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| EFC STATS |
| Movies Listed: |
31576 |
| Total Ratings: |
247848 |
| Total Reviews: |
27937 |
![[168333322 Hits]](/cgi-bin/gd.cgi?168333322)
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| CRAZY RICH ASIANS |
"Good For Everyone"
Peter Sobczynski says... "Under normal circumstances, the appearance of a film along the lines of “Crazy Rich Asian” would hardly raise an eyebrow. The adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s best-selling novel is a fusion of comedy, romance and soap opera that is not especially original but has been put together in such an undeniably entertaining manner, fueled in no small part by a highly engaging cast, that you don’t mind the basic predictability of the narrative. However, as the title itself subtly indicate, these are not normal circumstances and “Crazy Rich Asians,” as insane as it may sound, is actually the first time that a major Hollywood studio has produced a film with an exclusively Asian cast since the release of “The Joy Luck Club” a full quarter-century earlier. As a result, for members of the Asian community, the existence of the film will doubtlessly hold a place of import that someone like myself, who sees representations of himself on the screen virtually every time he sits down at the multiplex, could not possibly begin to understand. However, what is most impressive about the movie is that it tells a high-spirited and deliciously entertaining film that can be embraced by all cultures while remaining a distinctive and often fascinating representation of its own." (more)
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| MEG, THE |
"A fair movie about a huge shark."
Jay Seaver says... "Folks have been trying to make Steve Alten's novel "Meg" into a movie since it came out twenty years ago, and you kind of have to wonder what took so long, because it doesn't seem that complicated - there's no piece of it that doesn't come from basically every B-movie about a sea monster ever made, and it's not like you've got to create a whole new monster. Every special effects house probably already has a shark model in their files, after all. That "The Meg" is kind of an assembly-line monster movie is okay - it's fun to apply the latest technology to these old standards every few years - but what exactly got this stuck in development hell?" (more)
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| ISLAND, THE (2018) |
"'Lost' on an island with the co-workers."
Jay Seaver says... "I am not sure where, exactly, the urge to label films as either comedy or drama comes from, but it certainly doesn't do Huang Bo's "The Island" any favors - that perspective makes it seem like a high-concept comedy that gets too grim or an apocalyptic take on "Lord of the Flies" that has too much slapstick. Seen as a whole, it's still kind of shaggy, but that's not necessarily a bad tradeoff for a movie this offbeat and oddly ambitious to make." (more)
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| SUMMER OF '84 |
"Better than usual 80s throwback thriller."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT THE 2018 FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: Give the Roadkill Superstar team their due: This is the second time in a row where I've gone into one of their video-store-inspired movies skeptical but had them win me over. The initially clumsy nostalgia and self-seriousness builds to a genuinely suspenseful back half, making the movie a bit better than the stylish but empty throwback it could have been." (more)
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| BLACKKKLANSMAN |
"That 70s (And Beyond) Atrocity"
Peter Sobczynski says... "Ever since he burst on the filmmaking scene with his audacious 1986 debut “She’s Gotta Have It” (which had some observers labeling him as the next Woody Allen—that certainly didn’t last), it has been apparent that Spike Lee is one of the most prodigiously talented filmmakers of our time. The trouble is that while his directorial skills cannot be faulted, the same cannot always be said for his taste in material, leading to a filmography in which stone-cold masterpieces like “Do the Right Thing” and the criminally underrated “Bamboozled” sit alongside the misbegotten likes of “Miracle at St. Anna” and that dreadful “Oldboy” remake. That said, even when he has made bad movies in the past (if one were to make a list of the very worst films ever made by world-renowned filmmakers, “She Hate Me” would certainly rank near the top, or the bottom, as it were)they were never the works of someone who was just going through the motions in the hopes of someday scoring some big franchise gig—he poured just as much of himself into the clinkers as he did the classics. Thankfully, the current social and political climate seems to have inspired a new sense of focus in his work. His previous theatrical film, “Chi-Raq,” a “Lysistrata” riff revolving around the crisis of gun violence was his best film in years and his latest effort, “BlackKklansman” is even better, a jaw-dropping work in which he uses anger, humor and sheer audacity to recount a true-life story that may be set nearly forty years ago but which feels so of this particular moment in time that it seems to be torn directly from today’s headlines." (more)
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| ALONG WITH THE GODS: THE LAST 49 DAYS |
"Not as flashy, but on the whole better than its predecessor."
Jay Seaver says... "The first part of the "Along with the Gods" two-parter, "The Two Worlds", was good-looking but didn't quite have a story operatic enough to match its visual ambition, but it's clear right away that "The Last 49 Days" won't have the same problems - its Paragon isn't nearly as saintly as the one that came before, and all the things hinted at by the end of the last movie are primed to explode. It's not entirely a leap forward, as it winds up a bit weaker in places the other movie was strong, but it's enough of an improvement to make the whole a good combo." (more)
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| MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT |
"A different sort of 'Mission', and maybe the best."
Jay Seaver says... "As much as "Mission: Impossible" has been one of the most reliable action-movie franchises of the past twenty years, that reliability has arguably come at the cost of the distinctive voices Brian De Palma and John Woo brought to the series - J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird, and Christopher McQuarrie are all talented guys, but it's fair to suggest that they didn't bring the sort of individual stamp to a movie that De Palma and Woo did, at least at that point in their careers, and bringing McQuarrie back seems like the least adventurous choice. And yet, that continuity at times seems like the biggest shift in direction the series in years, giving it an extra zing to a movie that already boasts some of the most astounding action sequences of the year." (more)
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| CHRISTOPHER ROBIN |
"100% Pooh"
Peter Sobczynski says... "The best scene in “Christopher Robin,” Disney’s latest attempt to produce a live-action variant of one of the familiar titles in their animation library, in this case the Winnie the Pooh stories from A.A. Milne, comes right at the very beginning. In it, taken mostly from the final scene of Milne’s last Pooh story, “The House at Pooh Corner,” young Christopher Robin is about to be sent off to boarding school and, before moving on, spends one last afternoon hanging out in the Hundred-Acre-Wood with his friends—Eeyore (Brad Garrett), Tigger (Jim Cummings), Piglet (Nick Mohammed), Rabbit (Peter Capaldi), Kanga (Sophie Okonedo), Roo (Sara Sheen), Owl (Toby Jones) and, of course, Pooh (Cummings again). Granted, it is a bit disconcerting at first to see characters who have thus far been depicted on screen in 2D animation rendered in a combination of live-action and digital effects but the decision to give Pooh & Co. a design closer to the original E.H. Shepard illustrations than to the softer versions seen in the Disney cartoons is a nice touch and the scene does a pretty good job of capturing the warm sentiment and gentle good humor of its predecessors. Unfortunately, this is also the only scene that works in the film and as it lurches on, it quickly turns into an unforgivably ghastly grotesquerie that seems to have been made by and exclusively for the same rotten people who have unaccountably elected to cite “Hook” as one of the formative cinematic experiences of their lives." (more)
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FILMS I NEGLECTED TO REVIEW: PIECES
by Peter Sobczynski |
| "Please enjoy short reviews of "The Captain," "Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings," "Puzzle," "The Row" and "Teen Titans GO! To The Movies."" (more) |
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'PAULIE MIGHT HAVE MOVED SLOW, BUT IT WAS ONLY BECAUSE PAULIE DIDN'T HAVE TO MOVE FOR ANYBODY.'
- Henry Hill, Goodfellas
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