MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA
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  Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 127 minutes |
“Miracle at St. Anna” is a Spike Lee joint that possesses a European texture in the vein of Guillermo Del Toro and Jean Pierre-Jeunet. Imaginative, thought-provoking, and intense…
Posted on September 28, 2008 by Stina Chyn
RIGHTEOUS KILL
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Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 101 minutes |
The twenty-first century may not have been too generous to De Niro’s and Pacino’s acting careers (“Hide and Seek” and “88 Minutes” respectively, for example), but “Righteous Kill” has pulled both actors up to much more savory environs…
Posted on September 14, 2008 by Stina Chyn
TYLER PERRY’S THE FAMILY THAT PREYS
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  Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 111 minutes |
When all pertinent hearts are flogged and egos shrunken, it’s nearly comforting to recognize that underneath the melodrama of cheating spouses and power struggles sits a road-movie-buddy-picture that could’ve been its own film…
Posted on September 12, 2008 by Stina Chyn
BANGKOK DANGEROUS
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  Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 99 minutes |
Two films titled “Bangkok Dangerous.” Both directed by the Pang Brothers (Oxide and Danny). The first one was released in 1999, the second in 2008. Both are about assassins and feature a female pharmacist. The likeness ends there…
Posted on September 7, 2008 by Stina Chyn
THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS 2
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Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 117 minutes |
Appearances aren’t everything, but when there are teenaged girls and matters of the heart and soul involved, then the way a movie looks is as significant as the story it tells. For Carmen, Tibby, Lena, and Bridget, their sisterhood shines even brighter the second time around.
Posted on August 8, 2008 by Stina Chyn
THE LOVE GURU
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Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 87 minutes |
“The Love Guru” will curb your craving for laughs and won’t leave you consuming more than is necessary…
Posted on June 22, 2008 by Stina Chyn
THE HAPPENING
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Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 91 minutes |
Whether you’re a casual or an ardent follower of M. Night Shyamalan’s films, “The Happening” could alienate or dominate your thinking cap. Remember—it’s perfectly acceptable to laugh one second and shriek the next…
Posted on June 15, 2008 by Stina Chyn
PATHOLOGY
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  Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 93 minutes |
Maybe I’ve seen too many CSI episodes, because in the end, “Pathology” arouses very little of anything…
Posted on April 21, 2008 by Stina Chyn
SCHISM
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Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 108 minutes |
If “Schism” is remotely accurate in its portrayal of growing old, it’s no wonder that someone sixty-five and older has a higher chance of self-termination than someone sixteen to twenty-five years of age…
Posted on April 7, 2008 by Stina Chyn
DOOMSDAY
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  Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 105 minutes |
“Doomsday” isn’t quite memorable or enthralling enough for three stars, but as a guilty pleasure, it’s spectacularly entertaining—- two-and-a-half twinkles should be fair.
Posted on March 16, 2008 by Stina Chyn
THE BANK JOB
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Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 110 minutes |
“The Bank Job” secures the viewer’s attention pretty quickly and does not relinquish that hold for a second. Furthermore, the manner in which the heist is carried out and the aftermath of its completion are both exciting and sobering…
Posted on March 10, 2008 by Stina Chyn
JUMPER
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Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 90 minutes |
The major weakness in “Jumper” is the piling on of action and narrative in the last ten to twelve minutes. It’s as though the editor was rushing to meet a deadline and did the best he could with too much footage…
Posted on February 17, 2008 by Stina Chyn
ALIEN VS. PREDATOR: REQUIEM
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  Year Released: 2007 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 86 minutes |
If the AVP concept is going to be a trilogy (and the ending suggests as much), then I could possibly believe that “Requiem” is just the lackluster, mediocre one in the middle…
Posted on December 30, 2007 by Stina Chyn
THE ADVENTURE
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  Year Released: 2008 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 22 minutes |
A cinematic experience that is absurdist and peculiar rather than merely random…
Posted on December 27, 2007 by Stina Chyn
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS
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Year Released: 2007 MPAA Rating: PG Running Time: 90 minutes |
As an elementary school child during the 1980s, I lived for Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. News of a live-action-cgi-combo feature film should’ve fallen on disapproving ears. But it didn’t. On the contrary, I was intrigued…
Posted on December 15, 2007 by Stina Chyn
