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With 2003's Freaky Friday, Walt Disney Pictures is again cannibalizing its past. This is the third time the Magic Kingdom has turned out a version of Mary Rodgers' novel. The first instance, in 1976, starred Barbara Harris as the mother and Jodie...

From Russia with Love, along with its successor, Goldfinger, represents Bond at his best. Although the series has run for more than thirty years with seventeen "official" entries, it has yet to better, or even equal, what it achieved in 1963-19...

Funny Bones is anything but what the title suggests. As a comedy, this movie is a complete flop, with fewer laughs than the average mindless sitcom. As a drama, it isn't much more successful. Writer/director Peter Chelsom, who brought us 1992's ...

With a title like G.I. Jane, it would be easy to dismiss Ridley Scott's latest effort as exploitation fare. Such a reaction, however, would do the picture an injustice. On the other hand, the movie lacks the thematic depth that the film makers wo...

One hot summer day in 1988, I emerged from a movie theater exhilarated by what I had just experienced. The film in question was the original Die Hard, one of the best thrillers of the decade and, one could argue, an all-time Top 10 entry for the ge...

If Martian Child is the price film goers must pay in order to get Grace Is Gone, then it's a worthwhile trade. This low-key drama, the directorial debut of James C. Strouse, is the kind of opportunity that real actors relish. With a minimalist plo...

Gran Torino is an amazingly over-the-top anti-racism parable but, despite its obvious shortcomings, it is nevertheless effective and affecting. The storytelling style is old fashioned in what it does and unsubtle in the way it goes about doing it,...

Grease is a perfect way to become immersed in the recent past. Not only was it one of the top box office draws in 1978, but it capped off a decade of '50s frenzy (that began, ironically, with the off-Broadway opening of the play Grease in 1972). ...