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The television series 21 Jump Street, like many old shows, is a product of its time. Trying to accomplish a "straight" remake of something so irrevocably tied to the '80s could not be done in 2012; it wouldn't work. When Michael Mann reworked Miami...

211 (the name refers to the police code for a robbery) is a frustrating crime thriller that incorporates too many plot threads into the overall narrative at the expense of character identification, suspense, and emotional heft. Despite a high ...

There are times when 22 Jump Street is borderline brilliant. Unfortunately, those instances are outnumbered by segments that don't work for one reason or another. On balance, the film has just enough to earn it a recommendation but, with a little t...

How did 3 Days to Kill, which doesn’t have the worst imaginable premise, turn out this bad? The problem starts with the screenplay, co-credited to Adi Hasak and over-the-top action aficionado Luc Besson. Still, although the more serious aspects...

It would be possible to form a tragedy from the background inspiration of Ruben Fleisher's 30 Minutes or Less, but the filmmakers have not traveled that route. Instead of fashioning a heartbreaking tale about greed and inhumanity, Fleisher has app...

300: Rise of an Empire is one of those unnecessary sequels that exists primarily because the previous installment made a lot of money. The lack of a creative driver behind the film leads to a level of fundamental dissatisfaction. The movie delivers...

Some material is inherently better suited to documentary (rather than feature film) treatment. That’s the case with The 33, a “based on fact” account of the 2010 Chilean mining disaster that riveted news-watching populations worldwi...

360 arrives with a pedigree that will have movie die-hards salivating. Blessed with an acclaimed director (Fernando Meirelles, City of God & The Constant Gardener), a respected screenwriter (Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon), and a high profile internatio...

Once upon a time, the Western served the function that currently resides within the purview of Science Fiction: use an allegorical approach to explore themes and ideas that might not fit well within the scope of a traditional motion picture. It ha...