Face/Off
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Face/Off (SAM)
Facing the Giants
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Facing the Giants (SAM)
Facing the Giants
Evangelical sports drama about a losing football coach (Alex Kendrick, who also directs) at a Christian high school in Georgia, who, experiencing personal and professional adversity, revives his team's season by turning to his faith. The earnest performances from the nonprofessional cast are surprisingly competent and the movie's look is reasonably ...
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Facing the Giants (CNS)
Factory Girl
The sad, sordid rise and fall of socialite Edie Sedgwick (Sienna Miller), who shone briefly in the spotlight as part of Andy Warhol's (Guy Pearce) artistic center, the Factory, in the 1960s, appearing in his underground movies until the pop artist tired of her, showing how the over-the-top lifestyle led to ...
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Factory Girl (CNS)
Factotum
Bleak adaptation of novelist-poet Charles Bukowski's 1975 novel (his second) about a heavy-drinking, often brutish, aspiring writer (a superb Matt Dillon), drifting from one menial job to another, and his relationships with a couple of equally self-destructive losers (Lili Taylor and Marisa Tomei). Writer-director Bent Hamer captures the desolate world of ...
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Factotum (CNS)
Fahrenheit
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Fahrenheit (SAM)
Fahrenheit 9/11
Scathing indictment of President Bush's domestic and international policies leading up to and following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, which attempts to link his family with prominent Saudi moneymen, including members of the bin Laden clan, and which contends that his administration capitalized on the climate of fear following ...
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Fahrenheit 9/11 (CNS)
Failure to Launch
Uneven but oddly likable comedy about professional "intervention" consultant (Sarah Jessica Parker) hired by the parents (Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw) of a 35-year-old, still-living-at-home jock (Matthew McConaughey) in the hopes of making him independent enough to move out, with predictable romantic complications. Director Tom Dey maintains a spirited pace, there ...
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Failure to Launch (CNS)
Fall, The
Exceedingly strange but fitfully affecting tale set in a Los Angeles hospital circa 1915 about the unlikely relationship between two patients: a spunky 5-year-old girl (adorable Catinca Untaru with, alas, an often impenetrable accent), and an embittered movie stuntman (Lee Pace) who keeps her enthralled with a story of bandits mirroring ...
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Fall, The (CNS)
Fallen Angel
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Fallen Angel (SAM)
Fame
Director Kevin Tancharoen's remake of Alan Parker's
1980 film "Fame" (MGM) jettisons most of the elements that rated the
original an "O" classification from the Office for Film and
Broadcasting. But, though the proceedings are tidier, the results are
mostly tepid.
The premise remains the same: an ensemble drama with music
following the ups and ...
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Fame (CNS)
Family Stone, The
Bittersweet Christmas comedy-drama as a New York businessman (Dermot Mulroney) brings his controlling but socially awkward fiancee (Sarah Jessica Parker) home to New England to meet the family (played by Diane Keaton, Luke Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Craig T. Nelson among others), but sensing that everyone dislikes her, the woman invites ...
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Family Stone, The (CNS)
Family Thing, A
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Family Thing, A (SAM)
Fantastic Four
Occasionally fun, but mostly unfantastic, superhero movie based on the Marvel comic-book series about four scientists endowed by cosmic rays with superpowers -- the elastic Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba), self-combustible Human Torch (Chris Evans) and superstrong rocklike "Thing" (Michael Chiklis) -- who come together to stop the ...
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Fantastic Four (CNS)
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
The wedding of Mister Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd) and Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba) is interrupted by a cosmic force set to destroy the planet, and the pair must join with the Human Torch (Chris Evans) and the Thing (Michael Chiklis) to avert disaster, trying to dissuade the evil force's emissary, a silver ...
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Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (CNS)
Fantastic Mr. Fox
A reformed predator in the animal world of rural Britain suffers a midlife crisis in the droll stop-motion animated adventure "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (Fox).
The result—a touch of menace and a single questionable joke aside—is a parable rich in sophisticated family entertainment, with abundant fun for youngsters and a few ...
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Fantastic Mr. Fox (CNS)
Far From Heaven
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Far From Heaven (SAM)
Far From Heaven
Poignant melodrama set in 1957 Connecticut where the prosperous life of a sweetly contented housewife (Julianne Moore) is completely upended when she discovers her husband (Dennis Quaid) in a homosexual embrace and she is scorned by the town for befriending her black gardener (Dennis Haysbert). Director Todd Haynes' lushly photographed period ...
