Based on the beloved 1936 children’s picture book by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson, the new animated film “Ferdinand” tells the heartwarming tale of a gentle bull who wants nothing more than to spend his days on the farm sitting peacefully and smelling the flowers — a pastime that earns him the scorn of his […]
Movie review
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Film review: “Jackie”
With his first English-language feature, Chilean director Pablo Larraín (“No,” “Neruda”) mixes historical drama, character study, and moody tone poem with just a touch of camp in “Jackie,” the filmmaker’s intricate and enigmatic portrait of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Examining the subjects of celebrity, politics, and the process of constructing history, the film isn’t exactly […]
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Film review: “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates”
Back in 2013, real-life brothers Mike and Dave Stangle faced the prospect of finding dates to their cousin’s wedding, eventually deciding that the most effective option was to place an ad on Craigslist. With a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor and a memorable image featuring their faces Photoshopped onto the bodies of centaurs, the ad went […]
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Film review: ‘Creed’
Everybody loves an underdog story. Rooting for a scrappy, gutsy hero to win the day against seemingly insurmountable odds is a timeless formula, and the secret behind the success of the popular “Rocky” film series. So it’s fitting that when expectations were low for the seventh film in the franchise — a spin-off following Adonis […]
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“Ender’s Game”
The ambiguity of its title reflects some of the same quality in the content of “Ender’s Game.” Ender Wiggin, the protagonist and intermittent narrator, plays numerous advanced versions of video games throughout the movie, some of them forming an integral part of the action; at the same time, as the script puns on his name, […]
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“A Good Day to Die Hard”
The fifth film in a franchise that began way back in 1988 demonstrates Hollywood’s faith in the repetition of formulas and its concomitant tendency toward depletion of imagination. The new movie in the “Die Hard” series, “A Good Day to Die Hard,” deploys just about all the elements that distinguished its predecessors, including Bruce Willis, […]
