P.S.
Lightweight romantic comedy about a recently divorced college admissions director (Laura Linney) who becomes involved in a passionate May-December romance with a young artist (Topher Grace) bearing an uncanny resemblance to her dead high school sweetheart. Dealing with issues of longing, loneliness and lost opportunities -- as well as some mystical ...
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P.S. (CNS)
P.S. I Love You
Uneven but ultimately touching and well-acted love story about a woman (Hilary Swank) who loses her Irish husband (Gerard Butler) to a brain tumor, but is guided through the stages of grief by letters he wrote for her before he died, and arranged to have periodically delivered. Writer-director Richard LaGravenese's film ...
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P.S. I Love You (CNS)
P2
Distasteful horror film about a young woman (Rachel Nichols) who, after working late, is anxious to join her family's Christmas celebration, but a psychotic parking attendant (Wes Bentley) has other ideas. Director Franck Khalfoun, who co-wrote the generic script, has only managed to serve up an offensively dull Christmas pudding with ...
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P2 (CNS)
Pacifier, The
Embarrassingly unfunny comedy directed by Adam Shankman about a tough-guy Navy SEAL (Vin Diesel) assigned to baby-sit the five children of an assassinated government scientist while simultaneously searching their suburban home for their late father's top-secret computer program, with the fate of the free world -- and the Girl Scout cookie ...
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Pacifier, The (CNS)
Page One
Ever hear of WikiLeaks? When the New York Times began
publishing “The War Logs”, a collection of classified military documents in
2010, many decried this as unethical and unpatriotic. The New York Times, with
members of the board from the same family that has owned it since 1896, went
with the stories and documents anyway, ...
|
Page One (SRR)
Painted Veil, The
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Painted Veil, The (SAM)
Painted Veil, The
Excellent film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham novel set in the 1920s about an English bacteriologist (Edward Norton) who, after he learns of his bored socialite wife's (Naomi Watts) infidelity, vengefully insists she accompany him to a remote Chinese village during a dangerous cholera epidemic there, and how, over time, they ...
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Painted Veil, The (CNS)
Palindromes
Intriguing but, at times, highly disturbing film about a 13-year-old girl (alternately played by seven different actors of varying ages, races and genders, including Jennifer Jason Leigh) determined to have a baby, who, after her mother (Ellen Barkin) forces her to have an abortion, runs away from home and eventually winds ...
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Palindromes (CNS)
Pandorum
Hypersleep is tough on movie characters, and even more brutal on science-fiction plots.
In "Pandorum" (Overture), a complex and deeply cliched horror
excursion, director Christian Alvart and screenwriter Travis Milloy
have astronauts Lt. Payton (Dennis Quaid) and Cpl. Bower (Ben Foster),
awaken from an eight-year hypersleep—six years longer than they were
supposed to have ...
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Pandorum (CNS)
Pan's Labyrinth
Cinematically stunning adult tale set in 1944 Spain about an unhappy 11-year-old girl's (Ivana Baquero) emotional escape into a maze -- either real or imagined -- overseen by a faun (Doug Jones) attended by insect-fairies that help her cope with the horrors of the marriage of her ailing pregnant mother (Ariadna ...
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Pan's Labyrinth (CNS)
Paparazzi
Problematic revenge thriller about a rising action star (Cole Hauser) who exacts retribution on the sleazy tabloid photographers (led by Tom Sizemore) responsible for causing a Princess Diana-type car accident which nearly killed his wife (Robin Tunney) and young son. As directed by Paul Abascal, the subtly sadistic film seems more ...
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Paparazzi (CNS)
Paradise Now
Compelling drama about two Palestinian childhood friends (Kais Nashef and Ali Suliman) recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, Israel, following them through the tense final hours leading up to the mission, during which their conflicted consciences cause them to waffle in their resolve to carry out their plans. Soberly ...
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Paradise Now (CNS)
Paradise Road
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Paradise Road (SAM)
ParaNorman
Though the horror-themed animated adventure "ParaNorman" (Focus) is obviously directed at children, it includes a smattering of sexual humor and, more significantly, a concluding plot twist that ought to put parents of faith on their guard. That's all the more unfortunate since co-directors Sam Fell and Chris Butler's frequently witty stop-motion ...
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ParaNorman (CNS)
Paranormal Activity
As it did in both 1999's "The Blair Witch Project"
and last year's "Cloverfield," the use of a video camera to tell an
ostensibly fact-based horror tale makes for an unsettling sense of
immediacy—and jangled audience nerves—in "Paranormal Activity"
(Paramount).
Writer-director Oren Peli's feature debut, made for a tiny
fraction of the normal Hollywood budget, ...
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Paranormal Activity (CNS)
Paranormal Activity 2
Fans of genuinely scary films—skin-crawlers that earn their chills by subtlety and suspense—will welcome "Paranormal Activity 2" (Paramount), director Tod Williams' follow-up to a refreshingly unbloody original.
