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By the late 1950s and early 1960s, the musical had become one of the most popular motion picture genres. The list of past hits was impressive, including titles like Singin' in the Rain, South Pacific, The King and I, Oklahoma!, An American in Pari...

Until recently re-watching it, I had forgotten how funny What’s Up Doc? is. The combination of Peter Bogdanovich’s pacing, Buck Henry’s humor, and the actors’ comedic timing makes for one of the funniest outings of the 1970s. Moreover, ...

Whip It, the directorial debut of actress Drew Barrymore, is a sports film that uneasily straddles the divide that exists between comedy and drama. Built upon a mountain of clichés, the screenplay wallows in artificiality and, although some of th...

As a satire about the absurdity of war and the way the news media covers it, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot has surprisingly dull fangs. Coming from Lorne Michaels and Tina Fey, this is especially surprising since neither is known for pulling punches. Neverth...

One reasonable way to judge a romantic comedy is to ask how strong a rooting interest the viewer has in the coupling that is destined to occur at the end of the film. In Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, the desire is lukewarm. The central flaw here...

If all it took was verisimilitude and atmosphere to define a movie, The Witch would earn a near-perfect rating. Unfortunately, despite a creepily effective setting and authentic setup, the movie suffers as a result of a frustratingly uneven screenpla...

Once upon a time, Robert Zemeckis was a visionary filmmaker. His early resume reads like a list of well-remembered classics: Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, The Polar Express… But Zemeckis has fallen on hard times a...

The underlying concepts addressed by Wonder Park are more sophisticated than the treatment they receive in this animated film (which has been developed as a pilot for a new Nickelodeon TV series). However, with plot elements that echo The Wizar...

Ten years ago, when the second and final Timothy Dalton Bond movie, Licence to Kill, tanked at the box office, it looked like the venerable secret agent had finally run out of gas, driven into the ground by the likes of The Terminator and Rambo. A...