Hairspray
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Hairspray (EDC)
Hairspray
Highly enjoyable adaptation of the hit Broadway musical based on a 1988 film of the same title about an overweight 1960s Baltimore girl (Nikki Blonsky) whose parents (Christopher Walken and John Travolta, the latter in a cross-dressing role) support her dreams of competing on a racially segregated local dance program which ...
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Hairspray (CNS)
Hairspray
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Hairspray (SAM)
Half Nelson
Small but poignant drama about an inner-city public school history teacher (Ryan Gosling) whose classroom idealism hides his private, self-destructive spiral into drug addiction, until he's caught in the act by one of his students (Shareeka Epps), a tough girl with a troubled home life, triggering an unlikely friendship that changes ...
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Half Nelson (CNS)
Half Past Dead
Joyless actionfest pitting two imprisoned convicts (Steven Segal and rapper Ja Rule) against a gang of criminal commandos who invade Alcatraz in order to force a death-row inmate to reveal the location of his big score. While writer-director Don Michael Paul's debut film muses about God, justice and the afterlife, it ...
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Half Past Dead (CNS)
Halloween
This egregiously sadistic remake of John Carpenter's 1978 cult horror film recounts the repeated rampages of Michael Myers who, as a boy (Daeg Faerch), murders -- among a few others -- his stripper mother's (Sheri Moon Zombie) deadbeat boyfriend (William Forsythe) and his wayward older sister (Hanna Hall) and, as a ...
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Halloween (CNS)
Halloween II
About halfway through "Halloween
II" (Dimension), two girls are discussing an upcoming Halloween party with
a "Rocky Horror Picture Show" theme, and one remarks, "It's so
lame, it's cool again."
Not this movie. It's completely lame, and
it's so not cool again to see masked, booted and surprisingly durable cutlery
whiz Michael Myers (Tyler ...
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Halloween II (CNS)
Hamlet 2
Comic free-for-all in which a quirky failed actor turned high school drama teacher (Steve Coogan) works with two favorite students (Skylar Astin and Phoebe Strole) and a gifted newcomer (Joseph Julian Soria) to mount the titular sequel -- a cathartic extravaganza of his own creation -- in an effort to halt ...
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Hamlet 2 (CNS)
Hamptons, The
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Hamptons, The (SAM)
Hancock
This is ultimately a muddled action film of a dyspeptic, alcoholic Los Angeles superhero (Will Smith), whose good deeds often lead to mayhem. Hancock finds the road to reform laid out for him by an idealistic PR executive (Jason Bateman) made bumpy by his deep attraction to his new friend's wife ...
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Hancock (CNS)
Hanging Up
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Hanging Up (SAM)
The Hangover
A 100-minute assault of crude behavior, violence, racial stereotypes and male nudity strung along a thin plot of three groomsmen (Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha) searching for their pal the bridegroom (Bradley Cooper) after a drunken and drugged Las Vegas debauch the night before the wedding. Producer-director Doug Phillips and ...
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The Hangover (CNS)
The Hangover Part II
Let's save some time here regarding "The Hangover Part II" (Warner Bros.) by recalling how we described its predecessor two years ago: "a 100-minute assault of loutish behavior, violence, racial stereotypes and male nudity strung along a thin plot."
The sequel: 102 minutes, identical plot, an overall uglier tone, considerably more ...
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The Hangover Part II (CNS)
Hanna
The title character in "Hanna" (Focus)—played by Saoirse Ronan—spends all of her screen time running, jumping and hiding. At least, that is, when she's not efficiently dispatching various people who are out to get her.
According to Seth Lochhead and David Farr's script, however, Hanna's killer instinct isn't a moral ...
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Hanna (CNS)
Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert
Exuberant, refreshingly innocent live-performance feature capturing singing star Miley Cyrus' 69-city tour during which she appeared both as herself and as her Disney Channel television persona, Montana. In addition to her onstage singing and dancing, director Bruce Hendricks' film showcases Miley's life behind the scenes, practicing guitar, rehearsing routines and dashing ...
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Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (CNS)
Hannah Montana the Movie
Breezy romance with music in which a teen singer (Miley Cyrus), who has gained fame under the pseudonym Hannah Montana, is forced by her concerned father (Billy Ray Cyrus) to retreat temporarily from her hectic career and spend time with him and her grandmother (Margo Martindale) on the Tennessee farm where ...
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Hannah Montana the Movie (CNS)
Hannibal Rising
Bland and brutal prequel to "Silence of the Lambs" that charts serial killer Hannibal Lecter's origins from his boyhood (played by Aaron Thomas) in Nazi-occupied Lithuania through early adulthood (played by Gaspard Ulliel), tracing his descent from traumatized youth -- having witnessed an unspeakable wartime crime involving his little sister -- ...
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Hannibal Rising (CNS)
Hapily N'Ever After
Computer-animated adventure set in a storybook realm where a wicked stepmother (voiced by Sigourney Weaver) swipes a wizard's magic staff, which enables her to rewrite classic fairy tales so they have unhappy endings, leaving it up to Cinderella (Sarah Michelle Gellar) -- here called "Ella" -- to set things right, while ...
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Hapily N'Ever After (CNS)
Happening, The
Intriguing but only sporadically scary thriller -- with a well-intended if rather obvious social message -- concerning a Philadelphia science teacher (Mark Wahlberg), his emotionally fragile wife (Zooey Deschanel) and the young daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez) of his best friend (John Leguizamo) on the run from a mysterious epidemic already gripping New ...