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Far From Heaven (CNS)
Fargo
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Fargo (SAM)
Fast & Furious
Overheated, morally swerving action sequel in which an ex-con (Vin Diesel) pursuing a vendetta and an undercover FBI agent (Paul Walker) renew their rivalry as they both use their driving skills to infiltrate a cross-border drug smuggling ring and identify its secretive leader. As directed by Justin Lin, the thin story ...
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Fast & Furious (CNS)
Fast & Furious 6
The title-shifting franchise that now gives us "Fast & Furious 6" (Universal) may be unreliable where the use of definite articles and the representation of conjunctions are concerned. But its underlying recipe is far more predictable.
So it's unlikely that potential audience members really need a review to tell them that ...
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Fast & Furious 6 (CNS)
Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, The
In this loud and ludicrous third installment of the adrenaline-charged series, a drag-racing rebel (Lucas Black) is sent to live with his estranged father in Japan, where he befriends a fellow American (rap artist Bow Wow) who introduces him to Tokyo's underground racing scene, running afoul of its mob-connected champ (Brian ...
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Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, The (CNS)
Fast Five
No one watches the "The Fast and the Furious" franchise for plot nuances and sparkling dialogue, and on that score, "Fast Five" (Universal) is true to form.
Speeding cars, crashes galore, soaring leaps, heavily muscled monosyllabic actors, gunplay, explosions. You know the drill. So what's new this time? There's an all-star ...
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Fast Five (CNS)
Fast Food Nation
Absorbing albeit bleak multiplotted expose excoriating the fast food industry for its dangerous, unsanitary and exploitative working conditions, from the perspective of a fictitious burger franchise's marketing executive (Greg Kinnear) who goes to Colorado to investigate conditions at their plant; a young cashier (Ashley Johnson) whose uncle (Ethan Hawke) urges her ...
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Fast Food Nation (CNS)
Faster
When a vintage Chevrolet Chevelle steals scene after scene from the star of the picture, it doesn't take a cinematic connoisseur to sense there's trouble. In fact, in about the time required for that classic vehicle to go from 0 to 60, audiences are likely to realize that what's on the ...
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Faster (CNS)
Fat Albert
Flat live-action comedy based on the characters of the long-running animated series created by Bill Cosby, in which the heavyset hero (Kenan Thompson) and his junkyard gang step out of their cartoon world in order to help a troubled teen (Kyla Pratt) believe in herself. While imparting the same sort of ...
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Fat Albert (CNS)
Fateless
Holocaust drama about a Hungarian Jewish boy's (Marcell Nagy) coming-of-age experiences in various concentration camps, where, through relationships with fellow prisoners, he struggles to make sense of the atrocities around him and gain deeper insights about himself. Directed by Lajos Koltai from a script by Imre Kertesz based on the latter's ...
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Fateless (CNS)
Father's Day
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Father's Day (SAM)
Fay Grim
Engagingly off-kilter farce about a woman (Parker Posey) pressed into service by the CIA to recover the diaries of her husband (Thomas Jay Ryan), a mysterious fugitive suspected of consorting with terrorists. In the sequel to his 1998 independent sensation "Henry Fool," writer-director Hal Hartley manages to send up spy movies, ...
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Fay Grim (CNS)
Feast of Love
Moving but excessively graphic examination of romantic love as experienced by a college professor (Morgan Freeman), his wife (Jane Alexander), the owner of a local cafe (Greg Kinnear), the two women for whom he sequentially falls (Selma Blair and Radha Mitchell), a hardened businessman (Billy Burke) and a young, Romeo and ...
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Feast of Love (CNS)
Feel the Noise
Pleasant if naive musical in which an aspiring rapper (Omarion Grandberry) must leave his Harlem home and the single mother who raised him (Kellita Smith) after attempting to steal the wrong person's hubcaps, and goes to stay with his father (Giancarlo Esposito) and stepmother (Rosa Arredando) in Puerto Rico, where he ...
