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Reviews by Appropriate Audience
(D) Abandon
Given the talent involved, it really is almost impressive how bad "Abandon" is. The movie is written by Stephen Gaghan, who last won an Oscar for "Traffic" and here makes...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(B+) About a Boy
"About a Boy" is the story of a shallow man appropriately named Will Freeman (Hugh Grant) who believes, contrary to John Donne, that every man is an island. Or at...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(C+) About Adam
It begins as a sweet, simple love story. A flirtatious waitress named Lucy (Kate Hudson) falls for a man named Adam (Stuart Townsend). All the other men in Lucy's life...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(A-) About Schmidt
Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) sits at his desk as though he was standing at attention during a full-dress inspection. As he watches the clock move from 4:58 to 5:00, he...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(D) Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights
"8 Crazy Nights" is a bit of an enigma. In the Venn diagram of movie goers, Adam Sandler fans are not an easy overlap with those who cherish holiday musicals....
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(A) Adaptation
There are people who care so passionately about something that it fills them up completely. And then there are the rest of us, who can never lose themselves that way,...
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Posted on Thursday December 19, 2002
(C) After the Sunset
This movie features two of the most glorious sights on earth -- Paradise Island and Salma Hayak in a bikini. Unfortunately, it keeps putting unappealing characters and a dumb story...
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Posted on Thursday November 11, 2004
(B) The Alamo
There is only one reason to see "The Alamo," and it is Billy Bob Thornton. His portrayal of Davy Crockett is magnificently vibrant, fully imagined, and so breathtakingly evocative of...
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Posted on Thursday April 8, 2004
(B-) Alex and Emma
Kate Hudson is so irresistibly charming that it is easy to forget how tepid and uninspired this movie is. It is always a delight to see Hudson's saucer-eyed smile and...
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Posted on Wednesday June 18, 2003
(D) Alexander
Alexander the person was great. "Alexander" the movie is not. It is a horrendously bad movie, a genuine 40-car pile-up of literally epic proportions, a three-way head-on collision of bad...
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Posted on Saturday November 20, 2004
(B) Alfie
What's it all about, Charlie? Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers used to be married and they used to make movies together (Baby Boom, the remakes of Father of the Bride...
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Posted on Tuesday October 19, 2004
(A+) Ali
Will Smith delivers a knock-out punch as Muhammed Ali in this outstanding film that follows the champ from his first heavyweight title to the "Rumble in the Jungle" when he...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(D) All About the Benjamins
"All About the Benjamins" is to Ice Cube what "Crossroads" is to Britney Spears, a vanity vehicle designed by a star who has very little sense of how people like...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(D) All I Wanna Do
An appealing cast of talented performers and some mild good intentions cannot save this uneven and sour comedy (originally released with the title "Strike!") about a girls' boarding school that...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(D) Alone in the Dark
There's something far scarier about this movie than its CGI monsters, whose lack of any apparent weight makes them seem as threatening as the floating Clifford balloon in the Macy's...
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Posted on Wednesday January 26, 2005
(D-) Along Came a Spider
Morgan Freeman returns as Dr. Alex Cross in this prequel to "Kiss the Girls." Like the original, this movie has a nursery rhyme title and centers on a kidnapped girl....
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(C+) Along Came Polly
The writer and star of Meet the Parents reunite in this much tamer comedy about a risk-averse guy who meets a free spirit. Reuben (Ben Stiller) evaluates risk for a...
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Posted on Tuesday January 13, 2004
(C) Alpha Dog
"This whole thing is about parenting," explains the ironically named Sonny Truelove (Bruce Willis). He is telling an off-screen questioner about his son Johnny (Emile Hirsch). Or, the questioner is...
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Posted on Wednesday January 10, 2007
(A) Amelie
"Amélie" is filled with whimsical charm the way that a chocolate soufflé is filled with air. Amélie (Audrey Tatou) grows up the lonely child of parents who do not know...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(B+) American Beauty
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a 42-year-old man who has lost touch with anything that made him feel alive. His wife Carolyn (Annette Benning) is a realtor, so highly focused...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(A+) American Graffiti
The movie takes place on a single night in 1962, immediately before two good friends, Curt (Richard Dreyfus) and Steve (Ron Howard), are about to leave for college. Curt and...
