S.W.A.T.
Loud and lackluster police actioner about an elite Los Angeles anti-crime unit (including Colin Farrell and Samuel L. Jackson) assigned to guard an international drug kingpin en route to a federal penitentiary. Based on the popular 1970s TV series, the film, directed by Clark Johnson, is an adolescent boys' playground, which, ...
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S.W.A.T. (CNS)
Safe Haven
Somehow it just wouldn't be Valentine's Day without a gooey adaptation of a tale by Catholic novelist Nicholas Sparks, the current master of the romantic drama.
This year, it's "Safe Haven" (Relativity), Lasse Hallstrom's screen version of Sparks' 2010 novel of the same title. Hallstrom is a veteran of the genre, ...
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Safe Haven (CNS)
Safe House
Moviegoers will find "Safe House" (Universal) anything but a refuge. In fact, the titular CIA facility, located in picturesque Cape Town, South Africa, provides the setting, early on, for a mayhem-ridden confrontation that turns out to be all too characteristic of this excessively violent and unconvincing espionage thriller.
Presiding over the ...
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Safe House (CNS)
Safe House
Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is just completing his first
year as a CIA operative. Assigned to Cape
Town, South Africa,
he is the housekeeper of a safe house should the CIA need to hide or
interrogate someone in that part of the world. But he has a girl friend he
wants to spend more ...
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Safe House (SRR)
Safety of Objects, The
Sensitive but wrongheaded drama explores the characters (including Dermot Mulroney, Patricia Clarkson and Mary Kay Place) in four neighboring households who struggle to resolve different age-related problems. Writer-director Rose Troche creates several realistic, three-dimensional characters but the choice taken by the mother (Glenn Close) of a comatose son makes a serious ...
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Safety of Objects, The (CNS)
Sahara
Lackluster and, at times, absurdly silly action adventure about a roguish treasure hunter (Matthew McConaughey), who, along with his sidekick (Steve Zahn), helps a U.N. doctor (Penelope Cruz) investigate a mysterious plague outbreak in a war-torn African nation which they think may be somehow linked to their search for a long-lost ...
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Sahara (CNS)
Sahara
Click title to see this St. Anthony Messenger movie review.
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Sahara (SAM)
Saint of 9/11
Click title to see this St. Anthony Messenger movie review.
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Saint of 9/11 (SAM)
Saint of 9/11
Sir Ian McKellen narrates this moving tribute to Franciscan Father Mychal Judge, the New York fire chaplain who was the first official casualty of the World Trade Center terror attack of Sept. 11, 2001. Director Glenn Holsten's sentimental documentary features heartfelt testimonials from those whose lives he touched: firemen, alcoholics, the ...
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Saint of 9/11 (CNS)
Saint Ralph
Fanciful but extraordinarily moving film about a 14-year-old boy (Adam Butcher) who believes only a miracle can bring his hospitalized mother out of her coma, so with no prior experience in running he decides his miracle will be winning the Boston Marathon and trains with one of his teachers, former runner ...
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Saint Ralph (CNS)
Saints & Sinners
A documentary about a gay couple who are Catholic and want to have their union recognized by the Catholic Church. Writer-director Abigail Honor offers a sympathetic portrayal of the two men but the film neglects to coherently and credibly communicate the church's teachings on homosexuality, specifically its teaching on same-sex unions ...
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Saints & Sinners (CNS)
Salmon Fishing in Yemen
Dr. Alfred Jones “Fred” (Ewan McGregor) is a staid civil
servant in London, an expert in the fisheries division of the government. He
leads a quiet life with his mostly absent professional wife Mary (Rachael
Sterling). One day the department
receives a letter from Harriet (Emily Blunt) inviting them to allow Fred to
consult on a ...
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Salmon Fishing in Yemen (CNS)
Salt
Angelina Jolie makes a weak script reasonably compelling in "Salt" (Columbia/Relativity). But, though well-acted, director Phillip Noyce's action thriller is also thoroughly violent.
Jolie plays veteran and highly skilled CIA operative Evelyn Salt. When a Russian intelligence officer named Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) strolls into the offices of the front corporation ...
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Salt (CNS)
Samurai Jack
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Samurai Jack (SAM)
Sanctum
Don't be misled by the religious ring of "Sanctum" (Universal). This 3-D action adventure is, in fact, an unholy contribution to the cult -- and culture -- of death.
Even on an artistic level, executive producer James Cameron's track record of designing innovative tools for making nature films and blockbusters such ...
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Sanctum (CNS)
Santa Clause 2, The
Superficial, but moderately enjoyable, live-action fantasy in which Santa (Tim Allen) must tend to his misbehaving 16-year-old son (Eric Lloyd) and satisfy a contract to marry by Christmas Eve. A sequel to 1994's "The Santa Clause," it presumes a familiarity with the original movie and features five of the same major ...
