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"There are eight million stories in the naked city. This [is] one of them." That iconic closing line from the TV series Naked City is one of the things I thought of at the beginning of Nicolas Pesce’s Piercing, which shows an art deco versio...

Dead Men Tell No Tales is the fifth entry into a veteran franchise that may finally have run out of both ideas and box office clout. Concerning the latter, this movie isn’t expected to do the same kind of business as any of the previous Pira...

Any movie emerging from Aardman Animation Studios comes with a set of expectations, the majority of which are satisfied The Pirates! Band of Misfits, an affectionate parody of the pirate genre. Suffused with satire, wit, and the dry, tongue-in-chee...

Pitch Perfect looks, sounds, and feels like pretty much every other movie that features a singing or dancing competition. With all the effort invested in the musical numbers, the dramatic elements feel like warmed-over John Hughes. And it's not eve...

Planet of the Apes was arguably the first American science fiction franchise of the post-serial film era. In many ways, the Planet of the Apes series developed the blueprint used by many subsequent multi-segment science fiction endeavors (such as ...

This remake of the 1968 film, Planet of the Apes, has been on the drawing board for a long time. When it was first mentioned as a serious project (rather than just the figment of Apes fans' imaginations), the two prominent names attached to it wer...

Give the makers of Point Break credit - in reworking Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 thriller, they didn’t go for a point-by-point revision. Director Ericson Core and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer opted to try something different. Unfortunately, differ...

The Polar Express is cinematic magic - a delightful tale guaranteed to enthrall viewers of all ages. Does that sound like advertising hype, or the words of a publicist? Perhaps, but it's a reflection of how strongly this film pulled me under its ...

Polina is mesmerizing. Part of that is because perhaps 50% of the scenes are dance-related, choreographed by co-director Angelin Preljocaj. Another part is because the lead, Anastasia Shevtsova (making her acting debut), is a classically-trai...

Is Poor Things a fantasy with comedic elements? Or perhaps, considering its Frankenstein underpinnings, a horror movie? Or maybe a drama that promotes feminist ideals and libertine philosophies? In reality, it may be all of those things…and more...