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| EFC STATS |
| Movies Listed: |
27842 |
| Total Ratings: |
245667 |
| Total Reviews: |
26595 |
![[133091642 Hits]](/cgi-bin/gd.cgi?133091642)
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| FOCUS (2015) |
"No "Maudlin's Eleven""
Peter Sobczynski says... ""Focus" is a film in which Will Smith plays an ultra-slick con man who embarks on an elaborate scheme to relieve someone with more money than common sense of millions of dollars utilizing charm, bluster and a story that even the most gullible of individuals might find themselves questioning at times if it was put forth to them. (No, there is no truth to the rumor that it was originally intended to be titled "The Making of After Earth.") In theory, this sounds like it might have the makings for a reasonably diverting night at the movies but somewhere along the lines between conception and execution, something clearly went horribly wrong because the end result is a smug, soulless and deeply annoying contraption that spends too much time trying to throw its increasingly implausible narrative curveballs at the audience and not nearly enough time giving them a story or characters that they can invest enough interest in so that they can at least be somewhat surprised by the relentless rug-pulling on display." (more)
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| WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS |
"Lads At First Bite"
Peter Sobczynski says... "Even though I had been hearing nothing but good things about it for a while, I still found myself filled with trepidation as I sat down to watch "What We Do in the Shadows." For one thing, it is a vampire comedy, a concept that pretty much hit its high-water mark a half-century ago with Roman Polanski's "The Fearless Vampire Killers" and which, with one or two exceptions (such as the hallucinatory Nicolas Cage vehicle "Vampire's Kiss"), has been on the downslide ever since thanks to the increasingly tired likes of "Love at First Bite," "Dracula--Dead and Loving It" and the indescribably awful "Vampires Suck," a movie so bad that the title is the funniest thing about it. For another, it is a mockumentary, another sub-genre that has also grown somewhat tiresome thanks to its overuse by people who don't understand how to make it work both comedically and cinematically. Finally, it is the product of co-writers/directors/stars Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi, a duo who previous collaborations include "Eagle vs. Shark" and the TV series "Flight of the Concords," projects that are venerated by some people that I know but which have thus failed to inspire anything remotely resembling a laugh. The only thing that kept me from abandoning it altogether was the knowledge that no matter how bad it might be, it could hardly be worse than "Mortdecai," "Fifty Shades of Grey" or any of the other bits of nonsense I have endured in the last few weeks." (more)
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| TRIUMPH IN THE SKIES |
"Well, at least break-even in the skies."
Jay Seaver says... "There's a shiny new Shaw Brothers logo among the vanity cards before "Triumph in the Skies", likely because it's a spinoff of a TV show that ran on Hong Kong's TVB network, which was also founded by the late Sir Run Run Shaw, about ten years ago. It's the furthest thing from the grindhouse action that the name conjures for Western audiences, a slick modern-day drama that plays well enough for those who haven't seen the series and probably a bit better for those who have." (more)
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| C'EST SI BON |
"French title, Korean film, folk music."
Jay Seaver says... "There is a little bit of Korean text at the start and end of "C'est Si Bon" left untranslated (at least on the local theater's DCP) that likely says something along the lines of it being based upon a true story or describes how many liberties have been taken. If that's the case, it's okay, and maybe even desirable for those of us who knew pretty much nothing about the Korean folk music scene of the 1960s before seeing this movie: If it plays as a fun little musical romance for us, why ruin that with any extraneous complaints over accuracy?" (more)
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| HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2 |
"Louper."
Brett Gallman says... "Confession: I’ve seen “Hot Tub Time Machine” an absurd number of times during the past five years. Let's just say I've watched it more than I've watched anything else released during that time span. This is an important caveat to keep in mind when I say its follow-up is pretty funny in spite of itself." (more)
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| DUFF, THE |
"a.k.a. Her?"
Peter Sobczynski says... ""The Duff" is a film that wants to be two very different things--it wants to be a smart and super-snarky teen comedy in mode of "Heathers," "Mean Girls" and "Easy A" and it wants to be a super-sincere story dedicated to exposing the cruelties of cyber-bullying, the importance of being yourself and other sentiments more suited for a public service announcement than a night at the multiplex. Mind you, there two approaches are not inherently impossible to merge into one but to pull them both off would require some especially nimble and nuanced storytelling to navigate that exceedingly thin line between satire and sincerity without making a mess of things. Give the makers of "The Duff" some credit for not keeping viewers in suspense for too long because it pretty much trips over that line and makes a spectacular and spectacularly bad embarrassment of itself long before the running time as crossed over into double digits. Although it clearly wants to be seen as a corrective to the usual cynically contrived teen trash nonsense, this is a film that feels as if it was made by and for that infamous focus group that decided that Andie should go off with the loathsome-but-handsome Blaine instead of the slightly-less-loathsome-but-geeky Ducky at the end of "Pretty in Pink."" (more)
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| FIFTY SHADES OF GREY |
"Come on, baby, make it hurt so blah."
Jaycie says... "I've begun to notice a distinct disparity between positive and negative reviews of the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey. Those who find it utterly loathsome cop to never reading the book, or at least never suffering through it to the end; those who find it mildly tolerable are generally aware of how much worse it could be. I am in the second group, having read the entire series from cover to cover (strictly for commentary purposes, I assure you). And as such, I can honestly say, without fear of contradiction, this movie is crap." (more)
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| HISTORY OF TIME TRAVEL, THE |
"It's a gimmick, but it's a good one."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT THE 2015 BOSTON SCI-FI FILM FESTIVAL: Mock documentaries are inherently gimmick movies; it is a rare one that does not crash hard up against the form's limitations, and when that happens, it doesn't matter whether the disappointment comes from the filmmaker having to cheat or the presentation just fizzling out. "The History of Time Travel" inevitably paints itself into a corner, but unlike most cases, that's where it wants to be." (more)
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CRITICWATCH 2015
by Erik Childress |
| "Tune in here to read all the latest goings-on about quote whores, bad hyperbole, and the hopes to convince the future generations of film critics and those who dare to call themselves journalists to not go down this route. Have perspective. Be better!" (more) |
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'HOW VERY HARDY BOYS.'
- Ryan A, On "The Mod Squad"
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