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Feel the Noise (CNS)
Fellowship of the Ring, The
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Fellowship of the Ring, The (EDC)
Fellowship of the Ring, The
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Fellowship of the Ring, The (SAM)
Femme Fatale
Twisty, Hitchcockian film-noir thriller set in Cannes and Paris in which a former jewel thief (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) involves a photographer (Antonio Banderas) in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Writer-director Brian De Palma stylishly ponders whether no good deed goes unpunished, but mostly showcases the leading lady's sinewy physique with and without ...
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Femme Fatale (CNS)
Fever Pitch
Sweet and funny romantic comedy set in Boston about a 30-year-old workaholic (Drew Barrymore) whose relationship with a goofy but charming high school math teacher (Jimmy Fallon) is strained when she discovers that underneath his "normal" exterior is a rabid Red Sox fan who is torn between his commitment to her ...
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Fever Pitch (CNS)
Fifteen Minutes
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Fifteen Minutes (SAM)
The Fighter
Take the intensity of "Raging Bull," add a dose of "Rocky" inspiration, and mix in the tawdry family squabbles featured on TV's "The Jerry Springer Show" and you have "The Fighter" (Paramount), a fact-based drama that follows two half-brothers from Lowell, Mass., who long for fame—and redemption—via the boxing ring.
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The Fighter (CNS)
Fighting
Intermittently violent, but otherwise engaging boxing drama about a failed street salesman (Channing Tatum) who turns to underground fighting to survive, and bonds with his manager (Terrence Howard) while romancing a waitress (Zulay Henao). Scenes of punishing brutality and approval of premature sexual relations mar director and co-writer Dito Montiel's mostly ...
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Fighting (CNS)
Fighting Temptations, The
An unemployed ad executive (Cuba Gooding Jr.) receives an unexpected inheritance, but can only collect it by organizing a gospel choir in his home town where the lone talent is a sultry jazz singer (Beyonce Knowles). Despite a predictable story line and some canned humor, director Rick Famuyiwa's film has some ...
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Fighting Temptations, The (CNS)
Fighting Temptations, The
Darrin Fox (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) is fired from his high-power job at a Manhattan advertising agency when his boss (Steve Warren) finds out he lied about going to Yale. Just then, Darrin learns that his Great-aunt Sally (Ann Nesby) has died in his hometown of Monte Carlo, Georgia. Her will stipulates ...
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Fighting Temptations, The (SAM)
Final Cut, The
Gloomy sci-fi thriller set in a future where humans can have memory chips implanted at birth which record their entire lives and which are edited into sanitized memorial films to be shown at their funerals. The story centers on the best editor -- or "cutter" -- in the business (Robin Williams), ...
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Final Cut, The (CNS)
The Final Destination
Viewers of taste will not want to find
themselves at "The Final Destination" (New Line/Warner Bros.).
In this repellent horror sequel,
20-something Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo) has a premonition of impending death
that saves him, his girlfriend Lori (Shantel VanSanten), their pals Janet
(Haley Webb) and Hunt (Nick Zano) and a number of ...
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The Final Destination (CNS)
Final Destination 2
Gross sequel in which a teen (A.J. Cook) with a premonition of a lethal car pileup saves herself, a cop (Michael Landes) and others but the survivors soon begin dying horribly violent deaths as well. Director David R. Ellis just piles one over-the-top, stomach-turning death scene on top of another, culminating ...
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Final Destination 2 (CNS)
Final Destination 3
Mindless third installment in the horror franchise, this time involving a group of high school students (including Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ryan Merriman) who escape death by getting off a roller coaster moments before it derails killing everyone else on board, only to find out you can't cheat the Grim Reaper ...
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Final Destination 3 (CNS)
Final Destination 5
What has become a cinematic meat grinder of a franchise churns on with "Final Destination 5" (Warner Bros.). Appealing exploitatively to the worst in human nature—a morbid desire to watch special-effects-fodder characters killed off in various nauseating ways—director Steven Quale's gorefest is mind-numbingly boring when not repulsive.
The current retread of ...
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Final Destination 5 (CNS)
Final Inquiry, The
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Final Inquiry, The (SAM)
Final Season, The
Low-key but good-hearted sports drama in which a new high school baseball coach (Sean Astin) tries to extend the winning streak established by his formidable predecessor (Powers Boothe) even as his small town's citizens battle over their school's future, meanwhile romancing a state education official (Rachael Leigh Cook) and having a ...
