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2/4
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Alien Resurrection
(1997)
|
Dave Kehr
|
The sense of mystery and anticipation that defined Ridley Scott's original Alien here dissolves into a series of more or less overt encounters with no more poetry or suspense than an evening of professional wrestling.
Posted Aug 07, 2024
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1/4
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Alien 3
(1992)
|
Kathleen Carroll
|
One assumes that Weaver received enough combat pay to compensate for playing the now understandably cynical Ripley in this bleak and pointlessly grueling movie.
Posted Aug 06, 2024
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4/4
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Aliens
(1986)
|
Jay Maeder
|
The long-awaited sequel to Alien proves to be an extraordinary treat, as perfectly realized a thrill-a-second screamer as has ever come along.
Posted Jul 30, 2024
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3.5/4
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Twister
(1996)
|
Jami Bernard
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Twister swirls in as the first of the big summer movies, a beautifully shot action picture with heart-stopping effects. It's by and for adrenaline junkies.
Posted Jul 16, 2024
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3/4
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When Harry Met Sally...
(1989)
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Kathleen Carroll
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What a pleasure it is to see a warm-hearted, intelligently written comedy in this silly season of pre-fabricated sequels.
Posted Jul 10, 2024
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2/4
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Napoleon
(1927)
|
Irene Thirer
|
Smacks too much of battle scenes, badly photographed, and too little of personal activities of the little general to please us greatly.
Posted May 14, 2024
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Let It Be
(1970)
|
Ann Guarino
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Anybody who likes the Beatles will dig their latest film, Let It Be... Their fans may not want to miss this glimpse of them in relaxed fashion, particularly since they have been reported to be splitting up and may not appear together again.
Posted May 09, 2024
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4/4
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Steel Magnolias
(1989)
|
Kathleen Carroll
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Moving enough to make you cry, much the same as Terms of Endearment did.
Posted May 03, 2024
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3.5/4
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Planet of the Apes
(1968)
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Kathleen Carroll
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Boulle's science-fiction mind bender, hypoed by the tingling realism of the camera work and the action sequences, has become an enthralling film that spikes a few non-fiction truths along the way.
Posted May 02, 2024
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2.5/4
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Planet of the Apes
(2001)
|
Jack Mathews
|
It's a toy-store attraction, with an impressive line of lifelike primates, and though these hirsute creatures think and talk, they don't think or talk about much of importance.
Posted May 01, 2024
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3.5/4
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Postcards From the Edge
(1990)
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Kathleen Carroll
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With a major assist from [director] Mike Nichols, Fisher has now transformed her novel into a smashingly entertaining movie. Postcards From the Edge is a hilarious, surprisingly poignant comedy about learning to accept one's parents.
Posted Apr 30, 2024
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3.5/4
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Only Yesterday
(1933)
|
Kate Cameron
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Miss Sullavan is a lovely, sensitive young actress who brings intelligence and an unusual poise to the screen.
Posted Apr 23, 2024
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3.5/4
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White Heat
(1949)
|
Kate Cameron
|
White Heat, made by Warners, under Raoul Walsh's direction and suggested by a Virginia Kellogg story, is a highly exciting cops and robbers melodrama. One scene of violence follows another, until the thrilling climax.
Posted Apr 23, 2024
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3/4
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The Mad Miss Manton
(1938)
|
Kate Cameron
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Barbara Stanwyck's portrayal of the slightly wacky Melsa Menton is a captivating performance. Henry Fonda is excellent, too, although his Peter Ames is a strange newspaper editor.
Posted Apr 22, 2024
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4/4
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The Caine Mutiny
(1954)
|
Kate Cameron
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Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize novel, The Caine Mutiny, has been made into a stirring film by Stanley Kramer.
Posted Apr 19, 2024
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2/4
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I Think I Do
(1997)
|
Dave Kehr
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Likeable but less than fully accomplished.
