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A few years ago, a screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman was given the job of adapting Susan Orlean's non-fiction book, "The Orchid Thief," into a motion picture script. Although Kaufman found the principal character of the book, John Laroche, to hav...

The Bank Job is a heist movie in the classic tradition - it details every aspect of the caper, from its genesis to its aftermath. The fact that there's political intrigue and espionage swirling around the edges only makes it more fascinating. Dir...

Director Kevin Macdonald is probably best known for The Last King of Scotland but his latest endeavor, the claustrophobic submarine film, Black Sea, owes more to his outstanding documentary, Touching the Void, than it does to his previous feature wor...

It's almost a shame that A Bug's Life is debuting so close in the wake of Antz (although, to be fair, the latter film was the first to enter production). No matter when the Pixar/Disney production reached theaters, comparisons between the two comp...

As the bean counters toil, Eustace waits. So does Jill. And Polly and Digory, too. Walden Media has optioned all seven of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia books, but whether the other six (or, more likely, five - since The Horse and His Boy seem...

Where are the flying cows when you really need them? Dante's Peak is obviously predicated on the dubious idea that bigger is better. 1996's Twister brought in hundreds of millions at the box office by showcasing relatively small (if something s...

I love the beginning – the sense of time and place. Part of this has to do with the introductory voiceover narration (provided by the writer of the novel, Donald Ray Pollock, whose intonation has all the right qualities for this job). Part o...

As "survival in the wilderness" films go, The Edge is a strange example. Leaving the theater, I didn't quite know what to make of it. In fact, I'll even admit to enjoying it on a certain level. I laughed frequently, but the problem is that I'm n...

Ender's Game, long a staple of science fiction readers, has had a strange, winding trip to the silver screen. For many years, Orson Scott Card refused to sell the rights to the book, wanting to maintain control over the final product. This iteratio...

It's something of a mystery how three accomplished comic actresses like Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and Better Midler found themselves in the midst of an atrocious mess like The First Wives Club. My best guess is that the story looked better --...