Drive, starring the currently ubiquitous Ryan Gosling, is in part an homage to Walter Hill’s The Driver (1978) and quite an earnest endeavor: a post-modernist situation lacking most of the tropes and characteristics of the post-modern film.
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The inevitable sequel to the crass comedy hit 'The Hangover: Part II' brings back Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis, the bachelor party trio from hell. But it’s just not clicking this time around.
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'Kings of Pastry' is a documentary that focuses on several pastry chefs who yearn for and compete for the Meilleur Ouvrier de France in the category of Pastry-making, an elite tradesperson award in France. Despite some clunkiness, on the whole it's a jewel.
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Eviscerated as it was by critics, one might wonder why anyone would bother seeing M. Night Shyamalan's 'The Last Airbender.' Well, my curiosity, she is a morbid thing. I’ve watched all of Shyamalan’s films with an increasing anticipation of their burgeoning badness.
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Director Darren Aronofsky’s new film, 'Black Swan,' channels the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Roman Polanski at their most psychologically dark and sadistic. Where 'The Wrestler' toyed with a sense of redemption, only to have that redemption revoked, Black Swan is much more focused on a hopeless slide into insanity.
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Even for Disney, coloring by numbers doesn’t always add up to a good product. But what about in the case of "Tangled" (which was renamed from the original "Rapunzel" into something less outwardly princess-y)?
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Ken reviews an oldie--an exploitation film about exploitation. 'Scum of the Earth' concerns sleazy men who trick young girls into posing naked for photos and then blackmails them to go further.
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Alexandre Aja’s remake of the Roger Corman/Joe Dante/John Sayles original Piranha (1978) is most everything it promises to be, and unlike so many re-makes of horror films of late (A Nightmare on Elm Street , My Bloody Valentine ), it refreshes the content rather than just regurgitates it.
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Channeling comic books, video games, anime, manga and riffing off pop culture elements from music, film, television, and everywhere, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is one of the most visually inventive films in a long time.
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'Splice' is a modern take on the Mary Shelley classic, albeit with young, way-too-cool hipster lover scientists. Even their apartment looks like it was decorated by 'Giant Robot' magazine. But the normal fears of raising a child escalate to horror in the altered DNA of this sci-fi flick.
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The Decade in Movies