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It has been several years since I've read a book by John Grisham (I believe the last one was The Client). After three or four of Grisham's novels, I grew tired of the predictable repetitiveness and contrived suspense of the narratives. As a resul...

It’s past time for Woody Allen to go gently into retirement. The Oscar-winning director, having made some of the 20th century’s most memorable comedies, has nothing left to prove and his recent output is indicative of someone with no more sto...

Raise the Red Lantern is one of the more sublimely beautiful and openly disturbing films of the 1990s. It is also the best work to date turned in by the actress/director combination of Gong Li and Zhang Yimou -- and this includes other impress...

The long-gestating, often-delayed sequel to 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph Breaks the Internet is one part fan service, one part product placement, and one part pop culture inundation. It’s breezy and fun and, like its predecessor, relies mor...

Over the years, the Rambo sequels have been defended as “adrenaline and testosterone cocktails” and “odes to machismo.” It’s hard to imagine, however, what the defense might be for the fifth and final Rambo movie, Last Blood. Who was...

Technically, Rampage fits into the “based on a video game” category but, as with most products from the ‘70s and ‘80s (when games weren’t exactly narrative-based), significant changes were applied to make the concept viable for the b...

It is fair to argue that, at least in the case of Rampart, Woody Harrelson is better than the material in which he appears. A cop story loosely based on real-life events, Rampart is cursed with a meandering script that mines overworked tunnels and ...

The first animated film from ILM is also the first memorable motion picture of 2011. Also, in a break from Hollywood's incessant race to surcharge parents to death by releasing anything bearing the "family film" moniker in 3-D, Rango is available i...

It wouldn't be a stretch to name legendary Japanese film maker Akira Kurosawa as one of the ten greatest motion picture directors of all time. Kurosawa's brilliant work speaks for itself, and, with over five decades of movie making to his credit, ...

Generic animated cash-grab.  It’s hard to think of a more appropriate phrase to describe Ratchet and Clank, the video game-based movie being dumped unceremoniously into theaters for what will probably amount to a one-week run. (Tepid box office co...