And the news gets even better, since his efficiently unnerving extension of the franchise that began with 2009's "Paranormal Activity" not only avoids gratuitous ...
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Paranormal Activity 2 (CNS)
Parent Trap, The
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Parent Trap, The (SAM)
Parental Guidance
Though it means well, "Parental Guidance" (Fox) suffers from an excess of potty humor.
Granted, they're family-style potty gags, and every parent of a young child has probably experienced similar incidents to what is portrayed. It's just that such humor is a sign of desperation; it means the filmmakers have no ...
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Parental Guidance (CNS)
Paris, Je T'Aime
A kaleidoscopic anthology of 18 vignettes, each directed by a top-name filmmaker (Gus Van Sant, Walter Salles, the Coen Brothers, Wes Craven, etc.) and featuring a host of international stars (including Natalie Portman, Bob Hoskins, Elijah Wood, Juliette Binoche, Gena Rowlands, Steve Buscemi and Nick Nolte), set in various neighborhoods in ...
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Paris, Je T'Aime (CNS)
Paris, Je T'aime (Paris, I Love You)
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Paris, Je T'aime (Paris, I Love You) (SAM)
Party Monster
Cautionary biopic charting the meteoric rise and subsequent fall of club kid-leader-turned-cold-blooded-killer Michael Alig (Macaulay Culkin), a notorious New York party promoter arrested in 1998 for murdering his drug dealer. Directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, the movie proves that all that glitters isn't gold, painting a tragic portrait of ...
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Party Monster (CNS)
Passengers
Low-key, somewhat muddled thriller in which an uptight therapist (Anne Hathaway) counsels the few survivors of a major plane crash, investigating why their memories of the accident conflict with the airline's account. As some of them start to disappear, one, an extroverted passenger (Patrick Wilson), initiates a romance. Despite appealing performances ...
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Passengers (CNS)
Passion of the Christ, The
Unflinching dramatization of the final agonizing hours of the earthly life of Jesus Christ (Jim Caviezel), from the garden of Gethsemane to his crucifixion and resurrection, intercut with flashbacks to his childhood and public ministry. Although the film's brutality poignantly conveys the depth of Christ's love by showing him freely enduring ...
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Passion of the Christ, The (CNS)
Passion of the Christ, The
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Passion of the Christ, The (SAM)
Passion of Joan of Arc, The
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Passion of Joan of Arc, The (SAM)
Passion of Joan of Arc, The
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Passion of Joan of Arc, The (SAM)
Passion Recut, The
Toned-down, yet still brutal, re-editing of Mel Gibson's unflinching, at times profoundly moving, dramatization of the final agonizing hours of Jesus' earthly life -- as portrayed by Jim Caviezel -- from arrest to crucifixion and resurrection. The slightly tamer revision is missing roughly six minutes of the movie's bloodiest scenes -- ...
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Passion Recut, The (CNS)
Passionada
Sweet romance set in a New England Portuguese-American fishing community where a former card shark (Jason Isaacs) lies about his past to the devout widow (Sofia Milos) he has fallen for even as her daughter (Emmy Rossum) insists he teach her card counting in exchange for encouraging her mom to date ...
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Passionada (CNS)
Pathfinder
Relentlessly violent tale about a shipwrecked Viking lad taken in and raised by a Native American tribe, until 15 years later when now as an adult he (Karl Urban) sets out, virtually single-handedly, to exact revenge on returning Vikings who have slaughtered his adopted tribe and are bent on killing every ...
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Pathfinder (CNS)
Patriot, The
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Patriot, The (SAM)
Paul
Are some British comedians on a cinematic crusade to export the widespread atheism of their home country to the shores of the United States and beyond?
The year 2009 gave us Ricky Gervais' malignant fantasy "The Invention of Lying," which presented the existence of God and the idea of an afterlife ...
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Paul (CNS)
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Largely good-natured slapstick comedy relies on the physicality of Kevin James, who, in addition to co-writing the script, portrays the titular plus-size security guard defending a New Jersey mall from a pack of acrobatic thieves on the busiest shopping day of the year. Because the loveably hapless hero embodies numerous qualities ...
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Paul Blart: Mall Cop (CNS)
Pay It Forward
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Pay It Forward (SAM)
Pay It Forward
Click title to see this Every Day Catholic movie review.
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Pay It Forward (EDC)
Paycheck
Forgettable sci-fi action thriller about a high-tech wizard (Ben Affleck) who, after working on a top-secret project for a shadowy corporation (run by Aaron Eckhart), has the past three years of his memory erased, only to find himself in the cross hairs of federal agents and corporate assassins, with just an ...
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Paycheck (CNS)
Pearl Harbor
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Pearl Harbor (SAM)
Pedro Arrupe: His Life and Legacy
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Pedro Arrupe: His Life and Legacy (SAM)
Penelope
Likable romantic fairy tale about an otherwise beautiful London heiress (Christina Ricci) who, as the result of an ancestral curse, was born with a pig's snout and who, with the help of her domineering mother (Catherine O'Hara) and diffident father (Richard E. Grant) must avoid exposure by a tabloid reporter (Peter ...
