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Blueberries Meet Luscious Taste Buds in ‘My Blueberry Nights’ With Jude Law,...
CHICAGO– We see sensual close-up shots of blueberry pie overflow with aqueducts of vanilla ice cream in Wong Kar-Wai’s opening sequence of “My Blueberry Nights”. This dreamy scene sets the tone of the...
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Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman Not Relatable in ‘Brothers’
Rating: 2.0/5.0CHICAGO– The transition from hot young actor to the domestic picket fence is about ten years and a shadowy crow’s foot. One day you’re a galaxy queen, superhero and Donnie Darko, next...
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Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Darren Aronofsky Stage Mesmerizing ‘Black Swan’
Rating: 5.0/5.0CHICAGO– Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” pulses with the kind of energy and life that we only see from cinema a few times a year. With creative expression rarely seen in American film...
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Ashton Kutcher, Natalie Portman With ‘No Strings Attached’
Rating: 3.5/5.0CHICAGO– When a handsome studmuffin meets a fetching, fabulously hot doctor, what’s the outcome? That’s right, sex without a relationship, AKA Friends with Benefits. And a movie...
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Danny McBride, James Franco Falter With Dreadful ‘Your Highness’
Rating: 1.5/5.0CHICAGO– “Your Highness” just makes me sad. Rarely have so many talented people been sucked into such an unfunny disaster as what will surely be one of the biggest disappointments of the...
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Despite Loveless Love Story, ‘Thor’ Deserves Your Popcorn-Flick Dollar
Rating: 3.5/5.0CHICAGO– When big-budget films set their sights on being the next Hollywood blockbuster, they’re almost always built on a formulaic groundwork of proven ingredients. While these films...
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Loathsome ‘Hesher’ With Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Natalie Portman
Rating: 1.0/5.0CHICAGO– “Hesher” ends with a middle finger and I shot one right back to the screen. Rarely has a film so completely misunderstood the grieving process and played faux tough in an...
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Eye-Popping 3D, Same Story in ‘Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace’...
Rating: 3.0/5.0CHICAGO– Jar Jar Binks is back, and George Lucas has him in 3D. Yes, the re-release of 1999’s “Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace,” takes advantage of the new 3D technology....
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‘Thor: The Dark World’ is Little More Than Marketing For ‘The Avengers 2’
Rating: 2.0/5.0CHICAGO– Few major films have felt less creatively inspired and more commercially conceived than Alan Taylor’s dull “Thor: The Dark World,” a wannabe blockbuster with all the personality...
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Forced ‘Thor: The Dark World’ Sequel Lacks Passion, Sci-Fi Basis
Rating: 2.5/5.0CHICAGO– For me and the subculture as a whole, so much of science fiction came from “Star Trek”. If creator Gene Roddenberry were alive today to witness “Thor: The Dark World,” he’d tell...
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Terence Malick’s Feverish Dream in ‘Knight of Cups’
Rating: 3.5/5.0CHICAGO– I’ve been quoting Martin Scorsese over the years, that he said “movies are a psychotic’s feverish dream on display.” In searching for those words, I found he never said it. He...
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Natalie Portman Embodies a Magnificent ‘Jackie’
Rating: 5.0/5.0CHICAGO– Capturing one of the most familiar woman of the last fifty years would seem impossible, except when focusing on one of the defining moments of her life. “Jackie” reveals...
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Consider the Meaning of Life Force in ‘Annihilation’
Rating: 3.5/5.0CHICAGO– Alex Garland, the standout creator/director of “Ex Machina,” is back with “Annihilation,” another science fiction story. And like the previous film, it explores implications of...
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‘Vox Lux’ is a Visually Stark Metaphor for a Lost Cause
Rating: 4.0/5.0CHICAGO– In the frozen emotional landscape of America, where mass shootings have become as regular as the sunrise, what better symbol for this madness is there than a pop star? Natalie...
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