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The Last Vermeer is something of an old-fashioned courtroom melodrama, complete with impassioned speeches, a sneering prosecutor, an antagonistic judge, and a last-minute gotcha! For those who enjoy this kind of “it only happens in the movie...

After decades of neutering, it’s fun to once again encounter a vampire who is bestial and monstrous. The vampires in this movie don’t sparkle when exposed to the sun, they burst into flame and die horribly. And the king of all un-dead, the leg...

If Vin Diesel is looking for a third franchise to add to his resume, The Last Witch Hunter might be considered a “safe” option. His character, Kaulder, an 800+ year old warrior for the forces of good, doesn’t require Diesel to step ...

The entrenchment of a top-flight cast should not be considered an indication of cinematic quality. Although it's true that good actors can sometimes redeem a bad screenplay, more often than not, they end up becoming trapped by it. Such is the case ...

If you were paying attention to the news in 2015, the phrase “Panama Papers” will mean something. The Laundromat is Steven Soderbergh’s expose about the release of those documents, which provided details of more than 200,000 offshore acc...

One aspect that virtually assures a good motion picture is solid character development (sometimes referred to as a "character arc"). It doesn't matter if it's a mainstream movie or an offbeat indie - any narrative-based film benefits if the charact...

The premise of Law Abiding Citizen - angry father seeks revenge on the system when his daughter's murderer gets off with a light sentence - probably sounded great in the pitch meetings but, as with all high concept motion pictures, the devil's in t...

The niche occupied by Lawless is a precarious one. Too erudite for the average action/thriller-oriented moviegoer and too pulpy for the art house crowd, this intense, brutal drama may struggle to find an audience. A fictionalized account of the lif...

The first thing to notice about John Duigan's Lawn Dogs is the astounding performance of newcomer Mischa Barton, who plays Devon, the 10-year old protagonist. Barton is a natural actress, and manages to convey the perfect blend of maturity and inn...

Despite the stewardship of director Stephen Frears and the participation of Bruce Willis, Rebecca Hall, Vince Vaughn, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lay the Favorite, a would-be breezy comedy set in the world of grifters and gamblers, is as forgettable ...