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Penelope (CNS)
Penelope
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Penelope (SAM)
People I Know
Disappointing thriller about a washed-up New York celebrity publicist (Al Pacino), unwittingly entangled in a deadly web of murder and deceit among Gotham's movers and shakers. Director Dan Algrant's noirish foray into the shadowy world of glamour and politics borrows generously from earlier conspiracy yarns, but flounders as a result of ...
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People I Know (CNS)
People vs. Larry Flynt, The
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People vs. Larry Flynt, The (SAM)
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Catholic parents' decision whether to allow their children to view "Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief" (Fox) will largely depend on how they choose to interpret the tale's mythological premise.
For the film—like the children's novel on which it's based—is set in motion when its hero, mildly troubled New ...
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Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (CNS)
A Perfect Getaway
The natural splendors of a remote area of
Hawaii
provide the backdrop for director David Twohy's not-so-splendid thriller
"A Perfect Getaway" (Rogue). After a reasonably intriguing central
plot twist—though one that fails to jibe entirely with what has gone before—the
shifty drama degenerates, becoming overwrought in tone and excessively violent
in content.
As they head for ...
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A Perfect Getaway (CNS)
Perfect Holiday, The
Amiable romantic comedy, narrated by "Mrs. Christmas" (Queen Latifah), in which a divorced mother of three (Gabrielle Union) must cope with the machinations of her egotistical rap star ex-husband (Charles Q. Murphy) and the resistance of her 10-year-old son (Malik Hammond) as she gradually falls, with the help of her daughter ...
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Perfect Holiday, The (CNS)
Perfect Man, The
Breezy but forgettable romantic comedy about a high school student (Hilary Duff) who, tired of being uprooted every time her lovelorn, single mom (Heather Locklear) gets her heart broken, invents an imaginary suitor for her -- writing secret admirer e-mails and sending her flowers -- based on the romance advice of ...
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Perfect Man, The (CNS)
Perfect Man, The
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Perfect Man, The (SAM)
Perfect Murder, A
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Perfect Murder, A (SAM)
Perfect Score, The
Below-the-bell-curve teen heist comedy about six high school students (including Erika Christensen and Scarlett Johansson) who conspire to break into a SAT testing center and steal the answers to their upcoming college entrance exams and in the process transcend their differences on the road to self-discovery. While its attractive cast may ...
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Perfect Score, The (CNS)
Perfect Storm, The
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Perfect Storm, The (SAM)
Perfect Stranger
Trashy, utterly nonsensical thriller about an investigative reporter (Halle Berry) who, with the help of a sleazy computer-savvy colleague (Giovanni Ribisi), sets out to expose the big-shot advertising executive (Bruce Willis) who may have murdered her childhood friend after an adulterous affair. The ill-conceived script -- peppered with so many gratuitous ...
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Perfect Stranger (CNS)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Deeply disturbing but hypnotic story set in 18th-century France about an orphan (Ben Wishaw) -- impoverished and abused but gifted with an extraordinary sense of smell -- who apprentices to a perfumer (Dustin Hoffman), after which -- incapable of normal love -- he becomes a serial killer in his quest to ...
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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (CNS)
Persepolis
Unsual animated film for adults about the coming of age of a feisty young girl (voice of Chiara Mastroianni) in Tehran, Iran, in the troubled years after the fall of the shah's regime; amid the ensuing fundamentalist repression and the violence of the war with Iraq, her politically savvy parents (Catherine ...
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Persepolis (CNS)
Personal Velocity
Raw, provocative, ultimately hopeful drama examines the lives of three very different women (Parker Posey, Kyra Sedgwick and Fairuza Balk) in various stages of personal crisis and transcendence as they deal with promiscuity, violence, ambition, infidelity and the search for self. Writer-director Rebecca Miller shows the deglamorized women as flawed, but ...
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Personal Velocity (CNS)
Peter Pan
Enchanting live-action version of J.M. Barrie's timeless fairy tale about a precocious British girl (Rachel Hurd-Wood) who travels with the title imp (Jeremy Sumpter), a mischievous boy who refuses to grow up, to Neverland, a magical realm of eternal adults-free fun where they must cross swords with the black-hearted Captain Hook ...
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Peter Pan (CNS)
Peter Pan
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Peter Pan (SAM)
Phantom
Set primarily on a Soviet submarine in the midst of the Cold War, writer-director Todd Robinson's "Phantom" (RCR) pits a crew of seasoned sailors against a handful of the KGB's most ruthless bad guys.
His drama also implicitly contrasts the Christian faith adhered to by at least some of the former ...
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Phantom (CNS)
Phantom of the Opera, The
Opulent film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running musical about the disfigured madman in an 1870 opera house in Paris, the young soprano whom he coaches from behind her dressing room mirror, and the young count who loves her. Joel Schumacher's film is visually magnificent, and the lush soundtrack offers a ...
