Movie Reviews

'Pacific Rim' Is Filled To The Brim With Special Effects

6:06am July 12, 2013

by Kenneth Turan

The big movie opening this week is Pacific Rim. Morning Edition's critic says that it has plenty of explosions and special effects — but there's more to it than most blockbusters this summer.

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Armie Hammer stars as the Lone Ranger in a new Disney adaptation.

Arts

'The Lone Ranger': Summer Fun With Manifest Destiny

1:42pm July 03, 2013

by David Edelstein

Director Gore Verbinski and star Johnny Depp have turned in a busy, expensive take on the masked lawman of the Wild West. It's long, tone-deaf, and ultimately crushingly bad.

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Pamina (Amy Carson) and Tamino (Joseph Kaiser) in Kenneth Branagh's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute.

Branagh Imagines Mozart's 'Magic Flute' In Wartime

4:41pm July 01, 2013

by Lloyd Schwartz

Director Kenneth Branagh has given us fresh Shakespeare and witty modern comedies of manners, and some years ago he turned to opera, with an adaptation of Mozart's classic set in World War I. It's finally available in the U.S., and critic Lloyd Schwartz says the results are disappointingly mixed.

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'Heat' Stroke: The genius of this buddy-cop comedy is in its pairing of Sandra Bullock (left, as a by-the-book process nerd of an FBI suit) with Melissa McCarthy, who plays a sloppy Boston detective with no patience for procedure.

Arts

Bullock And McCarthy, Packing 'Heat' (And Laughs) In Boston

9:22pm June 28, 2013

by Bob Mondello

Director Paul Feig and writer Katie Dippold have found a perfect pair of leads for their cop comedy. Critic Bob Mondello says Oscar winner Sandra Bullock and Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy turn out to have enviable comic chemistry.

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Saoirse Ronan plays Eleanor, an ancient (and uncharacteristically ethical) vampire in Neil Jordan's Byzantium.

Arts

Two Master Moviemakers, Two Singularly Fine Films

3:01pm June 27, 2013

by David Edelstein

Pedro Almodovar's ensemble comedy I'm So Excited is set on an airplane with mechanical problems; Neil Jordan's Byzantium centers on a pair of itinerant English vampires. The two films couldn't be more different, but the two filmmakers are very much in command of their craft.

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In Sofia Coppola's film The Bling Ring, about the excesses of Los Angeles materialism, Emma Watson plays narcissistic party girl Nicki.

Arts

'The Bling Ring': Celebrity Culture And Its Little Monsters

2:19pm June 25, 2013

by John Powers

A new film from Sofia Coppola, who made Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette, is based on the real-life story of a group of Southern California teens who, in 2008 and 2009, began breaking into the homes of celebrities and stealing everything from designer clothing to watches and jewelry.

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Fran Kranz stars as Claudio in Joss Whedon's new take on Shakespeare's classic comedy Much Ado About Nothing.

Arts

Whedon's Touch Finds A Match With 'Much Ado'

1:31pm June 14, 2013

by David Edelstein

Sandwiched into Joss Whedon's busy schedule of TV series and big-screen features was an unexpected low-budget adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing — shot in black and white. Film critic David Edelstein says it's a delight. (Recommended)

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In The East, Ellen Page (left) and Alexander Skarsgard play members of an anarchist eco-terrorist collective.

Arts

Rediscover Your Inner Anarchist In The Anti-Corporate 'East'

1:29pm May 31, 2013

by David Edelstein

The East is a romantic activist outlaw fantasy in which Brit Marling plays an agent who poses as a radical activist to catch an eco-terrorist group. It's one of those melodramas in which someone on the morally wrong side has a spasm of conscience and maybe crosses over. Maybe.

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Still Talking: After 18 years, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) apparently have plenty left to hash out.

Arts

More Time Together, Though 'Midnight' Looms

5:39pm May 25, 2013

by Bob Mondello

Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke return for the third in Richard Linklater's loosely peerless Before series, and they've never been more persuasive — nor has the storytelling. (Recommended)

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Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their roles as Jesse and Celine in Before Midnight, the latest in Richard Linklater's series about a couple's relationship over the years.

Arts

Two New Stories With A New-Wave Vibe

12:31pm May 24, 2013

by David Edelstein

The Truffaut borrowings are explicit in Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, while Richard Linklater's Before Midnight takes its cues from Eric Rohmer's gentle but expansive talkfests. In both films, conversation is a centerpiece as characters navigate relationships.

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