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Happening, The (CNS)
Happy Endings
Overly long and morally muddled intertwining stories of a woman (Lisa Kudrow) involved with a sex masseur (Bobby Cannavale) while a would-be filmmaker (Jesse Bradford) insists on filming the latter's life in exchange for revealing the identity of a child she had out of wedlock years before; her gay stepbrother (Steve ...
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Happy Endings (CNS)
Happy Feet
Computer-animated fable set in the Antarctic about a young emperor penguin (voiced by Elijah Wood) whose inability to carry a tune and propensity for tap dancing gets him banished by the puritanical elders who blame him for the colony's dwindling fish supply, prompting the misfit to prove them wrong, get to ...
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Happy Feet (CNS)
Happy-Go-Lucky
Likable, nearly plotless comedy, about a persistently good-natured grade schoolteacher (Sally Hawkins) and her circle of friends, relatives and acquaintances: her longtime roommate (Alexis Zegerman), tightly wound driving instructor (Eddie Marsan), impassioned flamenco trainer (Karina Fernandez) and the school social worker (Samuel Roukin) with whom she falls in love. Hawkins' mannerisms ...
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Happy-Go-Lucky (CNS)
Hard Candy
Twisted thriller about a crafty 14-year-old (Ellen Page) who turns the tables on a fashion photographer (Patrick Wilson) she met on the Internet and who, she is convinced, is a pedophile killer, baiting him into a psychological contest of wills while planning to exact sadistic vigilante justice. Director David Slade's two-character ...
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Hard Candy (CNS)
Hard Word, The
Hard-boiled drama about three Aussie brothers (Guy Pearce, Damien Richardson and Joel Edgerton) recently paroled, who are conned into one last heist job by their crooked attorney (Robert Taylor). While director Scott Roberts injects some fresh down-under spice into a shopworn genre, the film, which boasts a better-than-average script and some ...
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Hard Word, The (CNS)
Hardball
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Hardball (SAM)
Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
Potentially acute satirical adventure, overwhelmed by sophomoric excess, in which a drug-addled slacker (Kal Penn) and his slightly more motivated friend (John Cho) are mistaken for terrorists, escape from the titular detention camp, and embark on a road trip to Texas where the former's ex-girlfriend (Danneel Harris) and her politically connected ...
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Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (CNS)
Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
Mindless buddy comedy about two roommates (John Cho and Kal Penn), who as the self-summarizing title suggests embark on a marijuana-induced quest for fast-food nirvana through the wilds of New Jersey, experiencing many mishaps along the way. Chuck full of gross-out gags and vulgar frat-house humor, director Danny Leiner's road picture ...
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Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle (CNS)
Harry Potter
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Harry Potter (EDC)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Less-involving sequel in which the young wizard (Daniel Radcliffe), suspected of being behind a nefarious plot that has been turning his fellow students into stone, must identify the true evildoer and face down a monstrous serpent. It is adapted from the second J.K. Rowling novel in the "Harry Potter" series; director ...
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (CNS)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
The Hogwarts gang is on the run in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" (Warner Bros.), the penultimate film in the wildly successful franchise based on J.K. Rowling's fantasy novels. As in Rowling's final volume, the tone here is darker, the action more intense, and the violence intended to ...
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (CNS)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
One of the most successful movie franchises of all time goes out in style with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" (Warner Bros.).
Though this eighth installment in the series that began with 2001's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" may bewilder newcomers—if there are any of the uninitiated ...
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (CNS)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (SAM)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Fourth film in the series based on J.K. Rowling's fantasy novels, in which Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) competes against students from two rival schools in a perilous wizard's tournament that ends up being sabotaged by the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), who uses it to ensnare Potter. Director Mike Newell continues the ...
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (CNS)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
At the behest of his mentor (Michael Gambon), the now-teenage wizard (Daniel Radcliffe) ingratiates himself with a returning Hogwarts instructor (Jim Broadbent) who once taught his archenemy Lord Voldemort and whose memories may hold the key to defeating the villain, while adolescent romantic tensions complicate the lad's relationship with his two ...
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (CNS)
Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
Teenage wizard Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his intrepid Hogwarts chums (Emma Watson and Rupert Grint) face an unexpected obstacle in their ongoing struggle with the malevolent Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes): a repressive teacher (Imelda Staunton) from the Ministry of Magic who won't allow the practice of hocus-pocus that they need to ...
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Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (CNS)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (SAM)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Richly textured fantasy in which the young wizard, aided by his two best friends, seeks out a violent escapee accused of killing his parents and also suspected of plotting to murder Harry. Director Alfonso Cuaron's adaptation of J.K. Rowling's third Harry Potter novel covers darker emotional territory in masterful cinematic fashion…More
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (CNS)
Harsh Times
Grim and gritty urban drama about a psychologically unstable soldier (Christian Bale) who, returning home to Los Angeles after serving in Iraq, reverts to his former street-thug ways and whose fracturing mental frame precipitates a self-destructive spiral of violence and crime into which he drags his best friend (Freddy Rodriguez), much ...
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Harsh Times (CNS)
The Haunting in Connecticut
Reasonably effective, allegedly fact-based chiller about a Catholic couple (Virginia Madsen and Martin Donovan) who rent a former funeral home near the hospital where their teenage son (Kyle Gallner) is being treated for cancer, only to find themselves in a specter-ridden maelstrom, eventually turning for help to a clergyman (Elias Koteas) ...