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Phantom of the Opera, The (CNS)
Phantom, The
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Phantom, The (SAM)
Phat Girlz
Romantic comedy about an aspiring plus-size fashion designer (Mo'Nique) riddled with insecurities, who wins a trip to Palm Springs, Calif., where she -- accompanied by her skinny cousin (Joyful Drake) and plump best friend (Kendra C. Johnson) -- is wooed by an attractive Nigerian doctor (Jimmy Jean-Louis), who explains that in ...
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Phat Girlz (CNS)
Phenomenon
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Phenomenon (SAM)
Phone Booth
Shrill thriller in which an obnoxious publicist (Colin Farrell) is trapped in a Manhattan phone booth by a deadly sniper who kills a pimp outside the booth and next threatens to kill a cop (Forest Whitaker) on the scene and the man's wife (Radha Mitchell). Farrell's performance holds director Joel Schumacher's ...
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Phone Booth (CNS)
Pianist, The
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Pianist, The (EDC)
Pianist, The
Fact-based, dispassionate account of how composer and pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a Jewish Pole, escaped deportation to the concentration camps during World War II, hiding in various deserted apartments in Warsaw until discovered near war's end by a German soldier who spared his life because of his great talent. As ...
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Pianist, The (CNS)
Pianist, The
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Pianist, The (SAM)
Pieces of April
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Pieces of April (Frost)
Pieces of April
Tender drama about a young woman (Katie Holmes) who, at the promptings of her live-in boyfriend (Derek Luke), tries to mend the tattered relationship with her cancer-stricken mother (Patricia Clarkson) by hosting Thanksgiving dinner at her dilapidated New York City tenement, only to discover that her oven is not working. While ...
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Pieces of April (CNS)
Pieces of April
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Pieces of April (EDC)
Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman
Well-made British film argues against capital punishment by telling the true story of one of England's most prolific executioners, Albert I. Pierrepoint, staunchly portrayed by talented character actor Timothy Spall. Director Adrian Shergold generally avoids sensationalism when depicting Pierrepoint's grim stock in trade, but the morally correct treatment becomes somewhat heavy-handed ...
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Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman (CNS)
Piglet's Big Movie
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Piglet's Big Movie (EDC)
Piglet's Big Movie
Sweet animated adventure in which the creatures from the Hundred Acre Wood, including Winnie the Pooh, Tigger (both voiced by Jim Cummings) and Rabbit (voiced by Ken Sansom), set off to find their missing friend, Piglet (voiced by John Fiedler), whom they told was too small to partake in their "honey ...
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Piglet's Big Movie (CNS)
Pineapple Express
A pot-smoking process server (Seth Rogen) and his pusher (James Franco) go on the lam after he accidentally witnesses a rub-out by a drug lord (Gary Cole) and a corrupt policewoman (Rosie Perez) and leaves a joint of the rare titular breed of marijuana at the scene. A muted anti-drug message ...
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Pineapple Express (CNS)
The Pink Panther 2
Modestly amusing sequel in which bumbling, but ultimately brilliant Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin) joins an international dream team of detectives (Alfred Molina, Andy Garcia, Yuki Matsuzaki and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) to solve the theft of various national treasures, a pursuit aided by his loyal assistant (Jean Reno) and his secretly beloved ...
|
The Pink Panther 2 (CNS)
Pink Panther, The
Amusing update of the Blake Edwards comedy series with Steve Martin successfully assuming Peter Sellers' mantle as the impossibly inept Inspector Clouseau who, this time, must solve the murder of a soccer coach, with the assistance of a resourceful secretary (Emily Mortimer) and an unflappable aide (Jean Reno), hired by the ...
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Pink Panther, The (CNS)
Pinocchio
Charmless Italian production of the fairy tale in which a carpenter carves a wooden puppet which begins to talk and wants to become a real boy but first must learn to be good and not lie or his nose will grow longer with each lie. Co-written and directed by and starring ...
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Pinocchio (CNS)
Piranha 3D
The link between committing sins of the flesh and becoming a victim in a horror movie was never more blatant than in the tall and tawdry fish tale "Piranha 3D" (Dimension).
Just as retribution awaits the film's most wanton characters, audience members who venture into its blood-filled waters seeking an ...
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Piranha 3D (CNS)
Pirate Radio
"Pirate Radio" (Focus) is an energetic but sexually
freewheeling ensemble comedy set in mid-1960s Britain. As written and
directed by Richard Curtis, this fact-based frolic's potentially
buoyant celebration of music and camaraderie is torpedoed by its
implicit acceptance of all manner of bedroom shenanigans.
After being expelled from school, rebellious teen Carl (Tom
Sturridge) is ...
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Pirate Radio (CNS)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Generally listless third leg of blockbuster voyage has Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), Will (Orlando Bloom) and Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) bringing Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) back from the dead before leading a rainbow coalition of pirates against the tyrannical forces of the East India Company. Evidently director Gore Verbinski and crew ran out ...
