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Read My Lips

It has been nearly a year since I first saw Read My Lips, and the taste of the film still lingers. Time may leech away the specifics, but the overall impression remains. So it is with many great films. By far, the most impressive French film I s...

Run Time: 1:55
U.S. Release Date: 2002-07-05
MPAA Rating: "NR" (Violence, Sexual Situations, Nudity, Profanity)
Genre: THRILLER
Director: Jacques Audiard
Cast: Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Devos, Olivier Gourmet, ...
Ricki and the Flash

A considerable amount of talent was assembled to make what has turned into a throw-away late summer film. Academy Award winning actors Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline headline the cast while Oscar winners Jonathan Demme and Diablo Cody handle the direct...

Run Time: 1:42
U.S. Release Date: 2015-08-07
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Profanity, Sexual Content, Drugs)
Genre: Drama
Director: Jonathan Demme
Cast: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Maime Gummer, ...
Ring 2, The

As far as I'm concerned, it's official: Hollywood has lost the art of how to make horror films. Consider this year's entries as Exhibit A - everything from White Noise to The Ring 2 has been horrible. There's not a worthwhile film in the bunch. ...

Run Time: 1:45
U.S. Release Date: 2005-03-18
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Profanity)
Genre: HORROR
Director: Hideo Nakata
Cast: Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, David Dorfman, ...
Roman de Gare (Cross Tracks)

The term "Hitchcockian" has become overused in recent years, but here is a movie to which it deserves to be applied. Roman de Gare is the most recent motion picture from veteran French director Claude Lelouch, and it's easily his best work in over...

Run Time: 1:43
U.S. Release Date: 2008-04-25
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Profanity, Sexual Situations)
Genre: THRILLER
Director: Claude Lelouch
Cast: Dominique Pinon, Fanny Ardant, Audrey Dana, ...
Running Man, The

The memory is not to be trusted, at least insofar as movie evaluation is concerned. When I first saw The Running Man in theaters more than 30 years ago, I believed it to be firmly rooted in the “dumb entertainment” category where many of t...

Run Time: 1:41
U.S. Release Date: 1987-11-13
MPAA Rating: "R" (Violence, Profanity)
Genre: Science Fiction/Action
Director: Paul Michael Glaser
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Dawson, Maria Conchita Alonso, ...
Running with Scissors

Running with Scissors is not a pleasant movie. The problem isn't that it's a downer, although it is, but that it's a tiresome trek into familiar territory populated by one-dimensional stereotypes. Perhaps calculating that more is better, Running ...

Run Time: 2:00
U.S. Release Date: 2006-10-20
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Drugs, Sexual Situations)
Genre: DRAMA
Director: Ryan Murphy
Cast: Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Joseph Cross, ...
Sentinel, The

The Sentinel is a movie in which one's perception of the proceedings will be impacted by a familiarity (or lack thereof) with the TV series 24. For those for whom that number means little more than "two dozen," The Sentinel is a Michael Douglas mo...

Run Time: 1:50
U.S. Release Date: 2006-04-21
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Profanity, Sexual Situations)
Genre: THRILLER
Director: Clark Johnson
Cast: Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, ...
Silent Hill

When it comes to movies based on computer games, Silent Hill is not the Holy Grail, but it's a step in the right direction. The film is overlong, with too many unnecessary scenes (a lot of the movie seems like pointless running around), but it pac...

Run Time: 2:05
U.S. Release Date: 2006-04-21
MPAA Rating: "R" (Violence, Profanity)
Genre: HORROR
Director: Christophe Gans
Cast: Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, ...
Sleepless in Seattle

8-year old Jonah Baldwin (Ross Malinger) misses his mother, who died from cancer eighteen months ago. More than that, however, he recognizes that his father, Sam (Tom Hanks), is desperately lonely. So, on Christmas Eve, Jonah calls a radio talk-s...

Run Time: 1:45
U.S. Release Date: 1993-06-25
MPAA Rating: "PG"
Genre: ROMANCE/COMEDY
Director: Nora Ephron
Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Ross Malinger, ...
Sparkle

Sparkle is a remake; the original was released theatrically in 1976. I have never seen that version, but that didn't stem a powerful sense of déjà vu while sitting through this one. That's because Sparkle is an assembly of parts and pieces from o...

Run Time: 1:57
U.S. Release Date: 2012-08-17
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Sexual Content, Violence, Profanity, Drugs)
Genre: DRAMA
Director: Salim Akil
Cast: Jordin Sparks, Whitney Houston, Derek Luke, ...