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The Haunting in Connecticut (CNS)
The Haunting of Molly Hartley
Tedious horror tale about a teenage girl (Haley Bennett) trying to recover from her mother's (Marin Hinkle) inexplicable attempt to kill her with support from her weak-willed father (Jake Weber) and some of her classmates (Chace Crawford, Shannon Marie Woodward and Shanna Collins). Though there's relatively little violence in first-time director ...
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The Haunting of Molly Hartley (CNS)
Haywire
With the fairly suspenseful but frequently brutal thriller "Haywire" (Relativity), filmmaker Steven Soderbergh tries his hand at action-oriented espionage. Stylish and spare, the result plays like the work of a talented yet restless director ticking another genre off his list.
What moviegoers may appreciate most about "Haywire" is that it ...
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Haywire (CNS)
Haywire
Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) sits in a rural diner waiting for
someone but the wrong man comes in, Aaron (Channing Tatum). She says
“Barcelona” and beats him off when he tries
to make her go with him. She escapes by carjacking a vehicle with a
young man, Scott (Michael Angarano) in it and takes him ...
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Haywire (SRR)
He Got Game
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He Got Game (SAM)
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
French love story turned thriller in which a besotted art student (Audrey Tautou) pursues a married cardiologist (Samuel Le Bihan), taking drastic action when he seemingly rejects her. Writer-director Laetitia Colombani presents rather unsympathetic characters but is clever in initially deceiving the audience until the intriguing story comes full circle when ...
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He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (CNS)
Head in the Clouds
Glossy but unwieldy over-the-years romance between free-spirited photographer Gilda (Charlize Theron) and Cambridge graduate Guy (Stuart Townsend) set in England, France, and Spain during the 1930s and '40s. Writer-director John Duigan's story also involves their unorthodox relationship with a Spanish-born model named Mia (Penelope Cruz) with whom they form a cohabitating ...
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Head in the Clouds (CNS)
Head of State
Tired comedy in which an African-American alderman (Chris Rock) is set up to be the losing presidential candidate but decides to forget politics and speak from the heart with his bail bondsman-brother (Bernie Mac) as his running mate. The film is also co-written and directed by Rock, who resorts to racial ...
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Head of State (CNS)
Heart of the Game, The
Inspiring documentary about the relationship between a dedicated, if unconventional, Seattle high school girls' basketball coach and his players, particularly a talented and tough inner-city prodigy whose off-court circumstances threaten to derail her dreams of attending college. Filmed over a seven-year period, director Ward Serrill's "Hoop Dreams"-esque movie balances human and ...
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Heart of the Game, The (CNS)
Heart of Me, The
Emotionally complex period melodrama about a strait-laced Englishman (Paul Bettany) enmeshed in a love triangle with his repressed socialite wife (Olivia Williams) and her bohemian sister (Helena Bonham Carter). Despite nuanced performances, the film, directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan, is weakened by a pervasive ambivalence regarding the immoral conduct of its characters, ...
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Heart of Me, The (CNS)
Heartbreak Kid, The
Wry, often tasteless farce about a commitment-shy bachelor (Ben Stiller) who, under pressure from his father (Jerry Stiller) and his best friend (Rob Corddry), finally takes the plunge, only to discover on his honeymoon in Mexico that his new wife (Malin Akerman) is a vulgar, whiny shrew, after which he promptly ...
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Heartbreak Kid, The (CNS)
Hearts in Atlantis
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Hearts in Atlantis (SAM)
The Hedgehog (Le hérisson)
At an upscale apartment house with five
luxury flats in Paris, Renee sweeps the sidewalk and picks up litter, takes out
the trash bins, keeps the vestibule tidy, arranges for maintenance, and
delivers parcels. A widow who was unable to have children, Renee looks dowdy
and seldom smiles. When her day is done, she hides ...
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The Hedgehog (Le hérisson) (SRR)
Heights
Reasonably absorbing if not quite believable story of New York creative types -- including an actress (Glenn Close), her photographer-daughter (Elizabeth Banks) and fiance (James Marsden), an aspiring actor (Jesse Bradford) and a journalist (John Light) -- whose lives intersect during a 24-hour period. Director Chris Terrio's adaptation of a play ...
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Heights (CNS)
Hellboy
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Hellboy (SAM)
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
In this lively sequel, a domesticated demon (Ron Perlman), his incendiary girlfriend (Selma Blair), his aquatic sidekick (Doug Jones), an FBI bureaucrat (Jeffrey Tambor) and their new protoplasmic supervisor (John Alexander/James Dodd/Seth MacFarlane), together with a pale blonde princess (Anna Walton), unite to foil the schemes of the princess' power-hungry twin ...
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Hellboy II: The Golden Army (CNS)
The Help
Though unlikely to be popular with the more senior members of the Junior League of Jackson, Miss., the warm, deftly acted drama "The Help" (Disney) seems destined to win hearts in many other quarters.
That's because writer-director Tate Taylor's adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's best-selling novel uses vivid characterizations to bring the ...
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The Help (CNS)
The Help
“The Help” is based on Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 best selling
novel of the same name. I thoroughly
enjoyed the book. Even though it is a fast read, it is a great read.
It is Jackson, Mississipi, in 1962.
Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Emma Stone) returns home to her privileged
life in Jackson, Mississipi. All ...