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Final Season, The (CNS)
Finding Amanda
Pungent semi-autobiographical black comedy about a floundering, addictive Los Angeles TV writer (Matthew Broderick) who travels to Las Vegas to convince his prostitute niece (Brittany Snow) to enter rehab and to prove to his disaffected wife (Maura Tierney) that he can resist his gambling compulsion. Writer-director Peter Tolan's feature directing debut ...
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Finding Amanda (CNS)
Finding Nemo
Delightful aquatic adventure about a timid tropical fish (voice of Albert Brooks) who journeys across vast stretches of treacherous ocean in order to rescue his son Nemo (voice of Alexander Gould), who has been captured by scuba divers and placed in a dentist's fish tank. With beautiful computer animation and memorable ...
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Finding Nemo (CNS)
Finding Nemo
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Finding Nemo (EDC)
Finding Nemo
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Finding Nemo (SAM)
Finding Neverland
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Finding Neverland (SAM)
Finding Neverland
Beautifully crafted and affecting -- if occasionally somber -- fictionalized story about the fondness of playwright J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp) for a widow (Kate Winslet) and her four young sons who inspire him to write his greatest success, "Peter Pan." Marc Forster deftly captures the 1903 period ambience, and has drawn ...
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Finding Neverland (CNS)
Fired Up!
Banal sex comedy in which two philandering high school football players (Nicholas D'Agosto and Eric Christian Olsen) attend a mostly female cheerleading camp, racking up conquests till one falls for the captain of his squad (Sarah Roemer) and the other for the wife (Molly Sims) of the head coach (John Michael ...
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Fired Up! (CNS)
Firehouse Dog
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Firehouse Dog (SAM)
Firehouse Dog
A pampered Hollywood pooch rescues an inner-city station house from closure and helps a father and son (Bruce Greenwood and Josh Hutcherson) bond in this catch-all family comedy, which tries to be parody, mystery, and action-adventure rolled into one. Director Todd Holland's too-long-for-the-kids movie has too many plot strands and some ...
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Firehouse Dog (CNS)
Fireproof
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Fireproof (SAM)
Fireproof
Modest but heartwarming drama about a small-town fireman (a fine Kirk Cameron) who, under the guidance of his born-again father (Harris Malcom), works to save his seven-year-old marriage, despite the unyielding obstinacy of his wife (Erin Bethea). The message—that a successful marriage is grounded in the knowledge that God loves us ...
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Fireproof (CNS)
Firewall
Tense noirish thriller of upstanding bank security executive (Harrison Ford), his architect wife (Virginia Madsen), and two young children (Carly Schroeder and Jimmy Bennett) held hostage by master criminal (Paul Bettany) and his gang who force the banker to break into the bank's computer system, which the executive designed, and extract ...
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Firewall (CNS)
First Daughter, The
Fluffy and formulaic romantic comedy about a presidential daughter (Katie Holmes) trying to fit in when she goes away to college, whose attempts at a "normal" student life are complicated by a knotty campus romance. Though targeting 'tweeners, this lightweight love story, directed by Forest Whitaker, contains some behavior inappropriate for ...
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First Daughter, The (CNS)
The First Grader
When the Kenyan government announces in 2002 that free
public education is available for all, Kimani
N'gan'ga Maruge (Oliver Litondo), at the age of 84, lines up to register, only
to be turned away. He then appears at the rural school run by Jane Obinchu (Naomie
Harris), who laments that they don’t have enough desks ...
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The First Grader (SRR)
First Sunday
Lively ensemble comic drama in which two friends, one (Ice Cube) desperate for money to keep his ex-girlfriend (Regina Hall) from leaving town with his son (C.J. Sanders) and the other (Tracy Morgan) in debt to Jamaican gangsters, break into a church and end up holding hostage the pastor (Chi McBride), ...
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First Sunday (CNS)
Fish Without a Bicycle
Mostly unappealing story of L.A.-based actress (Jenna Mattison, who also wrote and produced) and her all-important quest to "find herself," as she dumps her fireman boyfriend for a self-absorbed director (Bryan Callen), ignoring her decent-guy acting partner (Brian A. Green, who also directed), who seems the ideal mate for her, while ...
