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Reel Talk: ‘Water for Elephants’ truncates the original
Sara Gruen's 2006 novel "Water for Elephants," which I happen to have read for a Bowdoin English class, beckons like a book that comes ready-made for the transition from page to screen.
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Reel Talk: ‘Your Highness’ slacks off, but maintains fun attitude
It seems like "Your Highness," the second large-scale project by director David Gordon Green realized/created in tandem with Danny McBride and James Franco, is what happens when the guys from "Pineapple Express" take a time machine back to the middle ages: the costumes get older and so, unfortunately, do the jokes.
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Reel Talk: ‘Sucker Punch’ falls short of convincing its audience
"Sucker Punch" is the work of director Zack Snyder—whose previous efforts include "300" and "The Watchmen"—so walking into the theater, you have to know what type of film you are getting yourself into. The introduction, featuring dramatic, booming music, a majority of slow motion shots, close-ups and bleak and textured scenery, is to be expected. It is essentially the same visual strategy that Snyder used in his previous two films, and though it's not a surprise here, the technique is still very effective.
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Reel Talk: Liam Neeson excels in ‘Unknown’
Offhand, how old would you guess Liam Neeson is? Judging from the characters he has played in his latest movies, including Bryan Mills in “Taken” (2008), and Colonel Hannibal Smith in “The A-Team” (2010), you might think he’s middle aged; 45, maybe? 50? No. He is 58.
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Reel Talk: ‘The Mechanic’ falls short, but still entertains audiences
If we're honest with ourselves, what do we expect when we go to see a Jason Statham film? Compelling character development? Clever dialogue? Complex relationships? Probably not.
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Reel Talk: Romantic comedy ‘No Strings Attached’ goes par for its course
For anyone who has seen Natalie Portman in "Black Swan," her starring role in the new romantic comedy "No Strings Attached," directed by Ivan Reitman and also starring Ashton Kutcher, will certainly seem like less of an event. Obligatory endeavors for many rising movie stars, romantic comedies are undoubtedly some of the most disposable, forgettable and generally poorly made films to come out of Hollywood today.
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Reel Talk: ‘Love and Other Drugs’ gets bogged down
Watching the previews before the beginning of "Love and Other Drugs," I came to the realization that many romantic films take surprisingly simple situations and stretch them into full-length features.
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Reel Talk: Audiences spellbound by highly-hyped ‘Harry Potter’
A lot has changed in the world of Harry Potter since 2001, when Harry first hit the big screen as an 11-year-old kid with no knowledge of the wizarding world: Dumbledore was head of Hogwarts, Quidditch was actually played, and Voldemort was nothing more than an ugly growth on Professor Quirrell's head.
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Reel Talk: ‘Due Date’ not worth due attention, relies on old gimmicks and jokes
What could possibly be unfunny about Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. stuck in a car together on a cross-country trip? This concept, used as a primary selling point for director Todd Phillips' sophomore effort, "Due Date," uses the same rubric, and some of the same jokes, as his directorial debut, "The Hangover" (2009).
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Reel Talk: ‘Hereafter’ proves to be successful
The new Clint Eastwood film "Hereafter" is distinctly an Eastwood film for many reasons. Though it is ultimately not among his best, it is his distinctive touch that prevents the film from falling victim to the artificiality that plagues most afterlife-related films.
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Reel Talk: ‘Wall Street 2,’ a lucrative investment for Gekko sympathizers and admirers
There have been few films in recent memory that coax the allegiance of their viewers onto the side of the villain, but Oliver Stone's "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps," the sequel to his 1987 hit "Wall Street," does just that.