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Santa Clause 2, The (CNS)
Saraband
Somber but intelligent film -- divided into 10 "chapters" -- about a lawyer (Liv Ullmann) who pays a surprise visit to the husband (Erland Josephson) she divorced 32 years ago, becoming embroiled in the tensions between the man and his estranged conductor son (Borje Ahlstedt) and aspiring cellist granddaughter (Julia Dufvenius). ...
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Saraband (CNS)
Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour
Cheaply made rip-off of the R.L. Stine "Goosebumps" formula of ghost stories for preteens. The plot involves a plucky 17-year-old (newcomer Rissa Walters), who, visiting Pine Valley, Calif., tries to help an older boy (Brian Comrie, son of the directors-screenwriters) who is haunted by a ghost (Rusty Hanes) who has threatened ...
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Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour (CNS)
Sarah’s Key
Kristen Scott Thomas plays Julia, an American journalist in
Paris who is married to a Frenchman, Bertrand Tezac. In 2002, as the 60th
anniversary of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of Jews in Paris by the French police, Julia wants to
write the story as it has not been told before. Few people realize that ...
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Sarah’s Key (SRR)
Savages, The
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Savages, The (SAM)
Savages, The
Strongly acted, perceptive study of middle-age brother and sister (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) called upon to care for their emotionally and geographically distant father (Philip Bosco) who has had a stroke. Writer and director Tamara Jenkins accurately etches all the minutiae of dealing with an ailing parent, though the ...
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Savages, The (CNS)
Saved
Tart teen comedy about a senior at an evangelical high school…The film uses satire to offer a scalding critique of hypocrisy and puffed-up piety, but its wall-to-wall bashing of conservative Christians, which at times stoops to irreverent lows, displays the same sort of insensitivity which the movie purportedly decries…More
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Saved (CNS)
Saving Private Ryan
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Saving Private Ryan (SAM)
Saving Shiloh
Gentle boy-and-his-dog tale completing the trilogy based on Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Newbery Award winning children's books. Here the titular beagle's young owner (Jason Dolley) reaches out to befriend the pooch's ornery previous owner (Scott Wilson), whose attempts to amend his mean-spirited ways are met with suspicion by the rest of the ...
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Saving Shiloh (CNS)
Saw
Gory thriller about two strangers (Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell) who awake to find themselves chained in a subterranean chamber and learn that their imprisonment is part of a serial killer's macabre mind game. Directed by James Wan, the film starts off well, but after an intriguing first 20 minutes, any ...
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Saw (CNS)
Saw 3-D
If memory serves, it was the editors of Mad magazine who coined the expression "Yecch!" Whoever armed us with that handy exclamation, it certainly springs to mind while meditating—if one must—on the repellant "Saw" franchise that began in 2004.
True to form, as directed by Kevin Greutert, "Saw 3-D" (Lionsgate), ...
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Saw 3-D (CNS)
Saw II
Repellent follow-up to 2004's "Saw," this time involving a hard-nosed police detective (Donnie Wahlberg) whose estranged teenage son (Erik Knudsen) -- along with eight other victims -- becomes the newest pawn in a sadistic game elaborately engineered by the homicidal mastermind known as "Jigsaw" (Tobin Bell). Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, ...
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Saw II (CNS)
Saw III
Homicidal mastermind Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) -- now on his deathbed and aided by a young apprentice (Shawnee Smith) -- is at it again, devising depraved games for his two latest pawns: a father (Angus Macfadyen) grieving the death of his son, and a melancholy doctor (Bahar Soomekh) who is kidnapped and ...
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Saw III (CNS)
Saw IV
The fourth installment of this blood-saturated horror franchise offers more of the same mayhem, even though psychopath Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is dead. Having lost their antihero and much of the shock value, director Darren Lynn Bousman and company delve into Jigsaw's past, providing a routine back story to explain what turned ...
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Saw IV (CNS)
Saw V
Sordid horror sequel in which an FBI agent (Scott Patterson) suspects a police detective (Costas Mandylor) of aiding a sadistic maniac (Tobin Bell) in torturing and killing wrongdoers who have evaded the law. Director David Hackl's film intersperses justifications of twisted morality with graphic scenes of ghastly mayhem. Frequent bloody violence, ...
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Saw V (CNS)
Saw VI
The blood flood continues in the predictably gruesome
horror sequel "Saw VI" (Lionsgate), director Kevin Greutert's needless
extension of a noisome franchise.
This attempt at social relevance would be laughable if the results were not so grisly.
The latest victims in the sadistic life-or-death games initiated
by the deceased psychopath Jigsaw (Tobin ...
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Saw VI (CNS)
Scanner Darkly, A
Bleak, cautionary tale of futuristic investigator (Keanu Reeves) who goes undercover to investigate drug users (Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder and Rory Cochrane), only to discover that he's also spying on himself. Performances are a plus in writer-director Richard Linklater's faithful version of Philip K. Dick's hallucinatory 1977 science-fiction ...