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Fish Without a Bicycle (CNS)
Flags of Our Fathers
Compelling World War II drama that tells the story behind the iconic photograph of six U.S. servicemen raising of the flag on Iwo Jima, recounting both the battle to capture the Pacific island from the Japanese and the home-front experiences of the three surviving flag-raisers (Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach and Ryan ...
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Flags of Our Fathers (CNS)
Flash of Genius
Greg Kinnear gives an excellent performance as Robert Kearns, the real-life Detroit inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper who, with the support of his wife (Lauren Graham) and six children, obsessively persevered in taking Ford Motor Co. to court for the infringement of his patent. Though director Marc Abraham's absorbing film ...
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Flash of Genius (CNS)
Flashpoint
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Flashpoint (SAM)
Flawless
Stylish heist film set in 1960 London as an executive (Demi Moore) in a diamond corporation and the soon-to-be-retired night cleaning man (Michael Caine) join forces to steal gems from the firm's high-security vault, after she learns she will be dismissed from her position. Director Michael Radford, working from a first-time ...
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Flawless (CNS)
Flicka
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Flicka (EDC)
Flicka
Warmhearted story set in contemporary Wyoming about a strong-willed teen (Alison Lohman) who, defying her tough but loving dad (Tim McGraw), determines to tame a spirited wild mustang, ultimately bringing father and daughter closer together, even as the former contemplates selling the financially strapped family ranch. In adapting Mary O'Hara's book, ...
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Flicka (CNS)
Flightplan
Smartly crafted Hitchcockian thriller set aboard a jumbo jet en route from Berlin to New York in which a recently widowed passenger (Jodie Foster) questions her sanity as she desperately searches for her young daughter who mysteriously disappeared midflight, leaving no trace she was ever on board. Directed by Robert Schwentke ...
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Flightplan (CNS)
Flower of Evil, The
Stylish French psychodrama in which the past sins of a prosperous, multigenerational French family come to the forefront with a deadly outcome when the matriarch (Nathalie Baye) runs for political office against her husband's (Bernard Le Coq) wishes. With disciplined finesse, director Claude Chabrol peels away the secrets of the seemingly ...
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Flower of Evil, The (CNS)
Flushed Away
Frolicsome computer-animated tale about an urbane pet mouse (voiced by Hugh Jackman) whose cushy lifestyle is turned topsy-turvy when he's flushed down a toilet and into the bustling underground world of London's sewer system where he teams with a spunky rat (Kate Winslet) to foil the doomsday plot of a frog ...
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Flushed Away (CNS)
Fly Away Home
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Fly Away Home (SAM)
Fly Me to the Moon
Good-natured animated 3-D children's adventure in which a thrill-seeking young fly (voice of Trevor Gagnon), inspired by his grandfather's (voice of Christopher Lloyd) oft-told exploits, convinces two friends to join him in stowing away on the 1969 Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Director Ben Stassen's film provides a painless history ...
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Fly Me to the Moon (CNS)
Flyboys
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Flyboys (SAM)
Flyboys
Truth-inspired World War I action drama about a disparate group of young Americans (James Franco, Abdul Salis, Philip Winchester and Tyler Labine) who, before the United States' entry in the war, volunteer for various reasons with a French air squadron -- the Lafayette Escadrille -- during the pioneer days of aviation ...
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Flyboys (CNS)
Flying Scotsman, The
Carefully mining the potential for an underdog sports drama to uplift and inspire, this is the true story of melancholy cyclist Graeme Obree (Jonny Lee Miller). Director Douglas Mackinnon uses the lionhearted athlete's bouts of depression to generate suspense and avoid an overly formulaic ending, while Obree's friendship with a Protestant ...
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Flying Scotsman, The (CNS)
Fog of War, The
Riveting documentary in which Robert McNamara, secretary of defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, opines on, discusses and explains his actions and those of the U.S. government during a turbulent time in American history. With precise editing, visually alluring period footage and an utterly synergetic score, director Errol Morris not only ...
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Fog of War, The (CNS)
Fog, The
Schlocky remake of John Carpenter's 1980 horror film about a cursed island community off Oregon enveloped by a sinister shroud of fog that brings with it the ghostly crew of an ill-fated ship returning to exact revenge on the locals (including Tom Welling, Maggie Grace and Selma Blair) for murderous crimes ...
