THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
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  Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 127 minutes |
OSCAR WINNER FOR BEST VISUAL EFFECTS, MAKEUP AND ART DIRECTION 2009 “Benjamin Button” is pretty much just “Gump” with better cinematography.
Posted on February 24, 2009 by Pete Vonder Haar
THE DARK KNIGHT
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  Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 127 minutes |
OSCAR WINNER FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR 2009 Forgotten are the clowning geriatrics of Jack Nicholson’s version, for Ledger makes the Joker his, imbuing the character with such menace and genuine insanity I finally got a sense of what talent he really had…
Posted on February 23, 2009 by Pete Vonder Haar
FRIDAY THE 13TH
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  Year Released: 2009 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 100 minutes |
The question isn’t whether Nispel’s remake is better than the 1980 original (it isn’t) but whether anything original is brought into the mix.
Posted on February 13, 2009 by Pete Vonder Haar
HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU
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Year Released: 2009 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 127 minutes |
FILM THREATS SEVEN DAYS OF VD!!! It’s date night and you gotta impress your lovely lady. What could be better than a star studded rom-com!?! Answer: ANYTHING!
Posted on February 12, 2009 by Pete Vonder Haar
NOTORIOUS
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  Year Released: 2009 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 100 minutes |
…the overall impression we’re left with is that Biggie was something of a shithead…
Posted on January 17, 2009 by Pete Vonder Haar
THE SLEAZE PARADE: “SHOCK FESTIVAL” AUTHOR STEPHEN ROMANO
BEST OF 2008! Stephen Romano’s illustrated, fictional history book “Shock Festival” is a painstaking and lovingly crafted tribute to grindhouse movies of yore, containing hundreds of glorious and gore-spattered full color images that give true testimony to the depth of Romano’s obsession…
Posted on December 29, 2008 by Pete Vonder Haar
MARLEY & ME
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Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: PG Running Time: 120 minutes |
I don’t care how great your writing gig is, when an animal is endangering your family, inadvertently or not, you either turn the dog into an outdoor pet or you “take a walk” with him and your 20-gauge.
Posted on December 26, 2008 by Pete Vonder Haar
DEADCENTER 2008: THE NAKED AND THE DEADCENTER
BEST OF 2008! “Everything was perfect. The end.” That’s the gist of the article Kim Haywood, Chief Operations Officer of the 8th annual deadCENTER Film Festival suggested I write…
Posted on December 23, 2008 by Pete Vonder Haar
DOES SIZE MATTER? THE LONGEST TITLES IN MOVIE HISTORY
BEST OF 2008! Two of the movies opening this week are on the short list for longest movie title of 2008. Does title length denote box office success? Does size really matter? Film Threat’s Pete Vonder Haar crunches the numbers to find out…
Posted on December 13, 2008 by Pete Vonder Haar
TWILIGHT
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Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: PG Running Time: 120 minutes |
The release of “Twilight” achieves two significant objectives; not only has Stephanie Meyer’s ponderous salute to teen abstinence and patriarchal supremacy been given physical form, but it also marks the endgame for what has been a decades-long castration of the vampire genre…
Posted on November 21, 2008 by Pete Vonder Haar
MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA
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  Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: PG Running Time: 89 minutes |
In Alex the Lion and Marty the Zebra, we finally have the first unabashedly gay characters in a major Hollywood animated feature…
Posted on November 8, 2008 by Pete Vonder Haar
CHANGELING
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  Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 127 minutes |
Jolie gets it done here, nailing down at least three Best Actress archetypes (the Stricken Mother, the Single Working Woman, and the Woman in the Nuthatch), and her performance helps overcome most of “Changeling’s” weaker elements…
Posted on November 1, 2008 by Pete Vonder Haar
ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO
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Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 101 minutes |
Miri isn’t as bad as Alyssa the Light Switch Lesbian from “Chasing Amy,” but the premise – that she somehow experiences sexual and romantic awakening while fucking her best friend on camera in front of strangers, for money – is almost as insultingly unrealistic…
Posted on October 31, 2008 by Pete Vonder Haar
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR
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Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: G Running Time: 112 minutes |
The lo-fi nature of the first installments was always part of their charm, I realize, but a moviegoing public that made “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” #1 at the box office two weeks in a row demands more, dammit…
Posted on October 26, 2008 by Pete Vonder Haar
THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES
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Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 110 minutes |
“The Secret Life of Bees” should have billed itself as a fairy tale, as that’s the only possible way to swallow what Prince-Bythewood and Kidd are feeding us…
Posted on October 19, 2008 by Pete Vonder Haar