Even though Total Recall is full of imaginative sets and design, its futuristic world is never anything but a nifty-looking backdrop for its action sequences, which are admittedly better than average. But the world never really informs the characters – whose dialogue is also pretty bland – and the result is a little underwhelming.
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Once the engine is cranked into high gear, Nolan plays takes scary real-world issues—the gap between classes, fear-mongering tactics, and absolutism—to their terrifying physical realization in The Dark Knight Rises.
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Ice Age: Continental Drift is the fourth computer-animated movie in 10 years from Blue Sky Studios to feature four prehistoric mammals. Like its predecessors, it falls neatly in the creatively bereft category of what I like to call “talking animal movies.”
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Seth MacFarlane writes, directs and voices the teddy bear come to life and Mark Wahlberg is the perpetual manchild with a heart of gold in ‘Ted,’ an R-rated comedy that gets a little mileage out of its setup and then is offensively unfunny for most of its running time.
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There are two reasons why this ridiculous R-rated action/horror movie with zero high-minded aspirations works. First, the actors play it completely straight and they let the mashup of history and mythology be its own joke.
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Rock of Ages is a movie that imagines a mythical time and place as seen through the eyes of an audience who was perhaps only able to experience love, heartbreak, and hedonism through the lyrics of 80s hair rock/pop songs.
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Prometheus is an adult sci-fi film about ancient Greek myths (check the legend of Prometheus to understand what happens when Gods meddle with human affairs) and the origin of human life on Earth. It’s the kind of big-idea movie you don’t get much of in the summer, and it’s a welcome sight.
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This movie only exists as a crass way for Hollywood to make money by updating a known story into a generic medieval setting with tons of meaningless action.
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Does this shift in style mean The Dictator is more conventional than the reality-based Borat and Bruno? Or is it more subversive because it follows the romcom format while betraying romantic comedy sensibilities with a vicious mean streak and some sublimely shocking moments?
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‘Dark Shadows’ has the talent behind and in front of the camera to be the lusty, campy drama it wants to be, but the movie has a lot of exposition to get out of the way first.
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At least one of our film critics wasn’t as enthusiastic as many others have been about Marvel’s The Avengers so far. Watch the video to find out who…
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‘The Avengers’ may be pure formula, but its formula done in a way that makes you remember why formulas were created in the first place: They were successful.
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Despite all its ironic detachment—’The Cabin in the Woods’ has tons of laughs, some truly jaw-dropping moments and a couple scenes of unexpected poignancy that make it more than a parody movie.
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The new Three Stooges movie has been a passion project for Peter and Bobby Farrelly for over a decade now. Since bringing us the memorable stupidity of ‘Dumb and Dumber’ 18 years ago, the Farrelly brothers have been pretty hit or miss, and ‘The Three Stooges’ is no exception.
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What’s surprising about ‘American Reunion’ is that, despite it not being a very good movie, it manages to create a good amount of nostalgia for its characters, even if you don’t remember too much about the 1999 original.
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