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Fog, The (CNS)
Fool's Gold
Sparring treasure hunter (Matthew McConaughey and ex-spouse (Kate Hudson) join forces with a billionaire (Donald Sutherland) and his pampered daughter (Alexis Dziena) to seek ancient treasure in the waters off a Caribbean island before a gangster (Kevin Hart) and the hunter's former mentor (Ray Winstone) get to it first. The amiable ...
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Fool's Gold (CNS)
Footloose
According to the folks behind yet another Hollywood remake—this one of the 1984 teenage dance movie that made Kevin Bacon a star—it's time once again to "kick off your Sunday shoes" and get "Footloose" (Paramount).
Despite lively direction from Craig Brewer ("Hustle and Flow," "Black Snake Moan") and some spirited toe-tapping ...
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Footloose (CNS)
For Colored Girls
A good man is hard to find in writer-director Tyler Perry's ensemble drama "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate).
As well as allowing for only one positive male character in an unusually large cast, the misguided feminist values underlying his script also take for granted behavior quite at odds with Judeo-Christian sexual ...
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For Colored Girls (CNS)
Forbidden Kingdom, The
Glossy kung fu fantasy in which a teenage martial-arts film fan (Michael Angarano) is transported to ancient China where he embarks on a quest to return a magical staff to the Monkey King (Jet Li) so that he can continue his age-old struggle against the evil Jade War Lord (Collin Chou), ...
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Forbidden Kingdom, The (CNS)
Forces of Nature
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Forces of Nature (SAM)
Forever Strong
A reckless teenage rugby player (Sean Faris), whose team is coached by his overbearing father (Neal McDonough), is jailed for drunk driving, but the warden (Sean Astin) offers him early release if he plays for a rival trainer (Gary Cole) who holds his athletes to unusually exacting standards on and off ...
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Forever Strong (CNS)
Forgetting Sarah Marshal
Romantic comedy -- by turns touching and funny but also frequently vulgar -- about a TV composer (very appealing Jason Segel who also wrote the often perceptive script) who, dumped by his actress girlfriend (Kristen Bell), travels to Hawaii to nurse his wounds, only to find his ex there with her ...
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Forgetting Sarah Marshal (CNS)
Forgotten, The
Absorbing, if not quite top-drawer, thriller about a mother (Julianne Moore) grieving for the son killed in a plane crash, who is told that the boy never existed in the first place, prompting her to join forces with a retired hockey player (Dominic West), whose daughter allegedly perished with her son, ...
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Forgotten, The (CNS)
Formula 51
Crass combination of pulp-crime potboiler and screwball comedy in which a greedy American chemist (Samuel L. Jackson) in England is caught in a web of double-crosses over his formula for a blue concoction promising unparalleled ecstasy. While action director Ronny Yu's action sequences are impressive, much of the violent mayhem is ...
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Formula 51 (CNS)
Fountain, The
Love story weaving together three interrelated tales set in the past, present and far future, with the couples in each ably played by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz: a medical researcher racing to find a cure to save his terminally ill wife; the characters in a novel she's writing about a ...
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Fountain, The (CNS)
Four Brothers
Excessively violent revenge drama directed by John Singleton about four street toughs -- two white (Mark Wahlberg and Garrett Hedlund) and two black (Andre Benjamin and Tyrese Gibson) -- raised as foster brothers who return home to Detroit to avenge the brutal murder of their saintly adoptive mother. Despite believable performances ...
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Four Brothers (CNS)
Four Christmases
Routine comedy in which an airport shutdown ruins an unmarried couple's (Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon) usual Christmas getaway, forcing them instead to spend the holiday visiting each of their divorced parents (Robert Duvall, Mary Steenburgen, Sissy Spacek and Jon Voight). Despite the innovative casting of dramatic actors in comic roles, ...
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Four Christmases (CNS)
Four Roses
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Four Roses (SAM)
The Fourth Kind
In the decade since "The Blair Witch Project" hit it
big at the box office, several horror films—including, most
recently, Oren Peli's "Paranormal Activity"—have followed its recipe
for success by using video camera footage to lend realism to a
fictional story. "The Fourth Kind" (Universal) makes the leap to
presenting such scenes as "actual" documentation of ...
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The Fourth Kind (CNS)
Fracture
Generally effective mystery thriller about a wealthy man (Anthony Hopkins) who shoots his unfaithful wife and afterward baits the career-minded young prosecuting attorney (Ryan Gosling) who can't nail him unless the murder weapon is found. Director Gregory Hoblit's detached style and the stylishly cold production design prove a bit distancing, but ...
