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Spoilers – sort of: Although this is not a spoiler-heavy review, there are implied spoilers. While specifics are not revealed, anyone good at reading between lines may learn more about the movie than they want to. Those in search of a "virgin" ...

The Descendants may be director Alexander Payne's finest outing to date. The man who began his career behind the camera with withering satires (Citizen Ruth, Election) has moved into dramatic comedies (About Schmidt, Sideways) that simultaneously ...

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...

It seems that in a period detective story, it's a prerequisite for the main character to narrate the proceedings. In Devil in a Blue Dress, writer/director Carl Franklin apparently intended this conceit as a tribute to the Dashiell Hammett/Raymond...

The Devil Wears Prada is two films in one: a caustic, energetic satire of the fashion world and a cautionary melodrama. The first works; the second doesn't. Fortunately, the running time of the former doubles that of the latter, making The Devil ...

Taylor Hackford's The Devil's Advocate has many laudable qualities, but subtlety is not among them. The story, which postulates that the devil is walking among us today, gives Satan's human alter-ego a truly obvious name: John Milton (for those w...

Released in 1971, Diamonds Are Forever was Sean Connery's final "official" turn as James Bond (although he eventually starred in Never Say Never Again, 1983's Thunderball remake). After skipping On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Connery was lure...

Die Hard represents the class of modern action pictures and the standard by which they must be judged. Few films falling into the "mindless entertainment" genre have as much going for them as this movie. Not only is it a thrill-a-minute ride, but...

With its themes of mental illness and alienation, Die My Love seems a natural fit for director Lynne Ramsay, whose searing 2011 film We Need to Talk About Kevin focused on the psychological trauma endured by the mother of a mass murderer. This...

The Dig is the kind of low-key period piece that the Brits do so well. Based on actual events that occurred in pre-WW2 Suffolk, the movie explores the efforts of excavator Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to uncover a sixth-century burial site. Of ...