All articles by Brent Simon – Page 12
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Reviews
Step Up 2 The Streets
Dir: Jon Chu. US. 2008. 98minsA fresh slate of young performers, combined with energetically staged and photographed sequences that convey the cathartic joy of dance, easily outweigh some of the more predictable rhythms of formulaic storytelling in Step Up 2 the Streets, a fun, flirty and engaging teen drama and ...
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Reviews
Over Her Dead Body
Dir: Jeff Lowell. US. 2008. 95 mins.A languid, thinly sketched and habitually unfunny supernatural comedy that never scratches beyond the surface of its conceit, Over Her Dead Body quickly wears out its welcome in both this world and the next. Delving into a love triangle comprised of a pleasant guy, ...
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Reviews
Rambo
Dir: Sylvester Stallone. US. 2008. 91mins.Cynically using the decades-long Burmese civil war as a backdrop for grisly and unremitting violence, muscle-headed action flick Rambo comes off as a sad and empty attempt to be politically relevant. Coming almost two decades after the last series entry, and on the heels of ...
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Reviews
Cloverfield
Dir: Matt Reeves. US. 2008. 84 mins.An exercise in guerrilla-style genre filmmaking that reframes a classic monster movie conceit as a post-September 11 allegory of big city trepidation, new Internet sensation Cloverfield emerges from the cocoon of its pre-release hype as thrilling piece of terror tailor-made for our times. Skilfully ...
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Reviews
27 Dresses
Dir: Anne Fletcher. US, 2008. 111minsWell cast, slickly produced and performed with enough spirit to counterbalance its frequently stupendous lack of originality and plausibility, 27 Dresses pulls all the right levers for (mostly female) diehard romantic comedy audiences looking for just a pinch of wistfulness to go alongsidestray wish-fulfillment scenarios.Having ...
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Reviews
The Great Debaters
Dir: Denzel Washington. US. 2007. 125 minutes.A strong and similarly emotionally resonant follow-up to his 2002 debut behind the camera, Antwone Fisher, Denzel Washington's second directorial effort is a familiarly structured but extremely effective drama. Lacking pretense and guile, The Great Debaters tells the true story of an African-American college ...
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Reviews
The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep
Dir: Jay Russell. US. 2007. 113mins.Part gentle coming-of-age story, part whimsical animal flick, The Water Horse: The Legend Of The Deep tells the story of a young Scottish boy who serves as both friend and parent to a mysterious newborn creature that he eventually has to return to nearby Loch ...
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Reviews
Alvin And The Chipmunks
Dir: Tim Hill. US. 2007. 91minsFor nearly 50 years, in various incarnations on the small screen and in other forms of media, lively chipmunks Alvin, Simon and Theodore have been delighting young audiences around the world, wreaking havoc and crooning in distinctively high-pitched, three-part harmonies which have become a pop ...
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Reviews
Starting Out In The Evening
Dir: Andrew Wagner. US, 2007. 105minsA superb performance by Frank Langella anchors the exceedingly literate, engrossing Starting Out In The Evening, a richly drawn and for the most part artfully understated portrait of an aged novelist struggling with the flickering flame of creativity's muse. Mainstream breakout potential is highly unlikely ...
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Reviews
Fred Claus
Dir: David Dobkin. US. 2007. 114mins.A full-on Vince Vaughn charm offensive gives loose-limbed holiday tale Fred Claus its own successful, charismatic personality and appeal. Re-teaming Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin and Vaughn for the third time, the movie wraps Vaughn's trademark quasi-improvisational runs of passive-aggressive patter around two wan storylines ...
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Reviews
Seven Days
Dir: Won Shin-Yeon. South Korea. 2007. 124mins.Female-centric Korean thriller Seven Days presents an intriguing if slightly overlong mixture of the crime and procedural genres with a very personally motivated ticking-clock element thrown in for good measure. While trading in a bit of grisly imagery, the film for the most part ...
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Reviews
Bee Movie
Dir: Simon J. Smith & Steve Hickner. US. 2007. 90mins.Misguided narrative choices prevent Bee Movie, small screen king Jerry Seinfeld's sociable freshman entry into the animated fray, from fully taking flight. Spinning the story of a young bee who discovers life outside of his hive and sues humankind over their ...
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Reviews
Martian Child
Dir: Menno Meyjes. US. 2007. 108minsWell acted if sweetly moralising, Martian Child tells the story of a science fiction writer who adopts an orphaned boy who claims to be from Mars. Based on the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning short story by genre luminary David Gerrold, the film is an extremely ...
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Reviews
The Heartbreak Kid
Dir: Peter and Bobby Farrelly. US. 2007. 116 mins.A story of awkwardly overlapping romances liberally seasoned with the over-the-top humour patented by the Farrelly brothers, The Heartbreak Kid reunites the behind-camera comedy specialists with star Ben Stiller in a careening showcase for serial outrageousness. The film is a loose update ...
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Reviews
Resident Evil: Extinction
Dir: Russell Mulcahy. US. 2007. 94 minutes.A movie of intermittent action catharsis and reliably deafening sound design, the altogether middling Resident Evil: Extinction takes the videogame action franchise to the desert, allowing star Milla Jovovich to energetically lop off zombie heads in a manner that will please series aficionados but ...
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Reviews
Good Luck Chuck
Dir: Mark Helfrich. US. 2007. 99 mins.A high-energy servicing of the randy, relationship-oriented sex comedy sub-genre, Good Luck Chuck feels work-shopped for big business, but beset by awkward tonal swings that seem less a function of story, and much more nakedly designed to try to lure in different demographics. The ...
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Reviews
Balls Of Fury
Dir: Robert Ben Garant. US. 2007. 90mins. A rather shockingly enervated treatment of a colourful, wilfully silly concept, Balls of Fury looks to disappoint both those expecting the bawdy underdog tale of a make-good loser and those seeking something a bit more offbeat from its creators, the creative team behind ...
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Reviews
The Bourne Ultimatum
Dir: Paul Greengrass. US. 2007. 113mins.The Bourne Ultimatum serves as an involving and fitting bookend to Matt Damon's character-powered spy thriller series, paying off in a thrilling manner his amnesiac assassin's search to uncover the roots of his identity while also delivering plenty of slam-bang, real-world action set across a ...
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Reviews
The Simpsons Movie
Dir: David Silverman. US. 2007. 87mins.Mixing to pleasingly irreverent effect the same sort of light social satire, dysfunctional family comedy and base physical gags that have been part of its well-honed formula for almost 20 years, The Simpsons Movie smoothly jumps the yawning chasm from small screen to large, delivering ...