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The Help (SRR)
Henry Poole is Here
Moving little fable of a depressed loner (Luke Wilson) whose life is changed when a warmhearted Latina busybody (Adriana Barraza) discerns a miraculous image of Christ’s face on his stucco wall, after which he slowly opens up to her and the other neighbors: an empathetic widow (Rahda Mitchell), her sad child ...
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Henry Poole is Here (CNS)
Herbie: Fully Loaded
Cheerful family comedy which finds the magical Volkswagen Beetle rescued from the scrapheap to help a plucky speedster (Lindsay Lohan) realize her dream of being a stock car racer, when she rides the love bug to victory against a slimy NASCAR champ (Matt Dillon) and saves her widower dad's (Michael Keaton) ...
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Herbie: Fully Loaded (CNS)
Hereafter
Director Clint Eastwood takes on one of life's most essential questions in "Hereafter" (Warner Bros.). His ambitious drama charts the ultimately intersecting paths of three individuals all seeking enlightenment about what, if anything, follows for us after we die. But, while Eastwood manages to weave these initially disparate strands into an ...
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Hereafter (CNS)
Hero
Visually stunning, historically inspired tale set in war-torn ancient China and told from various points of view -- each shot in a different dominant color -- about an enigmatic swordsman (Jet Li), who defeats three deadly assassins determined to kill an ambitious warlord (Chen Dao Ming) obsessed with uniting the divided ...
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Hero (CNS)
He's Just Not That Into You
A gaggle of Baltimore yuppies portrayed by Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson and Justin Long is schooled in the rules allegedly governing modern-day romance in this glossy ensemble comedy-drama. Director Ken Kwapis bathes his cast in a pleasing golden light ...
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He's Just Not That Into You (CNS)
Hey Arnold! The Movie
Humdrum animated comedy based on the cartoon television series in which a feisty young boy (voiced by Spencer Klein) and his friend (voiced by Jamil Smith) try to save their multi-ethnic neighborhood from being bulldozed by a heartless developer (voiced by Paul Sorvino) who wants to replace the area with a ...
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Hey Arnold! The Movie (CNS)
Hidalgo
Fact-based crowd-pleaser set in the late 19th century about a guilt-ridden cowboy (Viggo Mortensen) who enters a grueling 3,000-mile race across the Arabian Desert, during which he and his little-horse-that-could, Hidalgo, must endure sandstorms, brain-baking heat and desert raiders. Part old-fashioned boys' adventure yarn, part redemption parable, director Joe Johnston's film ...
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Hidalgo (CNS)
Hidalgo
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Hidalgo (SAM)
Hidden Blade, The
Terrific 19th-century Japanese drama about an honorable samurai (Masatoshi Nagase) who is asked to hunt down and kill his friend (Yukiyoshi Ozawa) who has turned renegade, with a romantic subplot involving a former family domestic (Takako Matsu) whom the samurai rescues from an abusive family and takes into his home, but ...
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Hidden Blade, The (CNS)
Hide and Seek
Schlocky psychological unthriller about a New York psychologist (Robert De Niro) who relocates to the country with his young traumatized daughter (Dakota Fanning) after his wife commits suicide, but once there he becomes increasingly alarmed when a series of strange and terrifying events leads him to question whether his daughter's imaginary ...
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Hide and Seek (CNS)
High Tension
Gratuitously violent horror film set in rural France about two friends (Cecile de France and Maiwenn Le Besco) whose idyllic weekend studying for exams at a secluded farmhouse becomes a struggle for survival when they are terrorized by a sadistic killer (Philippe Nahon). Directed by Alexandre Aja, this poorly dubbed homage ...
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High Tension (CNS)
Higher Ground
Corrine (Vera Farmiga) grows up in a fundamentalist Christian church
and accepts salvation at an early age. She’s a good girl and loves to write.
She attracts the attention of a student
musician Ethan (Joshua Leonard), who asks her to write songs with him.
Corrine gets pregnant and she and Ethan marry. Their ...
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Higher Ground (SRR)
Hills Have Eyes, II, The
Members of a National Guard unit training for deployment in Iraq (including soldiers played by Michael McMillian, Jessica Stroup and Daniella Alonso) fall prey to mutants on a New Mexico military base in this gruesome sequel to last year's remake of a 1977 horror film. Director Martin Weisz does a decent ...
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Hills Have Eyes, II, The (CNS)
Hills Have Eyes, The
Grisly remake of Wes Craven's 1977 horror film about a family (headed by Ted Levine and Kathleen Quinlan) whose cross-country road trip derails into nightmare territory when they break down in the New Mexico desert and are terrorized by a clan of cannibalistic mutant miners. Director Alexandre Aja proves adept at ...
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Hills Have Eyes, The (CNS)
History of Violence, A
Intensely suspenseful film about an upstanding family man, Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen), who becomes a local hero after he stands up to vicious killers who hold up his diner, but then becomes the target of a threatening underworld kingpin (Ed Harris) who insists Stall had once been a gangster who scarred ...
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History of Violence, A (CNS)
Hitch
Entertaining, if not totally convincing, old-fashioned romance about a highly successful "date doctor," Alex ("Hitch") Hitchens (Will Smith), who helps shy men woo the women they love but are too timid to approach, and then falls for a gossip columnist (Eva Mendes) who just happens to be on the trail of ...
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Hitch (CNS)
Hitch
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Hitch (SAM)
Hitchcock
The Greek philosopher Aristotle observed, "There is not great genius without a mixture of madness." Case in point: "Hitchcock" (Fox Searchlight), an absorbing portrait of the legendary film director during the making of his biggest success, the 1960 horror classic "Psycho."
