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Movies like Captain Phillips - taut, white-knuckle thrillers that feature ordinary guys instead of bona fide action heroes - are something of an endangered species. In today's risk-averse movie industry, making an "action" film without an establish...

Captain Underpants (or, to use the full, far-too-long title, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie) gets the summer’s animated roster off to a low-key start. The first of four high profile big-screen cartoons to grace theaters over the n...

The scenario presented in Captive State would almost certainly have worked better in a mini-series format. The filmmakers’ low-budget approach of minimizing special effects might have allowed for an expansion of the narrative over a six or ei...

When it comes to movies, I am not a crusader. Rarely do I find the content of a motion picture objectionable on ethical grounds. Then again, films as morally repugnant as Captivity don't come along too often (thankfully). There is no requirement...

Various articles have labeled Capturing the Friedmans as a narrative documentary, a crime investigation, a meditation upon the nature of truth, and an expose of the failings of the United States judicial system. First and foremost, however, it is ...

Writer/director Paul Schrader makes moody, low-budget movies about isolated people. While his highly regarded reputation as a screenwriter is deserved (he wrote, among other titles, Raging Bull and Taxi Driver), his directorial resume is checke...

It's probably unfair to blame the failure of Carrie on Steven King. While it's true that the script, written by Lawrence D. Cohen and based on King's novel, is a mishmash of clichés and poorly-realized characters, director Brian De Palma des...

Welcome to "Spoilerville." Brian De Palma's 1976 adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie trod a precarious line between exploitative horror and serious social commentary. On the one hand, the movie represented the ultimate revenge fantasy for bullie...

Thus far, Pixar has given features and voices to bugs, toys, monsters, and fish, so why not cars? Although Cars is arguably the weakest animated feature to emerge from the virtual drawing board at this successful company, it's also the best animat...

Seen in Disney 3-D. It was bound to happen: a dud for Pixar. Making a sequel to 2006's Cars was always something of a head-scratcher. The original movie, while possessing a certain charm, was among the studio's least inspired efforts and the dea...