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Fracture (CNS)
Frankenweenie
Director Tim Burton's gothic comedy "Frankenweenie" (Disney) is a skillful 3-D animated spoof of horror conventions built around the heart-warming relationship between a boy and his dog.
This black-and-white, stop-motion cartoon—an expanded version of Burton's 1984 live-action short of the same title—might prove too scary for small fry. But it will ...
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Frankenweenie (CNS)
Freaky Friday
Breezy fantasy comedy about a straight-laced, widowed psychiatrist (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her rebellious teen-age daughter (Lindsay Lohan) who both wake up days before the mother is to be remarried only to find out that they have mysteriously swapped bodies thanks to magical fortune cookies. Well-crafted by director Mark S. Waters ...
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Freaky Friday (CNS)
Freaky Friday
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Freaky Friday (EDC)
Fred Claus
Generally funny yet bittersweet tale of a sad-sack Chicago repo man (Vince Vaughn) who travels to the North Pole to help his younger, more popular brother, St. Nicholas (Paul Giamatti), at Christmas, while a devious efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey) threatens to shut down the elves' toy factory. Underneath the laughs, Dan ...
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Fred Claus (CNS)
Freddy vs. Jason
Dreadful slasher flick pitting "Nightmare on Elm Street's" Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) against Jason (Ken Kirzinger), the hockey-masked killing machine of "Friday the 13th." Buckets of blood flow in this mindless exercise in gory excess, directed by Ronny Yu, which alarmingly exploits carnage as entertainment. Pervasive graphic violence, teen sexual encounters ...
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Freddy vs. Jason (CNS)
Freedom Writers
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Freedom Writers (SAM)
Freedom Writers
Classroom drama about the efforts of an idealistic, novice high school English teacher (Hilary Swank) to transform a racially divided class of troubled teens into model students by inspiring them to believe in themselves and break the cycle of gang violence in which they feel trapped. As a way of empowering ...
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Freedom Writers (CNS)
Freedomland
Overheated and grim melodrama about an emotionally fragile woman (Julianne Moore) who says she was carjacked near a predominantly black housing project, with her assailant taking off in the car with her son in the back seat, and the police detective (Samuel L. Jackson) who attempts to uncover the truth while ...
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Freedomland (CNS)
Frequency
Click title to see this St. Anthony Messenger movie review.
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Frequency (SAM)
Freshman Orientation
Confusion, if not hilarity, ensues when a college freshman (Sam Huntington) poses as gay in order to befriend a sorority pledge (Kaitlin Doubleday) and win her away from her frat-brother-ex-boyfriend (Bryce Johnson); along the way, he's instructed in gay culture by a local bartender (John Goodman), nearly exposed by an ex-girlfriend ...
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Freshman Orientation (CNS)
Frida
Visually stunning but morally troubling biography of Mexican surrealist artist Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek) centers on not only how she painted her painful life experiences but on her enduring love for her husband, famed muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina), whose flagrant promiscuity prompted her to engage in meaningless affairs with both ...
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Frida (CNS)
Friday the 13th
Searching for his missing sister (Amanda Righetti), who disappeared after trespassing on the turf of masked maniac Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears), a young man (Jared Padalecki) becomes one of the slasher's many targets himself, along with the college student (Danielle Panabaker) who's helping him hunt. Director Marcus Nispel's gruesome revival follows ...
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Friday the 13th (CNS)
Friday After Next
Witless sequel set on Christmas Eve as two foul-mouthed cousins (Ice Cube and Mike Epps) are robbed, get fired as security guards and throw a party after which they catch the masked Santa who ripped them off. Director Marcus Raboy's crudely shrill comedy presents a negative, cliche-ridden portrait of African-Americans that ...
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Friday After Next (CNS)
Friday Night Lights
Click title to see this Every Day Catholic movie review.
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Friday Night Lights (EDC)
Friday Night Lights
Hard-hitting drama about a season in the life of a small-town high school football team (coached by Billy Bob Thornton) as it struggles to make it to the Texas state championship. Based on the nonfiction best seller by H.G. Bissinger and directed by Peter Berg, the film is an engrossing, at ...