Posted Apr 17, 2024
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3.5/5
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The Lavender Hill Mob
(1951)
|
Kate Cameron
|
The Lavender Hill Mob is a highly amusing satire on the gangster and chase-type of films and is a result of a successful combination of picture makers.
Posted Apr 17, 2024
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2/4
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Three Godfathers
(1936)
|
Kate Cameron
|
Baby Jack and the beautiful and desolate desert scenery are the most important elements of the picture.
Posted Apr 17, 2024
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3/4
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Queen of the Mob
(1940)
|
Kate Cameron
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The picture moves with speed across the screen and is convincingly acted by a well-chosen cast.
Posted Apr 17, 2024
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2/4
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Law and Order
(1932)
|
Irene Thirer
|
Men and the younger male generation go big for this sort of stuff -- the old, old-fashioned Western cinema with all the trimmings... But ladies aren't going to get much out of Law and Order.
Posted Apr 16, 2024
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3.5/4
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The Model and the Marriage Broker
(1952)
|
Wanda Hale
|
In "The Model and the Marriage Broker, 20th Century-Fox has given Thelma Ritter her biggest and best role, a comedy role faintly touched with pathos, and the popular comedienne is even funnier than you expect.
Posted Apr 16, 2024
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2.5/4
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She Done Him Wrong
(1933)
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Irene Thirer
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Lots of action, much colorful background, tough-mug acting and snappy direction by Lowell Sherman -- plus songs by Mae, warbled in her inimitable manner -- make She Done Him Wrong strong for the box-office.
Posted Apr 15, 2024
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1/4
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Road to Ruin
(1934)
|
Kate Cameron
|
[The Road to Ruin] is a cheaply constructed melodrama that shows so many evidences of having been hacked by the censors that it is hard to follow its course.
Posted Apr 15, 2024
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|
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Heavenly Bodies
(1985)
|
Hank Gallo
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What happens? Just what you'd expect, two, three, four.
Posted Apr 15, 2024
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2.5/4
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Jailhouse Rock
(1957)
|
Wanda Hale
|
Elvis is a better screen performer in his new film, Jailhouse Rock, but not enough.
Posted Apr 12, 2024
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2.5/4
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The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings
(1976)
|
Kathleen Carroll
|
What helps the movie immeasurably is the fact that its two stars, Billy Dee Williams and James Earl Jones, are so personable. They take such obvious pleasure in just romping through this picture, it's hard not to share their enjoyment.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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3/4
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Little Women
(1994)
|
Jami Bernard
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The movie is loving and refined, a snowy picture postcard of youth, innocence and sisterly devotion.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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3.5/4
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The Big Heat
(1953)
|
Dorothy Masters
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Although the studio has not gambled on slowing up the action by attempting anything profound in the way of character building, performances are so good and the settings so effective that everybody in the cast is unmistakably tagged for what he is.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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4/4
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Dog Day Afternoon
(1975)
|
Kathleen Carroll
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Bitingly funny and wonderfully compassionate.
Posted Apr 06, 2024
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|
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Lady Sings the Blues
(1972)
|
Kathleen Carroll
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The real trouble with this movie is that it is funny, and Billie's life was anything but that.
Posted Apr 05, 2024
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|
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(1977)
|
Rex Reed
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It has moments of great splendor and some exciting special effects, but mainly it is just plain pretentious and maddenly incoherent. This might be the most expensive gibberish ever put on the screen.
Posted Apr 03, 2024
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3/4
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(1977)
|
Kathleen Carroll
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"Close Encounters" is curiously uneven, but the ending, largely because of John Williams' unique music, is truly something to marvel at.
Posted Apr 03, 2024
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4/4
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Almost Famous
(2000)
|
Jack Mathews
|
The real achievement of Almost Famous is its point of view -- that sense of passion and discovery that imbued Crowe and now spills out, unpolluted, onto the screen.
Posted Mar 26, 2024
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National Velvet
(1944)
|
Kate Cameron
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The picture is a delightful adaptation in Technicolor of Enid Bagnold's novel.
