 Rating: 1 out of 5 starsGenre: Comedy
Run Time: 1 hour, 32 minutes, Rated R Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Jackson Nicoll, Georgina Cates, Spike Jonze Directed by Jeff Tremaine (Jackass: The Movie, Jackass 3D) Imagine the 2006 comedy Borat. Now replace the talented comedian, Sacha Baron Cohen, with the less capable Johnny Knoxville (best known from MTV's "Jackass"). Now strip away any and all laughs. Finally, replace all of the sharply conceived social commentary and fish-out-of-water buffoonery with a series of sophomoric dick, poop and fart jokes aimed at the lowest common denominator of American society. You end up with Bad Grandpa (opening today), a movie that isn't the worst movie of the year for the sole reason that it was released during the same year as Movie 43.
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 Rating: 5 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama
Run Time: 2 hours, 13 minutes, Rated R Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dwight Henry, Adepero Oduye, Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, Michael Fassbender, Alfre Woodard, Brad Pitt Screenplay by John Ridley (Red Tails) Directed by Steve McQueen (Shame, Hunger) Powerful and difficult to watch at times, 12 Years a Slave (opening today) tells the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man in the early days of the United States who is abducted and sold into slavery. Through his eyes, we are forced to see the brutality - the inhumanity - that existed in our country's past. But there are themes at work that also speak to modern day Americans. Namely, that close-mindedness of accepting the status quo and also living through the narrow viewpoint of one's own place in society.  Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Action, Drama
Run Time: 1 hour, 31 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Robert Redford Written & Directed by J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) All Is Lost (opening today) could also have been called "The Old Man and the Sea," because those are pretty much the only two elements shown on-screen for the duration of the film. Well, technically it's the Indian Ocean, not a sea, and although Robert Redford might be considered old, he is still a phenomenal actor and here he gives us a great one-man performance.  Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Crime
Run Time: 1 hour, 57 minutes, Rated R Starring: Michael Fassbender, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt Written by Cormac McCarthy (Child of God, The Road, No Country for Old Men) Directed by Ridley Scott (Prometheus, Robin Hood, American Gangster, Kingdom of Heaven, Black Hawk Down, Thelma & Louise, Alien) The Counselor (opening today) begins with a semi-steamy scene between Michael Fassbender (simply referred to throughout the film as "Counselor") and his girlfriend, Laura (Penelope Cruz). The frankness in which they share pillow talk may surprise you.  Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Documentary
Run Time: 1 hour, 35 minutes, Rated R Directed by Nick Ryan (feature-film debut) Documentaries are not supposed to be bone-chilling, edge-of-your-seat entertainment, right? Well in Nick Ryan's new film, The Summit (opening today), he shows that the sky is the limit - or rather, that the sky is not the limit - in the fascinating world of mountain climbing.  Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Biography
Run Time: 2 hours, 8 minutes, Rated R Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Bruhl, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Laura Linney, Stanley Tucci Directed by Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 & 2) Is Julian Assange - the founder of the infamous website, WikiLeaks - a traitor or a hero? That is the central question posed in the flawed biopic, The Fifth Estate (opening today).  Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama
Run Time: 2 hours, 14 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Michael Chernus, Catherine Keener, Yul Vazquez Directed by Paul Greengrass (Green Zone, The Bourne Supremacy, United 93) Tom Hanks is perfectly cast in the title role of Captain Phillips (opening today), a movie based on the real-life hi-jacking of a U.S. ship by Somali pirates back in April of 2009. It's a thrilling film directed with panache by Paul Greengrass, whose previous films - The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93 and Green Zone, to name a few - share the same dizzying, shaky, visual style as Captain Phillips. This method works given the subject matter Greengrass is usually covering, creating tension even when none seems apparent in the lives of the film's characters.  Rating: 5 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Mystery, Science Fiction
Run Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris Co-written by Jonas & Alfonso Cuaron Directed by Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) "Wow" is the appropriate one-word review for Gravity (opening today). It is the rare film that must be experienced, because to merely watch it would not do it justice.  Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama
Run Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Marcia Gay Harden, Zac Efron, Paul Giamatti, Ron Livingston, Billy Bob Thornton, James Badge Dale Written & Directed by Peter Landesman (feature-film debuts in both areas) Every American generation has had an incredibly significant tragedy, a "where were you when" moment in history. My generation had 9/11, and our grandparents had the bombing of Pearl Harbor. To most of our parents though, the most tragic and horrific event of their lives was on November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas while traveling by motorcade through the crowded streets. In the film Parkland (opening today), the tragedy is reinvented and viewed through the eyes of Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti), who famously filmed the assassination from atop a perch outside of a nearby building. It also tells the story of the Parkland Hospital doctors who rushed to save the President's life...and who soon after would have his alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, on their same operating table. |
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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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