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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (CNS)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Entertaining swashbuckler about a lowly blacksmith (Orlando Bloom) who must set sail with a brazen buccaneer (Johnny Depp) in order to rescue his love (Keira Knightley) from an evil rival pirate (Geoffrey Rush), who, along with his crew, is under an ancient curse. Based on the popular Disney theme-park ride, Gore ...
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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (CNS)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (SAM)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Cockeyed pirate Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) batten down the hatches for another round of high-sea hijinks -- involving a villainous British bureaucrat (Tom Hollander), sea monsters, comical cannibals, a ghost ship and a quest to find the locker of fabled Davy ...
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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (CNS)
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
The fourth movie in the series inspired by the Disneyland attraction,
"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" (Disney), spins a yarn
that leads to the Fountain of Youth. No wonder it makes the popular
franchise feel long in the tooth. While not a bust or a bore, "On
Stranger Tides" ...
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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (CNS)
Pirates of the Caribbean:
On Stranger Tides
In this fourth “Pirates of the Caribbean” film, Captain Jack
Sparrow is once again trying to escape from the British – this time causing
pirate-style chaos right in the center London. He carriage-surfs, much to the
delight of the audience. He must discover who is impersonating him and how to
find a ship, since the ...
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Pirates of the Caribbean:
On Stranger Tides (SRR)
Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, The
Breezy computer-animated children's adventure in which a trio of self-doubting anthropomorphized vegetables (one voiced by Mike Nawrocki, the others by Phil Vischer) who work at a pirate-themed dinner theater get the chance to prove their mettle when they're transported back in time and given the chance to save a prince (Yuri ...
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Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, The (CNS)
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
We have it on the authority of Victorian librettist W.S. Gilbert that "it is, it is a glorious thing/to be a pirate king." If the rollicking 3-D animated comedy "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" (Columbia) is to be believed, being the captain of even a motley shipload of 19th-century buccaneers isn't ...
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The Pirates! Band of Misfits (CNS)
The Place Beyond the Pines
We have the assurance of the Old Testament that the iniquity of a father will be visited upon his children (Nm 14:18). That happens more than once in "The Place Beyond the Pines" (Focus).
Director and co-writer (with Ben Coccio and Darius Marder) Derek Cianfrance elevates a standard crime drama into ...
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The Place Beyond the Pines (CNS)
Planet 51
It's "Ozzie and Harriet" with an alien twist on "Planet 51" (TriStar), a delightful animated comedy that represents a clever riff on the cheesy science fiction B-movies of the 1950s.
In a galaxy far, far away little green aliens are living in a "Happy Days"-style suburbia, complete with white picket ...
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Planet 51 (CNS)
Planet of the Apes
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Planet of the Apes (EDC)
Playing by Heart
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|
Playing by Heart (SAM)
Pleasantville
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|
Pleasantville (SAM)
Pledge, The
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Pledge, The (SAM)
Plumm Summer, A
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Plumm Summer, A (SAM)
Plumm Summer, A
Gentle and winning fact-based coming-of-age tale, set in 1968, in which a 13-year-old aspiring detective (Chris J. Kelly) and his girlfriend (Morgan Flynn) search their small Montana hometown for the TV puppet with whom his kid brother (Owen Pearce) is obsessed and who has made the show's host (Henry Winkler) a ...
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Plumm Summer, A (CNS)
Pokemon Heroes
The fifth installment of the series of Japanese animated films based on the popular Pokemon trading cards and video game craze, this silly clunker finds the young Pokemon hero and his robo-pet, Pikachu, saving a Venice-like city from certain doom when mischievous thieves steal its sacred jewel. Despite themes of friendship, ...
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Pokemon Heroes (CNS)
Polar Express, The
Visually captivating animated fantasy -- in which Tom Hanks plays five separate roles -- about a doubting young boy who is whisked away on Christmas Eve aboard a magic train bound for Santa's village in the North Pole. Based on the children's novel by Chris Van Allsburg, director Rob Zemeckis' hauntingly ...
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Polar Express, The (CNS)
Political Advertising
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|
Political Advertising (SAM)
Ponyo
An unabashed celebration of the innocence
and wonder of childhood, as well as of the imaginative possibilities that can
endure well beyond it, "Ponyo" (Disney) is a treat for youthful
spirits of every age. This enchanting English-language version of a Japanese
animated fable, inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little
Mermaid," was originally written and directed ...
|
Ponyo (CNS)
Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Delightfully sunny animated feature in which Winnie the Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings) and his pals -- Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit and Roo -- set out to capture a Heffalump, a much-feared creature who has invaded their home in the Hundred Acre Wood, and wind up learning a valuable lesson about ...
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Pooh's Heffalump Movie (CNS)
Poseidon
Reasonably effective but inferior remake of 1972's luxury-liner disaster film, as a tidal wave capsizes the vessel, and a sparring father (Kurt Russell) and daughter (Emmy Rossum), her boyfriend (Mike Vogel), a professional gambler (Josh Lucas), a single mother (Jacinda Barrett) and child, and a Latina stowaway (Mia Maestro) attempt to ...
