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American Pastoral is another in a long line of movie adaptations of revered novels that lose something significant in their translation from page to screen. Although it’s not possible to argue that Philip Roth’s 1997 Pulitzer Prize-winnin...
U.S. Release Date: 2016-10-21
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Violence, Sexual Content, Nudity)
Genre: Drama
Director: Ewan McGregor
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, Dakota Fanning, ...
Calling The Angry Birds Movie an “animated film” is giving it airs. It’s a cartoon. Deal with it. Family-friendly motion pictures, whether live action or computer-drawn (the hand-drawn versions are no longer being made), fall into one of sev...
U.S. Release Date: 2016-05-20
MPAA Rating: "PG"
Genre: Animated
Director: Clay Kaytis, Fergal Reilly
Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, ...
The title Antropoid makes this sound like a monster movie and, if you consider that one of the main characters is Reinhard Heydrich (Detlef Bothe), the infamous “Butcher of Prague”, perhaps it is. Heydrich was arguably the worst of Hitler...
U.S. Release Date: 2016-08-12
MPAA Rating: "R" (Violence)
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Director: Sean Ellis
Cast: Jamie Dornan, Cillian Murphy, Toby Jones, ...
With most big-budget science fiction movies ignoring intelligence in the unhealthy pursuit of orgiastic special effects, the realm of the idea-based sci-fi film has been co-opted by low-budget indies. In that vein, along comes Anti Matter, the...
U.S. Release Date: 2017-09-08
MPAA Rating: "NR" (Profanity, Sexual Content, Nudity)
Genre: Science Fiction/Thriller
Director: Keir Burrows
Cast: Yaiza Figueroa, Tom Barber-Duffy, Philippa Carson
The scenario presented in Arrival isn’t new - motion pictures have been dramatizing an event of this sort almost since moving images first flickered on a big screen. We wonder about it, dream about it, imagine it, and write about it. Popular te...
U.S. Release Date: 2016-11-11
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Adult Themes, Profanity)
Genre: Science Fiction
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, ...
Surely, this was going to be the one. That’s what gamers everywhere thought when the cast of Assassin’s Creed was announced. Two-time Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender. Oscar winners Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Irons. Plus Brendan Gleeson ...
U.S. Release Date: 2016-12-21
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Profanity)
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: Justin Kurzel
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, ...
2003’s Bad Santa was a milestone in feel-bad black comedy. Directed by Terry Zwigoff, written by Glenn Ficarra & John Requa, and co-executive produced by the Coen Brothers, it was a holiday movie unlike any previous holiday movie. Although ...
U.S. Release Date: 2016-11-23
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Sexual Content, Nudity)
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mark Waters
Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, Tony Cox, ...
For those who thought Man of Steel was dark, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Batman v Superman, the battle royale/team-up of DC Comics’ revered superheroes, is so bleak that the sun never seems to shine, the characters’ faces can’t form smiles, a...
U.S. Release Date: 2016-03-25
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Profanity)
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Jesse Eisenberg, ...
Those whose only exposure to the Marvel and DC superheroes has come through the various live-action films that have been made over the last 40+ years may be unaware that a second, entirely separate series of animated productions have thrived (...
U.S. Release Date: 2016-07-25
MPAA Rating: "R" (Violence, Sexual Content)
Genre: Animated
Director: Sam Liu
Cast: Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Tara Strong, ...
If one thing is certain, it’s that director Timur Bekmambetov’s remake of Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur isn’t going to make anyone forget the 1959 Charlton Heston classic. An amateurish effort that boasts direct-to-video characteristi...
U.S. Release Date: 2016-08-19
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence)
Genre: Adventure/Drama
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Cast: Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell, Rodrigo Santoro, ...