The "Master of Suspense" gets quite a dressing-down in this ...
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Hitchcock (CNS)
Hitcher, The
Thriller about two college students (Sophia Bush and Zachary Knighton) menaced by a homicidal stranger (Sean Bean) to whom they offer a ride while driving through New Mexico while on spring break, subsequently finding themselves framed for the trail of murders left by the killer. Director Dave Meyers' remake of the ...
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Hitcher, The (CNS)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The
Wacky and whimsical sci-fi comedy about the space travels of an ordinary guy (Martin Freeman) who escapes an imminently exploding Earth moments before it is destroyed to make way for an interstellar highway and who travels aboard a starship to the farthest reaches of the galaxy with an extraterrestrial researcher for ...
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Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The (CNS)
Hitman
Slick but exceedingly violent action film in which an assassin (Timothy Olyphant), trained to kill from childhood, is hired to gun down the president of Russia (Ulrich Thomsen), inexplicably fails, kidnaps the president's girlfriend (Olga Kurylenko) and goes on the lam, pursued at cross purposes by an Interpol agent (Dougray Scott) ...
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Hitman (CNS)
Hoax, The
Imaginative riff on claims by real-life author Clifford Irving (a convincing Richard Gere) to have the exclusive rights to eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes' autobiography, fooling the top brass at publisher McGraw-Hill and Life magazine, while he and co-conspirator Dick Susskind (Alfred Molina) dream up increasingly ingenious ways to prevent the truth ...
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Hoax, The (CNS)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
First published in 1937, Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien's children's novel "The Hobbit, or There and Back Again" has proved so popular in the decades since that it has never gone out of print.
With "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" (Warner Bros.), director Peter Jackson provides movie audiences with an epic 3-D ...
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (CNS)
Holes
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Holes (EDC)
Holes
An innocent youngster (Shia LaBeouf) is sent to a desert reform camp where the teens are forced to dig hundreds of holes, but with the help of a runaway pal (Khleo Thomas), he outsmarts the snarly camp owner (Sigourney Weaver) and mean overseer (Jon Voight). Based on Louis Sachar's adventure-packed novel, ...
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Holes (CNS)
Holes
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Holes (SAM)
Holiday, The
Generally appealing romantic comedy about a wedding columnist (Kate Winslet) in the English countryside and a movie-trailer producer (Cameron Diaz) in Los Angeles whose failed romances find them swapping homes and continents over Christmas, leading to the former falling in love with a film composer (Jack Black) and the latter with ...
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Holiday, The (CNS)
Hollywood Homicide
Jumbled pastiche of an buddy-cop action movie in which two moonlighting Los Angeles detectives (Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett) juggle solving a quadruple murder in the hip-hop world while pursuing real estate deals and acting opportunities. Co-writer-director Ron Shelton glosses over character development and coherent story line in a mad rush ...
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Hollywood Homicide (CNS)
Hollywoodland
Dark speculative story about the mysterious death of George Reeves (a convincing Ben Affleck), the actor who played Superman on TV in the 1950s, as a fictional private eye (Adrien Brody) tries to determine whether the death was indeed suicide, or murder at the hands of his opportunistic starlet girlfriend (Robin ...
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Hollywoodland (CNS)
Hollywoodland
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Hollywoodland (SAM)
Holy Girl, The
Tedious and talky Spanish-language film about a teenage girl (Maria Alche) who pursues a married doctor (Carlos Belloso) with a notion of "saving" him after he inappropriately presses up against her in a crowd, though saving in this case seems more like seducing. The doctor, meanwhile, falls for her divorcee mother ...
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Holy Girl, The (CNS)
Holy Land, The
Coarse drama set in Jerusalem in which a young rabbinical student (Oren Rehany) leaves his Orthodox family to explore the secular world of the sacred city where he falls for a prostitute (Tchelet Semel) while working at a seedy bar owned by a loud-mouthed American (Saul Stein) whom he befriends. Although ...
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Holy Land, The (CNS)
Home at the End of the World, A
Bland adaptation of Michael Cunningham's novel about an unconventional triangular romance about a bisexual (Colin Farrell) who is in love with both his gay best friend (Dallas Roberts) and their bohemian female roommate (Robin Wright Penn). Directed by Michael Mayer and laced with homoerotic images, the tenderly told film explores the ...
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Home at the End of the World, A (CNS)
Home on the Range
Family-friendly animated adventure about a trio of cows (voiced by Roseanne Barr, Jennifer Tilly and Judi Dench) who decide to capture a notorious desperado for the reward money to save their beloved dairy farm from the auction block. Writers-directors Will Finn and John Sanford turn the traditional western on its horns ...
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Home on the Range (CNS)
Honey
Superficial music drama about a young hip-hop dancer (Jessica Alba) from the Bronx who finds success in the music video world but must struggle to stay on top after she refuses the advances of a video mogul (David Moscow). Despite energetic dance scenes and a spirited score, director Billie Woodruff's film ...
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Honey (CNS)
Honeymooners, The
Ho-hum updating of the classic Jackie Gleason 1950s' television series with Cedric the Entertainer as Ralph Kramden, the New York bus driver, Mike Epps as Ed Norton, his sewer-working friend, and Gabrielle Union and Regina Hall as their long-suffering wives, in a contrived story about Ralph and Ed entering a mutt ...
