Real Steel (Levy, 2011)
Real Steel is a hard film to not like, so about half way through I stopped trying and just gave myself permission to enjoy it.
Category: Disclosure
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50/50 (Levine, 2011)
Does it really fall on me to be the dissenting voice on this film? Grimace. I don't want to be. I want to respect it (in fact I do respect it) for its earnestness and good intentions. But...
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4th & Goal (Seavey, 2010)
One of the abiding mysteries of film criticism is why there are so few good football movies.
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Dear Uncle Adolf: The Germans and Their Fuhrer (Kloft, 2010)
One of the academically interesting consequences of the end of the cold war has been access to historical material that would not necessarily been available to Western historians while the Soviet Union was still in existence.
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Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Wyatt, 2011)
But rise they must, and rise they will, and when when the film remembers that fact (about twenty-five minutes from the end), Will Rodman (James Franco) does an abrupt 180 from gung-ho risk taker to cautionary Cassandra figure.
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Winnie the Pooh (Anderson and Hall, 2011)
There is a difference, I suppose, between feeling genuine delight at a film and simply being grateful the makers didn't mess it up.
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Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Bay, 2011)
My advice: don't sleep for a day before you go and drink about two liters of your favorite caffeinated beverage. Then see how long you can go without blinking.
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Bad Teacher (Kasdan, 2011)
Bad Teacher has a lot of problems. Or, rather, it has one problem that could be described a lot of different ways: it isn't funny.
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Super 8 (Abrams, 2011)
Many years ago, an exasperated student asked me "What is Pulp Fiction about?" After thinking for a few moments, I finally conceded, "It's about how much Quentin Tarantino likes making movies." I thought briefly after the screening of Super 8 how I would answer the same question. That one is a little easier: "It's about how J.J. Abrams likes him some Steven Spielberg."
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Thor (Branagh, 2011)
True, I can't recall two consecutive minutes of the film where I was conscious of enjoying myself, but that doesn't mean I hated it. Really.