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Friday Night Lights (CNS)
Friends With Benefits
Viewers familiar with the slang phrase "Friends With Benefits" (Screen Gems) will pretty well know what to expect from the central relationship in director and co-writer Will Gluck's thoroughly unromantic romantic comedy.
And, indeed, this story of two newfound pals who make a pact to maintain their friendship while also sharing ...
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Friends With Benefits (CNS)
Friends With Money
Perceptive comedy-drama set in Los Angeles about three couples (Catherine Keener and Jason Isaacs, Frances McDormand and Simon McBurney, Joan Cusack and Greg Germann) and their single underachieving friend (a particularly fine Jennifer Aniston) who serves as a catalyst for the women to rethink their own relationships and priorities. Director-writer Nicole ...
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Friends With Money (CNS)
Fright Night
Initially restrained bloodletting gives way to gore galore in the horror-comedy mix "Fright Night" (Disney). As penned by Marti Noxon (TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), moreover, the script for director Craig Gillespie's nocturnal remake of the 1985 cult classic of the same title is peppered with obscenities from beginning to end. ...
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Fright Night (CNS)
From Paris With Love
Though at times it tries to pass itself off as a cautionary tale with serious moral overtones, the espionage thriller "From Paris With Love" (Lionsgate) for the most part registers instead as a straightforward buddy movie, and a gleefully violent one at that.
The initially ill-matched partners at the center of ...
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From Paris With Love (CNS)
Frost/Nixon
Successful expansion of Broadway and London stage hit about the genesis of talk-show host David Frost's (Michael Sheen) historic TV talks with disgraced former U.S. President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) in 1977. Director Ron Howard and writer Peter Morgan build a good deal of suspense into Frost landing the interview and ...
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Frost/Nixon (CNS)
Frozen River
Two cash-strapped women in upstate New York – one (Misty Upham) a widowed Mohawk, the other (Melissa Leo) a white working-class mother of two sons (Charlie McDermott and James Reilly) abandoned by her gambling-addicted husband – are driven to smuggle undocumented aliens from Canada across the ice-bound St. Lawrence River into ...
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Frozen River (CNS)
Fugitive Pieces
Quietly reflective and affecting story about a small Jewish boy (Robbie Kay) in Poland, separated from his family during the Holocaust, who is adopted by a gentle Greek archaeologist (Rade Sherbedgia), and how the events of those years mold his adulthood as a writer in Canada (where he's played by Stephen ...
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Fugitive Pieces (CNS)
Full Frontal
Odd ensemble drama which connects a magazine journalist (Julia Roberts) interviewing an up-and-coming actor (Blair Underwood), a writer (David Hyde Pierce) who pens awful screenplays in his spare time, his unhappy executive wife (Catherine Keener) who fires employees to relieve her marital stress, and her neurotic sister (Mary McCormack) who fears ...
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Full Frontal (CNS)
Fun With Dick and Jane
Middling remake of the 1977 George Segal-Jane Fonda comedy about an affluent suburban couple who fall on hard times when they lose their jobs, and after failing to land something else turn to robbery in desperation. Director Dean Parisot's version starts out promisingly, but turns sour and unfunny, despite the skill ...
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Fun With Dick and Jane (CNS)
Funny Games
Bleak, horrifying thriller about a vacationing couple (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth) and their young son (Devon Gearhart) whose summer house is invaded by two sadistic young men (Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet) who hold them hostage and threaten to kill them. Director Michael Haneke's shot-by-shot remake of his 1997 German ...
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Funny Games (CNS)
Funny People
With its thick crust of raunchy humor and ostensibly misguided sexual attitudes, "Funny People" (Universal) makes inappropriate viewing for all but the heartiest moviegoers.
Mature Catholics, well-grounded in their faith and willing to endure a barrage of vulgarity, may nonetheless discern in writer-director Judd Apatow's seriocomic tale a ...
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Funny People (CNS)
Furry Vengeance
It's fairly obvious that the painfully flat comedy "Furry Vengeance" (Summit)—which sees a cohort of woodland creatures conspiring to halt an unwelcome new housing development—is intended to be a kid-friendly invitation to ecological sensitivity.
But director Roger Kumble's frequently distasteful romp registers as more juvenile than sprightly, while the film's ...
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Furry Vengeance (CNS)
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