Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Romance, Comedy
Opens locally Friday, July 1st, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour, 39 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Roxana Ortega, Brian Cranston, Cedric the Entertainer, George Takei Co-written & Directed by Tom Hanks (That Thing You Do!) "Larry Crowne" is only the 2nd feature film directed by Tom Hanks, but there is no sophomore slump here. I feel helpless to resist the disarming power of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts on-screen together...two of the flat-out most likeable actors of all time. How do you dislike any single thing they do? Well, I didn't have to try hard to like "Larry Crowne," the film or the character, and although not without it's flaws, I found myself mesmorized in a nostalgic haze that had me wondering where these two have been the past few years.
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Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Teen Comedy, Romance
Opens locally Friday, July 1st, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes, Rated PG Starring: Selena Gomez, Katie Cassidy, Leighton Meester, Luke Bracey Co-written & Directed by Thomas Bezucha (The Family Stone) Expectations are a funny thing. Go into the wrong movie with great expectations, and you are bound to end up hating what you see, or at the very least, you'll walk out disappointed. Go into a movie not expecting much, and you are often times surprised. In the case of "Monte Carlo," my below average expectation level heading into the theatre led me to be mildly amused with the outcome. Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Animated, Pixar
Opens locally Friday, June 24th, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour 47 minutes, Rated G Starring (voices): Larry the Cable Guy, Owen Wilson, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer Directed by Brad Lewis, John Lasseter (Toy Story, Toy Story 2) The first film "Cars" is perhaps my least favorite of all the Pixar films. It was a good movie, and in comparison to the rest of the crap out there being served up to kids and adults alike lately, well, maybe I'm just being picky. It was a tremendous success, and spawned one of the greatest merchandising frenzies in recent years...do you have a Lightning McQueen soap dispenser yet? Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Documentary
Opens locally Friday, June 24th, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour, 29 minutes, Rated R Starring: Conan O'Brien, Andy Richter, Jimmy Vivino Directed by Rodman Flender (The Unborn, Leprechaun 2) NBC's "The Tonight Show" is thought of as the pinnacle of a stand-up comedians career, and after years and years in waiting, 2010 finally saw Conan O'Brien taking it's reigns. He replaced Jay Leno, who was to move into a new primetime slot at 10:00 pm. But when Leno's new show bombed and with The Tonight Shows ratings down, the network proposed that Leno's show return to the coveted 11:35 pm timeslot, bumping Conan's The Tonight Show to after midnight for the first time in the show's history. When Conan refused to move to midnight, it created a media firestorm and massive public outcry. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Independent, Drama
Opens locally Friday, June 24th, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour, 37 minutes, Rated R Starring: Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Sally Hawkins, Paddy Considine, Noah Taylor Written and Directed by Richard Ayoade (directorial debut, maybe best known as Moss on the British TV series, "The IT Crowd") Don't worry, there was no budget for real Submarines in this quirky British dramedy. Nor was there a need for real submarines, so don't let the film's title mislead you. "Submarine" is a story (adapted from the novel by Joe Dunthorne) about young love, and coming of age in a sense, shown in a real-world way where (gasp!) teenagers actually swear and want to have sex. First-time feature-film director Richard Ayoade creates a style somewhere in-between that of Noah Baumbach (The Squid & The Whale) and Wes Anderson, and the result is an odd yet funny tale about adolescence. Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama
Opens locally Friday, June 17th, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes Starring: Christopher Plummer, Ewan McGregor, Melanie Laurent Written & Directed by Mike Mills (Thumbsucker) "Beginners" has all the makings to be that anti-blockbuster impactful drama...the kind of movie that is remembered later in the year during award season and makes common movie-goers say, "Huh? What's that movie? Never heard of it." Instead, "Beginners" bogs itself down by taking serious material too seriously...crushing itself under it's own weight. Rating: 1 out of 5 starsGenre: Comedy
Opens locally Friday, June 17th, 2011 Run Time, 1 hour, 35 minutes, Rated PG Starring: Jim Carrey, Carla Gugino, Angela Lansbury Directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) OK, "Mr. Popper's Penguins" is a train wreck, and not the cool, exciting kind like in "Super 8." It is excruciatingly painful to sit through, and I don't care if it's meant for kids. If you love your children, take them elsewhere. Anywhere. Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama
Opens locally Friday, June 10th, 2011 Run Time: 2 hours 18 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken Written & Directed by Terrence Malick (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line) To say that Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" starts at the beginning, would be an understatement. Malick, as you may or may not know, is an Oscar-nominated director, a visionary expressionist responsible for directing only 5 films over his 38 year career. He is one of those "artsy" directors, not known for his commercial success by any means. Malick's films seem to be painted works of art rather than "Point A to Point B" films like most audience members are accustomed to. His films are meant to be hung on a wall in a museum, while you stare into the abstract and arrive at a hidden meaning, if any, that lies within the canvas. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: SciFi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Opens locally Friday, June 10th, 2011 Run Time: 1 hour 52 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Elle Fanning Written & Directed by J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, TV's Lost & Alias, Mission: Impossible III) "Super 8" is a nostalgic sci-fi film, produced by none other than Steven Spielberg, the famous director of some of the genres most well-known films, such as E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. "Super 8" definitely has a familiar feel as a throw-back film, and also serves as a sort of love-letter from Spielberg to Spielberg. The plot of the film has been highly guarded, like a top secret alien secretly being held by our government. Don't look here for any revealing plot details, as part of the fun and nostalgia is not knowing what to expect...something that the modern-day audience may not be used to, and may not like. Rating: 5 out of 5 starsGenre: Comic Book, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure Opens locally Friday, June 3rd, 2011 Run Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Stardust) Is "X-Men: First Class" a great movie in the sense that it will win an Academy Award? No. But this prequel to the X-Men Movie Trilogy is a home-run when it comes to story, entertainment value, and sheer fun. |
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