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Poseidon (CNS)
The Possession
Catholic exorcists get some time off with "The Possession" (Lionsgate). Since this mostly gore-free chiller's premise rests on Jewish tales of demonic indwelling by beings called dybbuks, it's a Hasidic student, rather than a priest, who eventually gets summoned to the rescue. And file this one under "Only in America": said ...
|
The Possession (CNS)
Possession
Romantic period piece about two literature scholars (Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart) who end up falling for each other as they investigate a Victorian-era poet's (Jeremy Northam) secret extramarital affair with a lesser-known poet (Jennifer Ehle). Floating back and forth between present-day England and the Victorian age, director Neil LaBute's film ...
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Possession (CNS)
Post Grad
A talented cast is becalmed by a listless
script in "Post Grad" (Fox Atomic). As penned by Kelly Fremon,
veteran animation director Vicky Jenson's live-action debut—part coming-of-age
tale, part romantic comedy, part quirky family romp—tries to go in too many
directions at once, and ends up adrift.
The premise is certainly timely. Having
planned ...
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Post Grad (CNS)
Postman, The
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Postman, The (SAM)
Power of Forgiveness, The
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Power of Forgiveness, The (SAM)
Powerpuff Girls Movie, The
Tedious animated feature in which a scientist creates three perfect little girls with superhero powers who help save their town from an evil monkey intent on destroying it. The brainless story in director Craig McCracken's film, which is based on the cartoon series, is devoid of any wit, feebly offering a ...
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Powerpuff Girls Movie, The (CNS)
Prairie Home Companion, A
Leisurely paced, virtually plotless fictional riff on radio raconteur Garrison Keillor's long-running series as Keillor (playing himself) presents his "final" show, with top-liners including singing sisters (Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin) and cowboy (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly) acts, while 1940s sleuth Guy Noir (Kevin Kline), a mysterious femme fatale ...
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Prairie Home Companion, A (CNS)
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
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Pray the Devil Back to Hell (SAM)
Predators
Toward the end of "Predators" (Fox), a character camouflages himself by covering his torso with mud. That's an apt symbol for this dreary sci-fi sequel which, despite a halfhearted last-reel lesson about the need to maintain civilized values, is mostly a bespattered survey of nasty ways to die.
As for Alex ...
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Predators (CNS)
Premium Rush
For many New Yorkers, especially those who like to perambulate their city without risking life and limb, few subcultures are less sympathetic than that of Gotham's bicycle messengers. So it's a pretty safe bet that there are at least a few hundred thousand peripatetic potential viewers out there who will have ...
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Premium Rush (CNS)
Premonition
Effective time-warp thriller about wife (Sandra Bullock) who learns her husband (Julian McMahon) has died in a car accident, only to wake up and discover he's still alive and the dreadful event will happen a few days later. Serious suspension of disbelief is required on the viewer's part, but director Mennan ...
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Premonition (CNS)
Prestige, The
Convoluted thriller about rival magicians (Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman) in Victorian England who stop at nothing to sabotage (and steal the trade secrets of) the other after the accidental death of the latter's wife during a theatrical stunt. Director Christopher Nolan's adaptation of Christopher Priest's novel is, thanks to the ...
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Prestige, The (CNS)
Pretty Persuasion
Dark-edged satire about a maliciously manipulative 15-year-old (Evan Rachel Wood) who recruits two classmates (Elisabeth Harnois and Adi Schnall) in accusing one of their high school teachers (Ron Livingston) of sexual misconduct, entangling all involved in a web of deceit that has tragic consequences. Despite an impressive performance by his Lolitaish ...
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Pretty Persuasion (CNS)
Previous Engagement, A
A Seattle librarian (Juliet Stevenson), on holiday in Malta with her dull, inattentive husband (Daniel Stern), plans to rendezvous with her suave French lover (Tcheky Karyo) from 25 years earlier. Even allowing for its often farcical structure, writer-director Joan Carr-Wiggin's story, which strives for a light, whimsical tone, never seems remotely ...
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Previous Engagement, A (CNS)
Prey for Rock and Roll
Raw drama about the trials and tribulations of an aging rock musician and lead singer (Gina Gershon) of a Los Angeles-based all-girl band who is still looking to break into the big time. Melodramatic plot machinations and cliched views about aging in the young world of rock 'n' roll keep director ...
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Prey for Rock and Roll (CNS)
Price of Sugar, The
Worthy documentary that recounts the struggle of a Catholic missionary to gain basic social and economic rights for Haitian workers exploited by the sugar industry in the Dominican Republic. Directed by Bill Haney and narrated by Paul Newman, the film provides a harrowing and unsettling look at slavery-like labor conditions in ...
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Price of Sugar, The (CNS)
Price of Sugar, The
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Price of Sugar, The (SAM)
Price of Sugar, The
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Price of Sugar, The (SAM)
Pride
Inspirational true-life tale, circa 1971, about a coach (Terrence Howard) who forms a swim team at a dilapidated Philadelphia community house, demonstrating to the African-American youths that, despite the poverty and crime around them, they can compete with privileged teens both in the pool and in the world. The emotion-tugging efficiency ...
