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| EFC STATS |
| Movies Listed: |
27842 |
| Total Ratings: |
245689 |
| Total Reviews: |
26595 |
![[133099671 Hits]](/cgi-bin/gd.cgi?133099671)
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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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| ROBOT OVERLORDS |
"Bland isn't the worst thing a B-movie can be, but it's close."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT THE 2015 BOSTON SCI-FI FILM FESTIVAL: I don't miss the days when science fiction films tended to be obviously cheap productions with second-class actors and effects, but it was a lot easier to spot a disposable B-movie then. Now decent effects are maybe not cheap but they're not out of reach, and people who have had some success will sign up rather than see it as beneath them. Thus you get things like "Robot Overlords", more capable than its ancestors but still not much more than filler at best." (more)
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| NICK OFFERMAN: AMERICAN HAM |
"Manly man."
Rob Gonsalves says... "According to the Wikipedia page on the concert film "Nick Offerman: American Ham," Nick Offerman is an “American actor, writer, and carpenter.” That description might please him, though having “carpenter” ranked before the other two might please him more." (more)
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| SPRING |
"Love is a strange creature indeed."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT THE 2015 BOSTON HORROR SHOW: Every once in a while, a movie will be built in such a way to make you forget what sort of film you came in expecting to see, usually so that it can get a jolt out of genre fans who come in ready for anything. "Spring" does that, to a certain extent, but takes it a bit further - its switch-up seems less about softening a tough audience up than easing it into something that sounds crazy, even if it winds up being fantastic." (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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'I HAVE SOMETHING TO GIVE YOU. I DON'T WANT IT ANYMORE. THIRTY HOURS OF PAIN ALL AT ONCE, ALL FOR YOU.'
- Eric Draven, The Crow
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