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Animated films come in three flavors: childish cartoons that are designed primarily to appeal to the under-10 crowd, middle-of-the-road efforts that at least make an attempt to entertain parents while never threatening established envelopes, and ...

Crossing Over is Wayne Kramer's Crash-inspired look at the world of immigration in Southern California. Like Paul Haggis' Oscar winning film, this one is replete with coincidences and contrivances but, unlike Crash, it also features too many insta...

Every summer it seems there's a pleasant surprise lurking in an unexpected place. This year, Cyrus is a candidate. The cast might lead one to believe this is a Judd Apatow movie; after all, three of the four principals (John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill...

In the tired world of genre parodies, where Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have become the "go-to guys," Dance Flick manages the seemingly impossible feat of actually generating some big laughs. It doesn't do much else, but for a movie of this ...

In the Pantheon of Marvel Comics superheroes, Daredevil is more of a demi-god than a full-blown deity. He's a notch below Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, and The X-Men. 20th Century Fox has acknowledged this when determining Daredevil's...

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is not only a solid dystopian-flavored science fiction film in its own right but it elevates the stock of its immediate predecessor in the Planet of the Apes franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. By adding to th...

Poker is one of those games that, unless you're a die-hard, is a lot more fun to play than to watch. Nevertheless, because on-line poker sites have become so popular in recent years, there has been a upsurge in TV poker shows. The unfortunate byp...

It has been one of the hottest tickets everywhere in North America where it has been shown. Now, placed in a limited number of U.S. theaters despite the near-solidarity of a chain multiplex ban, the movie is opening less than two weeks before Elec...

To succeed, Deception requires viewers to be both inattentive and stupid. There's not a twist in this flimsy and moth-eaten plot that isn't both contrived and transparent and not a character who hasn't been hopelessly manipulated by the needs of th...

Christmas movies like this are enough to turn one into a Grinch or at least make one wish that the filmmakers would get a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Future. Why it is so hard to make a decent Christmas comedy? Not every movie has to be on ...