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2015 has been a banner year for action-oriented spy movies. One early entry, Kingsman: The Secret Service, was a Valentine to '60s British titles. A similar claim could be made about the upcoming The Man from U.N.C.L.E. In November, James Bond wi...

After 30 years and eight films, there’s a sense that the Mission: Impossible film series (itself a reworking of the venerable and popular 1960/70s TV series) may finally be played out. Since Christopher McQuarrie came on board and revitalized th...

Despite clocking in at a skinny 84 minutes, Mistress America overstays its welcome. Directed by Noah Baumbach and co-written by Baumbach and ex-mumblecore goddess Greta Gerwig, the film is characterized by long passages of self-conscious dialogue tha...

The Monkey is in possession of a great trailer that the actual film doesn’t quite live up to. Nevertheless, Osgood Perkins’ radical reimagining of the Stephen King short story is plenty entertaining in its own right for those with a sufficient...

Monster-in-Law is appalling misfire of a comedy - a motion picture that takes a situation ripe for the blackest vein of satire and reduces it to a puerile and edgeless pile of goo. Forgive me for a moment if I bemoan the lost potential here. Give...

One of the questions I am frequently asked by e-mail is "What is your favorite comedy?" In a horse race that's almost too close to call, I have decided upon A Fish Called Wanda, followed closely by The Life of Brian, then Monty Python and the Holy...

The problem with Mr. and Mrs. Smith is that it's really two movies in one. The first is a sly comedy/thriller worthy of Hitchcock, and the other is a big, noisy summer action flick. The marriage of these two, like that of the title characters, is...

When The American President was released, many knowledgeable movie-goers commented how the sentimentality of its "feel good" storyline recalled the work of director Frank Capra. Now, with Mr. Holland's Opus, another Capra-esque motion picture has ...

For all those who think movies don't have enough naked female flesh, welcome to Mrs. Henderson Presents. It would have been interesting to witness the MPAA's deliberations about this film. There's some violence, but not much. There's no sex or sex-...

A film of uncommon depth, intelligence, and sensitivity, Munich defies easy labeling. Watching the movie is like reading a top-notch espionage thriller by Le Carre or Deighton. Yet, at the same time, this is a visual experience. The moral and ethic...