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The Gambler is a solid remake - a film that retraces the path of the original while carving out its own identity. The 2014 iteration isn't as good as its 1974 predecessor but it offers its share of small pleasures, not the least of which is the c...

Game Night is canny enough to go full-throttle with the absurd and not bother trying to do much with its meager dramatic and/or sentimental elements. Character-building occurs through the comedy and doesn’t extend beyond what’s needed to k...

Alfred Hitchcock used the term "refrigerator movie" to describe certain films. According to the great director, refrigerator movies are well-paced thrillers that work effectively while being watched, but fall apart upon later examination (whil...

I wonder if Gamer might make a good game; it certainly doesn't make a good movie. However, add an element of interactivity into the hyperkinetic, repetitive action, plodding narrative, and stupefyingly obvious social commentary, and the potential ...

At first glance, James Ronald Whitney's Games People Play: New York appears to be what one might call an extreme reality game - a combination of "Fear Factor" and "Candid Camera" with stunts so over-the-top that even an R rating would be unattainab...

There seems to be little doubt that Ruben Fleischer, the director behind the well-received Zombieland and the less well-received 30 Minutes or Less, is a Brian De Palma fan. How else to explain the kinship that exists between Fleischer's latest, Ga...

Garden State is one of those movies that fails to stay with the viewer for an extended period of time. It's a forgettable film featuring a throw-away story with unmemorable characters and unremarkable performances. That's not to say it's bad, bec...

If there was a single thought prominent in my mind as I watched Garfield: The Movie, it was "Why?" Not so much "why" I was there (although my decision to get up early on a Saturday morning to attend this screening might be a cause for concern), bu...

Ingrid Bergman won her first Oscar for portraying Paula Alquist, the vulnerable, insecure heroine of George Cukor's diabolical, atmospheric thriller, Gaslight. Bergman, essaying a much different character from either of her last two roles (Maria ...

Welcome to the 21st Century, an era when things aren't that much different, but people are. No longer is standard procreation the accepted way to reproduce. Consider all of the birth defects that such an approach can bring about. And, while ...