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Honeymooners, The (CNS)
Honorable Mention
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Honorable Mention (SAM)
Hoodwinked
Intermittently amusing computer-animated comedy directed by Cory Edwards that sets out to reveal the "real story" behind the well-known nursery tale of Little Red Riding Hood, as each character -- including the scarlet-clad heroine (voiced by Anne Hathaway), her extreme sports-loving granny (voiced by Glenn Close), the wolf (voiced by Patrick ...
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Hoodwinked (CNS)
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil
The same studio which brought us the best film of 2010, "The King's Speech," now presents what will likely prove one of the worst of 2011: "Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil" (Weinstein).
Though objectionable elements are few, and mostly consist of childish potty jokes, viewers expecting Pixar—or DreamWorks-style enchantment—from this 3-D ...
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Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (CNS)
Hoot
Amiable family-friendly drama about an eighth-grader (Logan Lerman) who moves with his parents to small-town Florida, where he is caught up in the crusade of an enigmatic boy (Cody Linley) and his stepsister (Brie Larson) to save a colony of burrowing owls whose habitat is threatened by a real-estate developer hoping ...
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Hoot (CNS)
Hoot
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Hoot (SAM)
Hope Springs
Although fundamentally moral, "Hope Springs" (Columbia)—a skillful mix of comedy and drama that focuses on the problems of one long-married couple—is also significantly flawed.
Primarily, that's because the frankness with which director David Frankel's film approaches marital intimacy veers, at times, into intrusiveness. Additionally, in keeping with the under-refined values of ...
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Hope Springs (CNS)
Horrible Bosses
Death," runs a Russian aphorism, "solves all problems; no man, no problem." This cynical saying, often attributed—plausibly, if not factually—to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, finds an echo (albeit a supposedly humorous one) in the plot of the mean-spirited, frequently sordid comedy "Horrible Bosses" (Warner Bros.).
Exasperated by the varied misbehaviors of ...
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Horrible Bosses (CNS)
Horrible Bosses
Nick (Jason Bateman) says that his grandmother came to this
country with $20.00 in her pocket and she refused to take guff (he used another word) from anyone. She died
with $2,000.00 because she refused to take any guff from anyone. Nick had been
working for a company president, a suspected psychopath Dave Harken ...
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Horrible Bosses (SRR)
Horse Whisperer, The
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Horse Whisperer, The (SAM)
The Host
Derived from a novel by "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer, the ponderous, dramatically inept science fiction tale "The Host" (Open Road) is clearly aimed at teen viewers. But the murky circumstances of its central love affair make it too morally obscure for most adolescents.
As for those in a more mature demographic, ...
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The Host (CNS)
Hostage
Taut -- if frequently violent -- thriller about former hostage negotiator Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis), who relocates to another town and becomes a police chief after a hostage rescue attempt goes tragically awry, but then finds himself back in action when the affluent Walter Smith (Kevin Pollak) and his children are ...
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Hostage (CNS)
Hostel
Nauseatingly vile horror film about a trio of lustful backpackers (Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson and Eythor Gudjonsson) traveling through Europe, lured off the beaten path by promises of carnal pleasures to a hostel in Slovakia, where they fall easy prey to a pair of temptresses and wind up in a chamber ...
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Hostel (CNS)
Hostel: Part II
Repellently sadistic story of three American girls (Lauren German, Heather Matarazzo, and Bijou Phillips) kidnapped abroad for the deviant purpose of being slaughtered by wealthy clients (including Roger Bart and Richard Burgi) at a Slovakian mansion. Eli Roth’s film has a glossy look and is not without style and even a ...
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Hostel: Part II (CNS)
Hot Chick, The
Dumb-witted sex farce about a mean high school cheerleader (Rachel McAdams) who wakes up in the body of a 30-something petty thief (Rob Schneider). Co-written by Schneider with director Tom Brady, the pair prefers crude sex jokes, toilet humor and sophomoric cliches about true love to anything resembling a good comedy ...
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Hot Chick, The (CNS)
Hot Fuzz
Fast-paced, often witty sendup of police buddy films as an overachieving officer (Simon Pegg, who also co-wrote the script) is reassigned to a sleepy country town where he's confronted with a series of fatal "accidents," and how he and laid-back sidekick (Nick Frost) set out to find the culprit. Canny direction ...
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Hot Fuzz (CNS)
Hot Rod
Sweet-natured, occasionally surreal comedy about an aimless youth (Andy Samberg of "Saturday Night Live") who aspires to be a professional stuntman and wants nothing more than to raise enough money so his abusive stepfather can have a heart transplant -- so he can beat him up. Director Akiva Schaffer (also of ...
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Hot Rod (CNS)
Hot Tub Time Machine
"Hot Tub Time Machine" (MGM) is a tasteless comedy that sees a trio of current-day losers transported back to their supposed glory days of youthful drug- and sex-fueled hedonism a quarter-century ago.
Former best friends Adam (John Cusack), Lou (Rob Corddry) and Nick (Craig Robinson) have drifted apart over the ...
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Hot Tub Time Machine (CNS)
Hotel
Execrable experimental black comedy about an avant-garde film crew (including David Schwimmer and Salma Hayek) who are shooting a movie in Venice at a hotel staffed by cannibals. Director Mike Figgis awkwardly interweaves four simultaneous story lines in this pretentious, convoluted and pointless exercise in self-indulgence, displaying a zealous contempt for ...
