Here, a member of one crime syndicate unknowingly attempts to rip off a member of the other crime syndicate, via fleecing his nightclub bill. The insult eventually escalates to an all-out war as each side takes its turn exacting revenge, from several sacrificial fingers and a purposely botched act of dentistry to the most cruel […]
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Game of Thrones: The Complete First Season
I saw the Thrones pilot a few weeks before it aired last April, and liked it just enough to want to see if it got any better. Not having the channel at home, I had to wait for the home-video release of the first season, which now is here in HBO’s usual top-notch packaging. The […]
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Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Kid Jeopardy! champ Thomas Horn carries the drama as best as he can, playing Oskar Schell, the 9-year-old only child of a jeweler (Tom Hanks) and his cubicle wife (Sandra Bullock). Oskar has Asperger syndrome, or close enough, so his father keeps him entertained and engaged with all sorts of elaborate games and activities, the […]
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The Descendants
An attorney, Matt’s laid-back life is hit with a metaphorical tsunami — not once, but twice — when his wife (Patricia Hastie) is thrown from a boat and into a vegetative state. The news from doctors that she’s not expected to recover is worsened by the accidental revelation that she was invested deeply in an […]
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Wizards
Spanning 3,000 years, give or take, the DayGlo colorful tale of warring wizards — siblings at that — doesn’t even attempt to disguise its political leanings, but kids today can appreciate it just for the pointy-eared fairies and various beasts, especially the low-IQ goons armed with laser guns. Splendidly drawn on cels, the fantasy epic […]
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Urbanized
Having previous explored how our life is affected by typefaces (Helvetica) and manufactured objects (Objectified), director Gary Hustwit provides the final chapter of a trilogy of sorts by exploring the language of urban city design. More thought is put into it than you realized, by more people than you would have guessed. An early observation […]
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Splintered
If that sounds like a familiar trope, how about another? Like, say, a killing on such a spree that it requires tracking via a complex wall map peppered with thumbtacks, Post-it Notes, newspaper clippings. There are more, from scenes of terror that turn out to be dreams, to nocturnal campground “didja hear that?” exchanges. This […]
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Camel Spiders
The giant spider invasion begins after U.S. military forces fight a Middle Eastern enemy in an unspecified desert, and not everyone survives the gunfire or, in case of the enemy, the spiders who pull their bodies into caves for feasting. One spider clandestinely crawls into the coffin of a dead American soldier, and upon return […]
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Strip Nude for Your Killer
The killer in question is a motorcyclist decked out head to toe in black leather, and whose identity is shrouded by a matching helmet. Although it’s not spelled out until the end, we can assume he or she is taking revenge for the woman who dies of a massive coronary in the prologue sequence, while […]
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National Lampoon’s The Legend of Awesomest Maximus
Joining 305 and Meet the Spartans to compose a trifecta of terribleness is National Lampoon’s The Legend of Awesomest Maximus, which finds time also to spoof the likes of Troy, Gladiator, Braveheart, Alexander and TV’s Spartacus, yet fails to conjure a single good gag. Example: Instead of a Trojan horse, we get a Trojan penis. […]