Read Tom's quick reviews of these movies at the following link: https://www.axs.com/movie-reviews-the-promise-and-free-fire-set-to-open-in-theaters-on-apr-117589
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Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, History
Run Time: 2 hours, Rated PG-13 Starring: Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette Binoche, James Brolin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Oscar Nunez, Mario Casas, Jacob Vargas Directed by Patricia Riggen (Girl in Progress, Under the Same Moon) The Chilean mining accident dominated headlines in August of 2010, when 33 coal miners were trapped 700 meters underground in the Atacama Desert, after the silver and gold mine they were working inside of collapsed. Feared dead, these men leaned on each other and rationed the little food they had far below the earth, holding on to faint hope that they would ever again see the light of day. From the outside, it was a grim outlook, as many - including the mining company, the Chilean government and the families of the buried - understood that there was little chance of survival...some estimates had them lasting no more than a few days. Miraculously (spoiler alert!!), 69 days later, all thirty-three men were pulled up from the ground, alive and for the most part, well. The 33 (opening today) is a conventional, Americanized dramatization of their story. Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Biography, History
Run Time: 2 hours, 22 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Domenick Lombardozzi, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan Written by Matt Charman and Ethan & Joel Coen Directed by Steven Spielberg (Lincoln, War Horse, Munich, Minority Report, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones Trilogy, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws) Legendary director Steven Spielberg takes on the Cold War in the espionage thriller, Bridge of Spies (opening today). He re-teams with Tom Hanks, who also starred in Spielberg's The Terminal, Catch Me If You Can and Saving Private Ryan, in which he took home the Best Actor Oscar in 1999. But although this latest film is based on a true story, its biggest problem is overcoming several plot contrivances and moments that just ring false. All over this script by Matt Charman and the Coen Brothers, fact is blurred with fiction, resulting in a well-made, well-acted spy movie that doesn't quite reach the level of intrigue in which it's aiming. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsThe great British painter, J.M.W. Turner, was quite a character. In Mr. Turner (opening today), the long-time British character actor, Timothy Spall, plays the titular man as quite the character, to near-brilliant effect. Spall (American audiences may recognize him best as the villainous Wormtail from the Harry Potter films) gives an all-in, brutally honest performance and is reason alone to seek the film out.
Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Biography, Drama, History
Run Time: 2 hours, 19 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, Deon Lotz, Fana Mokoena, Tony Kgoroge Directed by Justin Chadwick (The First Grader, The Other Boleyn Girl) The great Nelson Mandela passed away on Dec 5, so the release of the new film, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (opening today), couldn't be more appropriately timed. Those who lived through his time know the man as a legendary figure and in my generation (thirty-something-ers), it would be impossible not to remember his release from prison in 1990, after spending 27 years in captivity, and the media storm that followed at that time. In the last few decades since his release, he was an important public servant, becoming South Africa's first black president in 1995. 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. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Historical
Run Time: 2 hours, Rated PG-13 Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes, Jackie Earl Haley Directed by Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, Munich, War Horse ) Spielberg is a master filmmaker who has used the theme of “believing” throughout his filmography. In Lincoln, he uses this theme to effectively depict a man who had instilled belief into thousands during one of the most tumultuous times in our country’s history. Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Biography, Drama, Historical
Opens locally Friday, January 20th, 2012 Run Time: 1 hour 39 minutes, Rated R Starring: Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley, Vincent Cassel Written by Christopher Hampton, based on the 2002 play The Talking Cure which was based on the 1993 non-fiction book A Most Dangerous Method by John Kerr Directed by David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises, A History of Violence) Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud are considered the founders of modern psychology, a commonplace practice in today’s world. But in the early 1900s, psycho-analysis was a fringe belief, and the idea that mentally-ill patients could be “cured” simply by talking with a doctor was met with widespread skepticism. A Dangerous Method is a story about a severely ill basket-case that is cured using this “dangerous” method of talk treatment, acting also as a biopic of Carl Jung. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Romance, Epic/Historical
Opens locally Friday, April 22nd, 2011 Run Time: 2 hours, 19 minutes Starring: Melanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson, Gaspard Ulliel, Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet Directed by Bertrand Tavernier (Life and Nothing But, A Sunday in the Country) “The Princess of Montpensier” is a film set in 16th century France, an epic battle between Catholic and Protestants as the backdrop. War in this film only works to bring various men into the plot and/or send them away for a bit, as by all means we are watching a romance. That romance is complicated but very intriguing in a film definitely worth finding. Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Historical
Opens locally Friday, April 15th, 2011 Run Time: 2 hours, 1 minute, Rated PG-13 Starring: James McAvoy, Robin Wright Penn, Justin Long, Tom Wilkinson Directed by Robert Redford (Lions for Lambs, The Horse Whisperer, Quiz Show, Ordinary People) "The Conspirator" could have been called "The Lincoln Lawyer" had that name not already been taken. It is a historical by-the-book courtroom drama that tells the tale leading up to and following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln back in April of 1865. We all know that John Wilkes Booth shot the president from behind as he watched a play from the balcony of a theatre show. What I never knew, until this movie, was the massive conspiracy and the pre-meditation surrounding the assassination. It was much more than a "lone gunman" bursting into a theatre. |
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