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Hotel (CNS)
Hotel for Dogs
Wholesomely enjoyable canine caper in which an orphaned brother and sister (Jake T. Austin and Emma Roberts) shelter their dog, along with a motley group of strays, in an abandoned hotel, outwitting their neglectful foster parents (Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon) and causing complications for their genuinely caring social worker (Don ...
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Hotel for Dogs (CNS)
Hotel Rwanda
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Hotel Rwanda (EDC)
Hotel Rwanda
Inspiring real-life story of Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), a hotel manager in Rwanda who, at great personal risk, saved the lives of thousands of refugees marked for death during the nightmarish days of the Rwandan genocide. He sheltered them from the slaughter occurring outside his hotel compound. Well-written, directed and acted, ...
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Hotel Rwanda (CNS)
Hotel Transylvania
We are used to fables of humans fleeing from spooky ghouls and ghosts, but what if they were as scared of us as we are of them?
That is the premise of animated comedy "Hotel Transylvania" (Columbia) -- an enjoyable, if slightly rude, pro-family romp in which the infamous Count Dracula ...
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Hotel Transylvania (CNS)
Hounddog
Atmospheric, well-acted, but overwrought and ultimately pointless melodrama set in 1950s Alabama about a lonely little girl (Dakota Fanning) with an Elvis Presley fixation, her mentally impaired father (David Morse), his estranged girlfriend (Robin Wright Penn), and religious zealot grandmother (Piper Laurie). Director Deborah Kampmeier gets high marks for settting the ...
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Hounddog (CNS)
Hours, The
Troubling drama covers a day in the lives of three women: mentally ill, suicidal novelist Virginia Woolf in 1923, a severely depressed 1951 L.A. housewife (Julianne Moore) and a contemporary, gay New York City editor (Meryl Streep) whose AIDS-stricken poet friend (Ed Harris) is facing imminent death. Based on Michael Cunningham's ...
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Hours, The (CNS)
Hours, The
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Hours, The (SAM)
House
Old-fashioned Southern gothic tale of two couples (Reynaldo Rosales, Heidi Dippold, J.P. Davis and Julie Ann Emery) trapped in an eerie backwoods inn where they battle both the sinister proprietors (Leslie Easterbrook, Lew Temple and Bill Moseley) and a masked intruder. Though intended as a Christian allegory, director Robby Henson's screen ...
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House (CNS)
House Bunny, The
After being exiled from the Playboy mansion, a ditzy but irrepressible model (Anna Faris) helps the awkward sisters (Emma Stone, Kat Dennings and Katharine McPhee, among others) of a failing sorority reinvent themselves as popular party girls while herself falling for a sensitive nursing home administrator (Colin Hanks). Although director Fred ...
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House Bunny, The (CNS)
House of D
Contrived but touching coming-of-age story of 12-year-old Tom (Anton Yelchin) living in 1970s' Greenwich Village in New York with his manic, pill-popping widowed mother (Tea Leoni), his friendship with a mentally challenged delivery man (Robin Williams), his first crush on a pretty schoolmate, and his unusual friendship with an unseen inmate ...
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House of D (CNS)
House of the Dead
Relentlessly ridiculous gorefest about a group of party-seeking college coeds trapped on an island infested with flesh-eating zombies and, luckily for them, stockpiled with lots of ammo. It is based on a popular video game. Director Ewe Boll ignores plot altogether in favor of protracted, ultraviolent scenes, as tedious as they ...
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House of the Dead (CNS)
House of Flying Daggers
Visually dazzling martial arts love story set in ancient China about a lawman (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who finds himself entangled in a web of desire and deception when his superior (Andy Lau) assigns him to infiltrate a gang of anti-imperial insurgents by escorting a beautiful blind courtesan (Ziyi Zhang) with ties to ...
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House of Flying Daggers (CNS)
House of Fools
Sentimental anti-war tale set in a besieged mental hospital where the residents are left to fend for themselves when Chechen soldiers occupy it and Russian troops attack. Director Andrei Konchalovsky shows much compassion for his fragile characters as well as a measure of whimsy in suggesting they are more sane than ...
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House of Fools (CNS)
House of Sand and Fog
Grim drama about an exiled Iranian colonel (Ben Kingsley) who buys a foreclosed house in California at an auction, but the previous owner, a recovering addict (Jennifer Connelly), refuses to give it up and enlists the help of a married cop (Ron Eldard) who has become her lover to coerce the ...
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House of Sand and Fog (CNS)
House of Wax
Repulsive horror film about a group of college students (including Chad Michael Murray and Paris Hilton) who, while on a road trip, find themselves stranded in a backwater town, where they fall prey to a pair of homicidal twins (both played by Brian Van Holt) intent on turning their unsuspecting victims ...
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House of Wax (CNS)
Housekeeper, The
May-December romance about a French sound engineer (Jean-Pierre Bacri) who risks falling in love with the much younger cleaning lady (Emilie Dequenne) he hires after his wife dumps him for another man. Under the astute direction of Claude Berri, the bittersweet film explores the basic human need for companionship with warmth ...
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Housekeeper, The (CNS)
How About You
Gentle and uplifting holiday drama about a free-spirited young Irishwoman (Hayley Atwell) who takes a job at the retirement home run by her sister (Orla Brady) and changes the lives of its four most cantankerous inhabitants: an ex-screen actress (Vanessa Redgrave), a former judge (Joss Ackland), and two quarrelling sisters (Imelda ...
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How About You (CNS)
How Do You Know
An uncomfortable blend of self-absorption and sexual waywardness on the part of its major characters prevents the cheerless romantic comedy "How Do You Know" (Columbia) from engaging viewers.