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Pride (CNS)
Pride & Prejudice
Fine new version of Jane Austen's evergreen classic concerning the five unmarried Bennet girls, whose mother (Brenda Blethyn) is strenuously determined to marry them off in 18th-century England, and the crossed-signals romance between Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and the wealthy Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen) whose apparent dislike for each other -- because of ...
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Pride & Prejudice (CNS)
Pride and Glory
Powerful but often brutal drama of a family of New York police officers (Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Noah Emmerich and Jon Voight, all solid) torn apart by a major corruption scandal. Though director and co-writer Gavin O'Connor's absorbing drama starts out noisily frenetic as a drug bust goes fatally awry, the ...
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Pride and Glory (CNS)
Priest
"To go against the church is to go against God." Such is the slogan of the distorted version of the Catholic Church, which is portrayed as holding Big Brother-style sway over society in the malign futuristic horror exercise "Priest" (Screen Gems).
Not surprisingly, everything in this screen version of Min-Woo Hyung's ...
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Priest (CNS)
Primal Fear
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Primal Fear (SAM)
Primary Colors
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Primary Colors (SAM)
Prime
Amusing, if morally problematic, New York-based story of a 37-year-old divorcee (Uma Thurman) who falls in love with a 23-year-old Jewish aspiring artist (Bryan Greenberg). Neither aware that he is the son of her psychiatrist (Meryl Streep) -- who is determined her son will marry within his faith, but finds herself ...
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Prime (CNS)
Primer
Writer-director Shane Carruth's low-budget sci-fi mindbender about a pair of young brainiacs (Carruth and David Sullivan), who -- while working out of their garage, trying to come up with the next "big" thing -- discover that the gizmo they invented can be used as a time machine, which they exploit to ...
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Primer (CNS)
Primeval
Bloody action thriller about an American television news crew (Dominic Purcell, Brooke Langton and Orlando Jones) dispatched to a civil-war ravaged African nation to report on a giant crocodile terrorizing the locals and to bring the beast back alive with the help of a seasoned hunter (Jurgen Prochnow) and an Australian ...
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Primeval (CNS)
Prince and Me, The
Breezy but bland fairy-tale romance about a workaholic University of Wisconsin pre-med candidate (Julia Stiles) who falls for a charming exchange student (Luke Mably) only to discover he is actually the crown prince of Denmark. Director Martha Coolidge's cliche-riddled romance has a sweet storybook premise, which eventually gives way to a ...
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Prince and Me, The (CNS)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (CNS)
The Princess and the Frog
"The Frog Prince," a fairy tale that was already generations old when the Brothers Grimm committed it to writing in the early 19th century, gets a clever new twist in "The Princess and the Frog" (Disney). But this snappy variation on an ancient theme—any more specific description would constitute a spoiler—is ...
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The Princess and the Frog (CNS)
Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, The
Sweet but stale sequel about a young American (Anne Hathaway) who, in preparing to ascend the throne of a small European kingdom, learns that she cannot become queen until she is married, leaving her 30 days to find a groom before she must forfeit the crown to her royal rival, a ...
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Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, The (CNS)
Princess Diaries, The
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Princess Diaries, The (SAM)
Private Fears in Public Places
Master French filmmaker Alain Resnais' superb adaptation of British playwright Alan Ayckbourn's bittersweet comedy about six lonely characters: a real estate agent (Andre Dussollier), his lovelorn sister (Isabelle Carre), his religiously minded secretary (Sabine Azema), a widowed bartender (Pierre Arditi), an alcoholic ex-military man (Lambert Wilson) and his frustrated girlfriend (Laura ...
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Private Fears in Public Places (CNS)
Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, The
Appealing true-life story of a 1950s' Midwestern housewife (Julianne Moore in top form) with a knack for winning jingle-writing contests which help support her large family (10 kids) and alcoholic husband (a touching Woody Harrelson). Writer-director Jane Anderson's candy-colored film is a whimsical evocation of that decade, filled with kitschy visuals, ...
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Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, The (CNS)
Producers, The
First-rate filming of Mel Brooks' Broadway megahit about a losing-streak producer (Nathan Lane) and a stage-struck accountant (Matthew Broderick) who hatch a scheme to bankroll a show that's doomed to failure -- an Adolf Hitler musical -- and walk away with the investment. Director Susan Stroman makes an auspicious film debut, ...
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Producers, The (CNS)
Project X
Put religion in retreat, erode ethics and let materialism run rampant, and what kind of entertainment will you get? The short answer is "Project X" (Warner Bros.).
More troubling than mere trash, and pornographic in a way that goes well beyond its frequent displays of flesh, this profoundly irresponsible undertaking — ...
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Project X (CNS)
Prom
Like the rite of passage for which it's named, "Prom" (Disney)—a wholesome but ho-hum high school-set romantic comedy—conjures opportunities and problems that seem to matter a great deal more to its youthful participants than to more mature outside observers.
