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Is it too much to ask that a narrative film have a beginning, a middle, and an end? Apparently in the case of Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, a loose adaptation of Darren Shan's Vampire Blood trilogy, the answer is "yes." Developed with...

If you pay attention to Hollywood's romantic comedies, the interaction between men and women is all about love and companionship. If you instead rely upon the philosophy of Closer, it's all about power. Closer starts like a nice romantic drama, w...

I have nothing against historical fiction: books or movies using real characters in situations that didn't happen. However, one would hope in such cases that the authors would have a story worth telling. That's not the case with Copying Beethoven...

A curious thing happened to Cosi on its way to a United States release -- it got lost. Or at least temporarily misplaced. Miramax Films began showing trailers for this movie more than a year ago, but the opening date was repeatedly delayed until ...

Crazy Heart is the country music version of The Wrestler: a grizzled veteran whose days in the spotlight are behind him struggles to keep going while seeing the world through a haze of regret and booze. The story is unremarkable; the alcoholic com...

For parts of its running length, The Damned feels like it could be a lost gem: a below-the-radar horror film that stays true to its indie roots while generating sufficient scares to warrant a recommendation to genre fans. Sadly, although director ...

As happens with surprising regularity in the movie industry, at the time when Dangerous Liaisons entered production, it was not the only adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' 18th century French novel on the drawing board. The rival film, Valmont, wa...

The Dark Tower has been called Stephen King’s magnum opus for a good reason. Spanning eight novels and needing well over one million words, the saga took more than 30 years to craft (the first volume was published in 1982 and the most recent...

While watching Dear Evan Hansen, I was reminded of the 1994 film I’ll Do Anything. Originally designed as a musical (with eight songs by Prince), the decision was made in the editing room to release the Nick Nolte vehicle as a straight drama...

At first glance, Deep Blue Sea might look like just another dumb, pointless monster movie crawling from the depths to take a run at the mid-summer box office chart. However, while I won't argue that this creature feature is going to enrich the min...