 Rating: 1 out of 5 starsGenre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Run Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Sophie Okonedo Co-Written & Directed by M. Night Shyamalan (The Last Airbender, The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable, The Village) It's not a matter of whether you like Will Smith, or think that it's cute that he is starring in a new movie alongside his real-life son, Jaden Smith. This is surely how the film, After Earth (opening today), has been marketed, because if they told you who wrote and directed it, the Smiths would not nearly be enough to drag you into the theater, kicking and/or screaming.
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 Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Documentary
Run Time: 1 hour, 48 minutes, Rated PG-13 Featuring: Sarah Polley, Pixie Bigelow, John Buchan, Tom Butler, Geoffrey Bowes Starring: Andrew Church, Rebecca Jenkins, Peter Evans Written & Directed by Sarah Polley (Take This Waltz, Away from Her) One of the best films of 2012 was Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz, starring Michelle Williams. It was a personal story that oozed realism, immediately putting Polley on the "new elite" list of directors for her ability to touch on such raw nerves. Her follow up film is a documentary called Stories We Tell (opening today), and it manages to get even more personal while at the same time examining the very nature of how stories are told, or perhaps more importantly, how truth is received.  Rating: 5 out of 5 starsGenre: Comedy, Drama
Run Time: 1 hour, 26 minutes, Rated R Starring: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Michael Esper, Adam Driver, Michael Zegen Written by Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig Directed by Noah Baumbach (The Squid & The Whale, Greenberg, Margot at the Wedding) Poor Frances Halloway (Greta Gerwig) just doesn't quite fit, in Frances Ha (opening today), the latest film from director Noah Baumbach.  Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Mystery, Thriller, Foreign
Run Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes, Rated R Starring: Fabrice Luchini, Ernst Umhauer, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emmanuelle Seigner Based on the play "The Boy in the Last Row" by Juan Mayorga Written & Directed by Francois Ozon (Swimming Pool, Potiche) As thrillers go, In the House (opening today) isn't all that thrilling. But it does take a mind-bending premise and weaves a pretty compelling story that should keep the audience in its seat - although maybe not on the edge of it - for the duration.  Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Animation, Adventure, Family
Run Time: 1 hour, 42 minutes, Rated PG Starring (Voices of): Amanda Seyfried, Colin Farrell, Aziz Ansari, Jason Sudeikis, Christoph Waltz, Beyonce Knowles, Pitbull, Steven Tyler, Josh Hutcherson Directed by Chris Wedge (Ice Age, Robots) As Kermit once quipped: It's not easy being green. Nothing comes easy in the latest animated film Epic (in theaters today), from Blue Sky Studios, who previously brought us films like Ice Age and Rio. The original tale in which Epic is based - "The Leaf Men and Brave Good Bugs" by William Joyce - is aptly named. But for the film version to be called Epic, it borders on false advertising.  Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Comedy
Run Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes, Rated R Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong, John Goodman, Melissa McCarthy, Jeffrey Tambor, Heather Graham, Mike Epps Co-Written & Directed by Todd Phillips (The Hangover, The Hangover Part II, Due Date, Old School) Let's just start by saying that The Hangover Part III (opening today) is awful. Even so, it's leaps and bounds better than the second film and yet still miles away from capturing the fun of of the first. Finally, this franchise is laid out to rest.  Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Action, Thriller
Run Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes, Rated R Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Liana Liberato, Olga Kurylenko, Garrick Hagon Written by Arash Amel Directed by Philipp Stolzl (Young Goethe in Love, North Face, Baby) Some people might be very enthusiastic to find out that there entire workplace has simply vanished. But for Ben Logan in the new film Erased (in theaters today), this occurrence is a not quite wish fulfillment, but rather, part of a convoluted conspiracy that puts him and his daughter on the run and looking for answers.  Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure
Run Time: 2 hours, 12 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Weller, Alice Eve Written by Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof (Star Trek, Lost, Prometheus) Directed by J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Super 8, Mission: Impossible III) Apparently, gone are the days where liking Star Trek means you are super-uncool. Under the direction of wide-eyed, whiz kid J.J. Abrams - who sits upon this franchise's Captain's Chair for the second time and who will direct the new Star Wars film coming in 2015 - it's hard not to like this re-invented, re-imagined science-fiction adventure. But the further Star Trek treks under his guidance (the newest film hits theaters today), the further away it seems to get from the bread and butter of what made Star Trek great in the first place.  Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Romance
Run Time: 2 hours, 23 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, Elizabeth Debicki, Joel Edgerton Based on the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald Co-Written & Directed by Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Australia) Look here, old sport: The latest film version of The Great Gatsby (in theaters now) falls short of greatness. But that's not to say that it isn't good, it's just weighed down by an eccentric director who just can't help himself.  Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Run Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Jon Favreau, Ben Kingsley, James Badge Dale, Stephanie Szostak Written by Drew Pearce and Shane Black (Lethal Weapon 1, 2, 3, 4, Last Action Hero) Directed by Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) Billionaire, mechanical genius and egomaniac Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) spends most of Iron Man 3 (opening today) without his famous suit on, as it focuses squarely on the man and less on the body armor. But dress it up any way you'd like: This is still your prototypical blockbuster, comic book super-hero film. With this being the fourth on-screen appearance of Iron Man (the first two installments, plus his role in last year's The Avengers), you would expect each version to top its predecessor, but Iron Man 3 feels clunky and weighed down when compared to the superior awesomeness that was The Avengers. |
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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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