Still, if the characters onscreen appear to have little to worry about, ...
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Prom (CNS)
Prom Night
Leaden, formulaic slasher film in which an obsessed former teacher (Johnathon Schaech) escapes from a mental hospital and returns to stalk a high school student (Brittany Snow) whose family he killed three years earlier, pursuing her through the swanky hotel where she and her boyfriend (Scott Porter) are attending the titular ...
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Prom Night (CNS)
Promise, The
Fantasy romance set in China's mythic past about a beautiful princess (Cecilia Cheung) whose childhood pact with a goddess to forsake true love for worldly comfort reaps fateful consequences for her and the three rivals vying for her affections: a renowned general (Hiroyuki Sanada), his loyal, supernaturally swift slave (Jang Dong-Gun) ...
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Promise, The (CNS)
Promised Land
"Promised Land" (Focus) is a reasonably entertaining message movie about the environmental dangers of drilling for natural gas using a method called hydraulic fracturing—or fracking for short.
To some, fracking represents an easy path to energy independence for the United States—and to vast wealth for those landowners lucky enough to have ...
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Promised Land (CNS)
Proof
Absorbing adaptation of David Auburn's award-winning Broadway play concerning a young woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) coping with the mental illness -- and subsequent death -- of her genius mathematician father (Anthony Hopkins), and fearing that she may have inherited his madness. Director John Madden has sensibly opened up the play for the ...
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Proof (CNS)
The Proposal
To avoid being deported back to Canada, a hard-driving New York book editor (Sandra Bullock) coerces her brow-beaten executive assistant (Ryan Reynolds) into getting engaged, but the hostility underlying their charade of love mellows during a visit to his parents' (Mary Steenburgen and Craig T. Nelson) Alaska home for his grandmother's ...
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The Proposal (CNS)
Proposition, The
Artful but unsparing 1880s-era Australian outback Western in which a British law enforcement officer (Ray Winstone) gives a gang member (Guy Pearce) the chance to save his jailed kid brother's life, provided he finds and kills his vicious older brother (Danny Huston). Director John Hillcoat's uneven film from a Nick Cave ...
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Proposition, The (CNS)
Public Enemies
Polished dramatization of the last months of famed Depression-era gangster John Dillinger (a commanding Johnny Depp) as he orchestrates prison breaks, continues his bank-robbing spree across the Midwest, repeatedly eludes capture by special agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) of the nascent FBI, and romances Chicago coat-check girl Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard). ...
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Public Enemies (CNS)
Pulse
Horror film about a college student (Kristen Bell) who, in trying to get to the bottom of the suicide of her computer whiz boyfriend (Jonathan Tucker), discovers -- together with her fellow dorm residents (Christina Milian and Rick Gonzalez) and an off-campus techie (Ian Somerhalder) -- that before taking his life ...
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Pulse (CNS)
Punch-Drunk Love
Tiresome romance in which a rage-filled loner (Adam Sandler) is beset by thuggish phone-sex scam artists while falling for a friend (Emily Watson) of his domineering sisters. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson turns in a harsh, unengaging tale whose comic subtext is as flat as the obtrusive music track is loud. Brief ...
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Punch-Drunk Love (CNS)
Punisher, The
Boring and gleefully violent tale of a retired undercover FBI agent (Thomas Jane) whose whole family is murdered, prompting him to reciprocate by methodically setting out to kill the mobster responsible (John Travolta), his wife, best friend, associates and assorted assassins who fail to stop the relentless vigilante. In absurdly pretentious ...
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Punisher, The (CNS)
Pursuit of Happyness, The
Feel-good tale based on the true story of a selfless medical supply salesman (an ever-appealing Will Smith) who, after his wife (Thandie Newton) walks out, raises his 5-year-old son (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith) on his own while pursuing a new career path as a stockbroker in an unpaid internship while enduring ...
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Pursuit of Happyness, The (CNS)
Pursuit of Happyness, The
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Pursuit of Happyness, The (SAM)
Push
Dreary action adventure tale about a telekinetic American (Chris Evans) living in Hong Kong who teams with his similarly paranormal ex-girlfriend (Camilla Belle) and a tough-talking psychic 13-year-old girl (Dakota Fanning) to thwart the mind-controlling agent (Djimon Hounsou) of a secret ...
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Push (CNS)
Puss in Boots
An exceptionally intelligent and energetic script that includes a moral lesson propels "Puss in Boots" (DreamWorks), a 3-D animated children's feature that provides the back story of the fairy tale character as portrayed in the "Shrek" films.
Without being condescending and without adding snarky in-jokes likely to fly over the little ...
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Puss in Boots (CNS)
Puss in Boots
While Shrek was living a solitary life in the forest, before
he fell for Fiona, Puss in Boots (voice of Antonio Banderas) was an abandoned kitty growing up in a Spanish orphanage. One of his friends is Humpty Dumpty,and as the film tells us, be careful who
your friends are.
We learn ...
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Puss in Boots (SRR)
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