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On those rare occasions when a great motion picture reaches multiplexes, the film critic must add another aspect to his or her job description: that of cheerleader. It is incumbent upon those of us who routinely dissect movies to applaud the arriv...

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Every year around the Christmas season, it seems impossible to turn on the television without seeing either George Seaton's Miracle on 34th Street or Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. Like Handel's "Me...

I can understand a sequel to Star Wars. Or Superman. Or The Matrix. Or even Before Sunrise. But Miss Congeniality? Are Hollywood's executives so greedy and creatively bankrupt that they will take any property that made a tidy profit and churn o...

Amy Adams must enjoy fairy tales - this is the second one in which she has appeared during the last six months. Although Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day differs substantially in many key areas from Enchanted, both movies are anchored by Adams, whos...

With a movie like this, it’s necessary (however difficult) to put politics aside. Despite what the blurbs say, Miss Sloane isn’t really about the Second Amendment. It isn’t about gun rights; it’s about how easy it is to peddle...

Missing is the stand-alone “sequel” to 2018’s Searching, the mystery/thriller that presented the story via computer screen captures. Although only tangentially related to Searching and featuring a completely new cast, Missing uses much the s...

Forget The Bonfire of the Vanities. With Mission to Mars, director Brian De Palma has reached a new nadir. Easily the worst movie to date of 2000 (although the year is still young...), Mission to Mars beats out such worthy contenders as Supernova...

For those who didn't get enough of James Bond late last year when The World Is Not Enough blazed its way into theaters, Mission: Impossible II offers a chance to once again get shaken and stirred. Oh, the film isn't an official entry into the dura...

If Moana seems like a throwback to the animated Disney films of the late 1980s and early 1990s, it’s not a coincidence. Consider that directors Ron Clements & John Musker have on their resumes both The Little Mermaid (the movie that revital...

Monkey Man, the feature directorial debut of actor Dev Patel, is a blood-soaked revenge tale with a high body count that refuses to pull its punches to make the protagonist more likable. Although generally following a superhero “origin story” ...