Posted Mar 26, 2024
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4/4
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The Searchers
(1956)
|
Kate Cameron
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The Searchers is a gripping bit of Americana that should appeal to all movie-goers.
Posted Mar 25, 2024
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3/4
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Westward the Women
(1951)
|
Kate Cameron
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All the parts in the film are well played, under William Wellman's direction. The latter has a way of making these pictures of the old West come alive. He gives each scene a touch of realism that heightens the illusion of the story.
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Chinatown
(1974)
|
Rex Reed
|
It is so big and so thrilling and so entertaining that years from now, when we look back on the really important films of the 1970s, Chinatown is likely to be one of the most fondly remembered.
Posted Mar 08, 2024
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4/4
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Chinatown
(1974)
|
Kathleen Carroll
|
An all together unexpected triumph, a rich, inventive murder mystery of deepening complexity and tantalizing twists that should gradually intrigue and finally captivate its audience.
Posted Mar 08, 2024
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3.5/4
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Four Weddings and a Funeral
(1994)
|
Jami Bernard
|
The Richard Curtis screenplay is as tightly wound as the springs on alarm clocks -- the ones that never seem to wake Charles early enough to get him to the church on time.
Posted Feb 29, 2024
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|
|
The Sin of Nora Moran
(1933)
|
Wanda Hale
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The manner in which the film is presented is the most interesting thing about it. It is one of those Flashback pictures, and the director, Phil Goldstone, has used the same technique that was used in the Fox Production, The Power and the Glory. Narratage.
Posted Feb 21, 2024
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2/4
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Dune
(1984)
|
Kathleen Carroll
|
David Lynch has made a brave attempt to cram the essential plot of this complex cult novel into a 2½ hour movie, but the result is a jumbled procession of off the wall characters.
Posted Feb 14, 2024
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3/4
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Quiz Show
(1994)
|
Dave Kehr
|
For all of its occasional naiveté, this is a movie that practices what it preaches: It's a fine, worthy film, devoid of pandering or commercial compromise, that allows a number of talented people do some very good work.
Posted Feb 13, 2024
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|
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Grease
(1978)
|
Rex Reed
|
Considering the fact that Grease represents the period I grew up in, it's like watching a movie about life on a foreign planet.
Posted Feb 08, 2024
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3/4
|
Grease
(1978)
|
Kathleen Carroll
|
Hollywood may have tamed-down Grease, but it is such a genuinely likeable movie that it hardly seems to matter.
Posted Jan 30, 2024
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|
|
Royal Family
(1969)
|
Ben Gross
|
Filmed over a period of one year, it came over as a masterpiece of the cinema verite technique. Also it was a public relations triumph in that, via a series of endearing vignettes, it humanized Queen Elizabeth II and her kin.
Posted Dec 28, 2023
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|
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Captain January
(1924)
|
Mildred Spain
|
Peggy is at her best in Captain January, a warm-hearted, unassuming picture that was directed with real feeling.
Posted Dec 21, 2023
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2.5/4
|
The Last of the Mohicans
(1992)
|
Kathleen Carroll
|
The graphic scalping and constant bloodshed leave the audience feeling merely exhausted instead of genuinely moved.
Posted Dec 15, 2023
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|
2.5/4
|
The Big Time
(2002)
|
David Bianculli
|
It's an artful, clever look at TVs salad days, with such blasts from the past as sign-ons, test patterns, rabbit ears and vertical-hold knobs.
Posted Dec 11, 2023
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|
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The Devil Dancer
(1927)
|
Irene Thirer
|
[Gilda Gray] has rare charm, which the camera catches amazingly in this film.
Posted Dec 05, 2023
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3.5/5
|
Home Alone
(1990)
|
Kathleen Carroll
|
You may not buy the contrived plot, but this giddy, warm-hearted comedy will have both children and grownups giggling in the aisles.
Posted Nov 29, 2023
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