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Posted on Sunday August 22, 2004
(B) American Pie
This is a movie about teenagers who promise each other that they will have sex before the night of the prom, and then do whatever they can to make it...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(C+) American Pie 2
Teenagers will want to see this movie because it is raunchy and gross. But like the original, the gross and raunchy moments, though frequent, are less important than the movie's...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(A+) American Splendor
Harvey Pekar says, “Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.” His own life is a good example. He has the most ordinary of professions – he is a file clerk in...
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Posted on Friday August 22, 2003
(B) American Wedding
Okay, I admit it -- I laughed. A lot. Even more surprising, I smiled. I was even a little sorry that this is the last of the American Pie trilogy....
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Posted on Tuesday July 29, 2003
(B+) Amistad
Plot: In 1839, a group of Africans sold into slavery were being transported to the United States on a Spanish ship. Off the coast of Cuba, they escaped from their...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(C) The Amityville Horror
Going over the same ground as the original 1975 cult classic and its many derivative offspring, this “Amityville Horror” provides enough of a shiver for novice horror fans to guarantee...
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Posted on Friday April 15, 2005
(B+) Analyze That
Robert DeNiro loves comedy. Who knew? After decades as America’s most respected dramatic actor, DeNiro discovered that he enjoyed making people laugh in “Analyze This,” where he tweaked his most...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(B) Anchorman
Remember the old "Spanky and Our Gang" episodes where the boys wouldn't let Darla into the treehouse? Imagine that plot set in the all-white-guys world of 1970's television news, when...
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Posted on Wednesday July 7, 2004
(B+) Angel Eyes
Watch out -- they're trying to sell this movie as a thriller with supernatural overtones, but it turns out that it is a very traditional love story, and a surprisingly...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(B+) Anger Management
There are two odd couples in this movie. One is the traditional pairing of two opposite characters just for the fun of seeing the sparks (and the inevitable "I learned...
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Posted on Tuesday April 8, 2003
(C+) Anna and the King
This is the fourth movie version –- and the second this year -- of the story of Anna Leonowens, brought to Siam in 1864 by King Monghut to teach his...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(B+) Antwone Fisher
Therapy films usually follow the same pattern as romance films, a sort of one-sided romance of the subjects with themselves. In other words, it’s therapist meets patient, therapist loses patient,...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(B+) Anvil: The Story of Anvil
If this story wasn't true, they'd have to invent it. Indeed, they already did. "This is Spinal Tap," one of the most outrageous, influential, and utterly hilarious movies ever made,...
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Posted on Tuesday October 6, 2009
(C+) Anything Else
Woody Allen has repackaged characters, themes, and even jokes from his best movies in this soggy and lackluster trifle about a young comedy writer stuck in various relationships. This time,...
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Posted on Monday September 22, 2003
(C+) Anywhere But Here
Adele (Susan Sarandon), a free-spirited teacher, takes her 14 year old daughter Ann (Natalie Portman) to Los Angeles in a gold-colored Mercedes. Ann resents her mother for taking her away...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(B-) Apocalypto
There are at least three movies here and two of them are great. There is the classic adventure saga of the hero who is trying to get home and save...
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Posted on Tuesday December 5, 2006
(C+) Arlington Road
This is a very scary movie about a very scary subject -- terrorism. Indeed, its release was delayed due to concerns about the sensitivity of the material. Jeff Bridges plays...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(B+) Assault on Precinct 13
A juicy premise, a powerhouse cast, and energetic direction combine for a satisfying thriller about a police station under seige. It's a big-budget remake of John Carpenter's 1976 film of...
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Posted on Friday January 14, 2005
(A-) Atonement
Genre: Genre, Based on a book, Epic/Historical, Romance
MPAA Rating: R Audience: Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating: R Audience: Mature High Schooler
Little toy jungle animals are lined up on the rug. Typewriter keys bang like gunshots. Briony (Saoirse Ronan) is writing a play called "The Trials of Arabella." It is...
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Posted on Tuesday December 4, 2007
(C+) Austin Powers in Goldmember
Another year, another Austin Powers movie. And that means 30 very funny minutes surrounded by 60 minutes of far less funny jokes about body parts and body functions, primarily those...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(D) Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
This movie is only slightly behind "Phantom Menace" in anticipation and excitement among kids, but parents need to know that it is very, very, very raunchy, with incessant and prolonged...
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Posted on Friday December 13, 2002
(B+) The Aviator
A true story that is both touching and thrilling and tons of talent on both sides of the camera are enough to make this a good movie, but not enough...
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Posted on Thursday December 2, 2004
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Copyright 1995-2009 Nell Minow. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 1995-2009 Nell Minow. All Rights Reserved.