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12 Years a Slave, sure to be a heavy hitter when the 2014 Oscar nominations are announced, is a powerful and compelling adaptation of Solomon Northup's autobiographical account of the dozen years he spent as a slave on Louisiana plantations from 18...

If this is what it's really like to spend a couple days in the San Fernando Valley during the hottest time of the year, then, like W.C. Fields, I'd rather be in Philadelphia. Actually, for a movie that's so precise about time (one of the char...

There's good news and bad news about 2 Fast 2 Furious, the moronic follow-up to The Fast and the Furious and a contender for the worst movie of 2003. The good news is that it's better, albeit marginally, than Freddy Got Fingered. The bad news is th...

The end of the world has always simultaneously fascinated and repulsed human beings. No less an authority than the Bible devotes entire books to the last days. And, since almost the beginning of science fiction, the apocalypse has been a popular ...

Another week, another disappointing summer sequel. So it goes… In actuality, the screenplay for 28 Weeks Later isn't all that bad. Sure, it's repetitious and much of it has been regurgitated from 2003's 28 Days Later, but it contains some in...

Whatever else 300 may be, it is destined to become beloved for a group of devotees. The size of that group will determine whether it achieves mainstream acceptance or attains cult status. Distilled to its essence, this is a graphic novel come to li...

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...

At the time of its 2001 release, expectations were high, perhaps unreasonably so, for A.I., the first – and only – movie to bear the monikers of cinematic heavyweights Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg. Yet, while A.I. is consistently i...

Perhaps the only way to approach Abduction that will not result in a 105-minute boredom-induced coma is to think of it as a comedy, preferably with a drinking game attached. There are laughs to be had, although none of them are intentional. Girls (...

Time travel stories are tricky things. Although there's no hard-and-fast way to develop one, consistency is a key. As a screenwriter, when you're dealing with things like reworking history and spinning off alternate universes, it's necessary to sti...