Instead, the few laughs and insights provided by writer-director James L. Brooks' script hardly seem worthwhile, all the more so given that ...
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How Do You Know (CNS)
How She Move
Buoyant musical film chronicling the struggles of a young Caribbean immigrant (Rutina Wesley) who, in the wake of her sister's death and the financial ruin of her parents (Conrad Coates and Melanie Nicholls-King), seeks comfort in "stepping," a traditional style of African-American dance and, despite the opposition of a former friend ...
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How She Move (CNS)
How to Deal
Lame coming-of-age clunker about a cynical teen-ager (Mandy Moore) who renounces romance only to fall in love with a close friend (Trent Ford). With gag-inducing dialogue and vanilla performances, director Claire Kilner's vacuous ode to adolescent angst and puppy love is for the dogs. An implied sexual encounter, brief sensuality, drug ...
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How to Deal (CNS)
How to Eat Fried Worms
Loose adaptation of Thomas Rockwell's children's book about a weak-stomached boy (Luke Benward) who, desperate to fit in as the new kid at school and silence a bully's (Adam Hicks) taunts, agrees to eat 10 worms within the span of a Saturday afternoon. With a yuck factor that may disturb some ...
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How to Eat Fried Worms (CNS)
How to Eat Fried Worms
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How to Eat Fried Worms (SAM)
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Drawn-out romantic comedy in which an ad exec (Matthew McConaughey) boasts he can make a magazine columnist (Kate Hudson) fall for him in 10 days, unaware that for her next advice column she intends to make him dump her in the same time frame. Donald Petrie directs a contrived and unconvincing ...
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How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (CNS)
How to Train Your Dragon
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How to Train Your Dragon (CNS)
Howl's Moving Castle
Marvelous, hugely imaginative Japanese animated feature based on a popular novel by Diana Wynne Jones about a young girl (voiced by Emily Mortimer) transformed into an old lady (Jean Simmons) by a witch's curse (Lauren Bacall) who becomes the housekeeper to a handsome, but reclusive, wizard (Christian Bale) and his apprentice ...
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Howl's Moving Castle (CNS)
Hugo
Set against the luminous background of 1930s Paris, the family-oriented 3-D fable "Hugo" (Paramount) is a visually rich, emotionally warm adaptation of author Brian Selznick's best-selling novel, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret."
While it represents a suitable holiday treat for most, though, director Martin Scorsese's film includes fleeting passages of dialogue touching ...
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Hugo (CNS)
Hugo
“Hugo” is based on the remarkable Caldecott Medal winning
novel for young people by Brian Selznick, “The Invention of Hugo Carbet”
(2007). The book itself is a joy to read, a celebration of the power of the
imagination and the magic of the movies.
The film adaptation is director Martin Scorsese’s passionate
“hommage” to ...
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Hugo (SRR)
Hulk, The
Sci-fi adventure based on the Marvel Comics character which follows a mild-mannered scientist (Eric Bana) who, after being pelted with gamma rays, finds his anger transforms him into a giant green monster soothed only by his ex-girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly). Initially captivating, director Ang Lee's well-crafted film boasts grand special effects as ...
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Hulk, The (CNS)
Human Stain, The
Affecting drama based on the Philip Roth novel in which an aging, newly widowed professor (Anthony Hopkins) quits his job in disgrace over an unintended racial slight and becomes involved in an affair with a tragedy-scarred divorcee (Nicole Kidman) half his age who is being stalked by her ex-husband (Ed Harris). ...
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Human Stain, The (CNS)
The Hunger Games
Though presumably targeted — at least in part — at teens, the dystopian adventure "The Hunger Games" (Lionsgate) involves enough problematic content to give parents pause. Responsible oldsters will want to weigh the matter carefully before giving permission for clamoring kids to attend.
At first glance, the depressing futuristic premise of ...
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The Hunger Games (CNS)
The Hunger Games
Making U.S. Box Office history with the highest midnight
opening ever “The Hunger Games” swept into theaters last week. The film is
based on the 2008 best-selling novel by Suzanne Collins, the first book in a
trilogy of novels that the author says “explore the effects of war and violence
on those coming of age. ...
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The Hunger Games (SRR)
Hunted, The
Brutal drama in which a retired teacher of warfare (Tommy Lee Jones) must prevent his former student (Benicio Del Toro), a top Special Forces assassin gone mad, from killing innocent people. Director William Friedkin deftly builds white-knuckle tension in this straightforward tale while coaxing a fine performance out of Jones, but ...
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Hunted, The (CNS)
Hunting Party, The
Interesting though uneven black comedy based on actual events, about a washed-up broadcast journalist (Richard Gere), his former cameraman (Terrence Howard) and the nerdy reporter-son (Jesse Eisenberg) of a network executive who, five years after the Bosnian war, attempt not just to interview but to capture a notorious war criminal who ...
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Hunting Party, The (CNS)
Hunting Party, The
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Hunting Party, The (SAM)
Hurricane, The
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Hurricane, The (SAM)
Hustle & Flow
Well-acted but problematic drama about a Memphis pimp (Terrence Howard) who tries to better his life by pursuing his dream of becoming a rap artist, aided by a former classmate (Anthony Anderson) and his supportive stable of prostitutes (Taraji P. Henson and Taryn Manning). Written and directed by first-timer Craig Brewer, ...
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Hustle & Flow (CNS)
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