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When one distills Rio to its essentials, it's all about a bird traveling several thousand miles for the express purpose of getting laid. However, since such a reduction of the plot would not go over well with the parents planning to send (or accomp...

Rio Bravo, the acclaimed 1959 Howard Hawks Western, showcases a perfectly-cast John Wayne in the kind of role he defined during his four-plus decades of appearing before the camera. Although aspects of the movie have a dated feel when viewed l...

The summer of 2012 was dismal for animated fare but, with releases like Frankenweenie, Wreck-It Ralph, and Rise of the Guardians, things have taken a turn for the better during the autumn. This movie, which is targeted at older children (rather tha...

Rise of the Planet of the Apes represents Fox's attempt to reinvigorate a dormant franchise. The new movie is technically a prequel to the 1968 Planet of the Apes; however, it ignores the various sequels and spin-offs (including a TV series) that d...

In an empty conference room on the forty-sixth floor of Los Angeles' Nakatomo Tower, the dead body of a beautiful young call girl has been found sprawled out on a table. When Lieutenant Tom Graham (Harvey Keitel), the racist cop in charge, has tro...

For Tom Cruise, 1983 was the year of his Ascension, although the Coronation would have to wait until Top Gun in 1986. Before 1983, Cruise was regarded as an up-and-coming actor, someone to watch. But with the double-barreled success of the teen r...

It has long been my opinion that Hollywood is more fascinated by the subject of exorcism than the public in general. The Exorcist did for this horror subgenre what Jaws accomplished for sharks. Sure, there have been sequels and knock-offs, but no...

As thrillers go, The River Wild is a cut below a "white-knuckler," but it still has its share of spills and chills. Crafted by Curtis Hanson with considerably more style and substance than his previous effort, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, The R...

Tom Hanks as a cold-blooded hit man? Say it ain't so, Forrest! Over the course of his illustrious career, which is well into its third decade, Hanks has played a cross-dresser, a man infatuated by a mermaid, the manager of a women's baseball te...

In the 1980s, Porky's spawned an era of teen sex comedies that took most of the decade to die out. Last year, American Pie re-invented the genre, albeit with more wit, moxie, and forthrightness than anything in the '80s ever showed. Todd Phillips...