Alice Englert, Annette Bening, Oliver Platt, Timothy Spall, Christina Hendricks Written and Directed by Sally Potter (Orlando, Rage, The Tango Lesson) The sheer size of a crisis really comes down to perspective, doesn't it? Take the Cuban Missile Crisis, which had the world facing a nuclear catastrophe of epic proportions. That's pretty heavy. But to an individual on the brink of losing her family, her best friend, her childhood and all that she has come to know? You might as well drop a bomb. In Ginger & Rosa (opening today), these themes and more are explored in a touching and intimate film from director Sally Potter (see links below for my exclusive interview with her).  Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Run Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes, Rated R Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode, Dermot Mulroney, Phyllis Somerville, Jacki Weaver Written by Wentworth Miller Directed by Chan-wook Park (Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, Thirst) Wentworth Miller is an actor best known for his role as Michael Scofield on the cancelled Fox TV series, Prison Break. With Stoker, Miller branches out as a writer, having penned the screenplay to this dark and somewhat disturbing thriller.  Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Comedy
Run Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Jim Carrey, James Gandolfini, Alan Arkin, Jay Mohr Directed by Don Scardino (Me and Veronica, Advice from a Caterpillar) Everybody knows that magic only works when there is a sense of awe and wonderment, mixed with the element of surprise. With The Incredible Burt Wonderstone - a comedy opening this weekend that reunites Jim Carrey and Steve Carell (who both appeared in 2003's Bruce Almighty) - it's a surprise all right. Surprisingly unfunny.  Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Foreign, Drama, Thriller, War
Run Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes, Not Rated Starring: Saskia Rosendahl, Nele Trebs, Andre Frid, Mika Seidel, Ursina Lardi Co-Written & Directed by Cate Shortland (Somersault) Where are the foreign comedies? It seems that every foreign film that makes it to stateside theaters deals with heavily dramatic fare, usually involving powerful, often times depressing, subject matter. But when such a film if beautifully made like Lore (now playing exclusively at the Main Art Theater in Royal Oak), all is forgiven.  Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Fantasy, Adventure
Run Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes, Rated PG Starring: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff, Bill Cobbs, Joey King, Tony Cox Written by Mitchell Kapner (The Whole Nine Yards, Days of Wrath) & David Lindsay-Abaire (Rise of the Guardians, Rabbit Hole), based on the novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum Directed by Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Drag Me to Hell) Few films have had the endurance or the impact as the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. Although there have been a few spin-offs and failed attempts at returning to this fantastical world, nobody has had the guts to bring it to the big screen in blockbuster style...until now. With Oz the Great and Powerful (opening today, everywhere), we journey back to the land of Munchkins, flying monkeys and yellow-brick roads in an attempt to re-capture the amazement and wonder of the original, for a modern-day audience.  Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, War, History
Run Time: 1 hour, 39 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Matthew Fox, Kaori Momoi, Eriko Hatsune Directed by Peter Webber (Girl with a Pearl Earring, Hannibal Rising) Sometimes fascinating historical nuggets don't translate into feature-length features very well and the new film Emperor (opening today) is the latest example of such. |
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tom santilli movie reviews
Tom Santilli is a professional film critic, TV personality, host and
the Executive Producer of Movie Show Plus.
He also is the featured film critic appearing on WXYZ Channel 7 Action News in Detroit,
and appeared weekly on FOX-2 in Detroit from 2016-2020.
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