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Scanner Darkly, A (CNS)
Scary Movie 3
Lame-brained comedy about a TV reporter (Anna Faris) who uncovers a convergence of cosmic calamities, including a set of mysterious crop circles (on a farm owned by Charlie Sheen), an imminent alien invasion and a sinister videotape. As now directed by David Zucker, this third spoof of current fright flicks and ...
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Scary Movie 3 (CNS)
Scary Movie 4
Crude comedy is once again the name of the game in this consistently unfunny sendup of recent horror and sci-fi films -- including "Saw," "War of the Worlds" and "The Grudge" -- and, like the three earlier installments, consists of little more than lame spoofs strung together by a vacant plot, ...
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Scary Movie 4 (CNS)
School for Scoundrels
Dreary and contrived comedy about an all-around loser parking-meter cop (Jon Heder) who, to win the heart of his pretty neighbor (Jacinda Barrett), takes a confidence-boosting course with an unconventional teacher (Billy Bob Thornton) who then pursues her as well. Director and co-writer Todd Phillips' film is almost completely devoid of ...
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School for Scoundrels (CNS)
School of Rock
A failed cash-hungry rocker (Jack Black) poses as a substitute teacher at a prestigious elementary school where he introduces rock 'n' roll into the academy's stodgy reading, writing and arithmetic curriculum, encouraging them to explore sides of themselves their parents and the school's by-the-book principal (Joan Cusack) discourage. Despite some humorous ...
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School of Rock (CNS)
Science of Sleep, The
Visually clever but unsatisfying drama set in Paris about an imaginative, if dysfunctional, young man (Gael Garcia Bernal) whose timid budding romance with his kindred-spirit neighbor (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is complicated by his chronic confusing of reality and dreams. Writer-director Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") charms with inventive flights ...
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Science of Sleep, The (CNS)
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Stale sequel which finds Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Velma (Linda Cardellini), Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Scooby (voiced by Neil Fanning) having to thwart a masked madman who is threatening to use a monster-making machine to turn their home town of Coolsville into Ghoulsville. Like his 2002 predecessor, ...
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Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (CNS)
Scoop
After being tipped off by the ghost of an investigative reporter (Ian McShane), a young American journalism student (Scarlett Johansson) and a second-rate magician (Woody Allen), who poses as her father, join forces to discover if the wealthy son (Hugh Jackman) of a British lord might be a serial killer. Director-writer ...
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Scoop (CNS)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Though presumably aimed at a teen audience, the action comedy "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (Universal) is too wildly violent and sexually freewheeling to be endorsed for young or old. This is all the more regrettable since the frenetic proceedings squander some intriguing cultural commentary and the undeniable gift for amusing ...
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Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (CNS)
Screen Door Jesus
Unfocused ensemble piece about the residents of a small Texas town -- including a local seductress (Scarlett McAlister), her philosophizing boyfriend (Mark Dalton), the lustful mayor (Richard Dillard), a guilt-wracked banker (Cliff Stevens), and a Pentecostal grandma (Anjanette Comer) -- whose disparate lives are affected by a "miraculous" image of Christ ...
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Screen Door Jesus (CNS)
Seabiscuit
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Seabiscuit (SAM)
Seabiscuit
If it were not for the fact that the film Seabiscuit is based on a true story, it would be unbelievable. From the book by Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit tells the story of a horse that races to victory against incredible odds. But the story is really about heart, about refusing to ...
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Seabiscuit (EDC)
Seabiscuit
Fact-based, Depression-era tale chronicling how Seabiscuit, a temperamental, bargain-basement racehorse, was transformed with the support of his patient owner (Jeff Bridges), resourceful trainer (Chris Cooper) and scrappy, hard-luck jockey (Tobey Maguire) from an ungainly loser to a racetrack record-setter whose hard-won triumphs lifted the spirits of the struggling American populace. Based ...
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Seabiscuit (CNS)
Season of the Witch
"I serve the church no more!" declares the main character in the baleful and boring medieval adventure "Season of the Witch" (Relativity). And, given the relentlessly negative picture of the era's Catholicism that screenwriter Bragi Schut and director Dominic Sena present throughout their film, it's little wonder he feels that way. ...
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Season of the Witch (CNS)
Secondhand Lion
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Secondhand Lion (SAM)
Secondhand Lions
Exceptional coming-of-age heartwarmer about an introverted boy (Haley Joel Osment) who grows up during a summer spent on the Texas farm of his two eccentric uncles (Robert Duvall and Michael Caine) after being abandoned by his mother. Directed by Tim McCanlies, the film hits all the right emotional notes, resulting in ...
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Secondhand Lions (CNS)
Secret Ballot
Savvy political satire about democratic elections in Iran, which follows an eager female election official and a bored male solider as they travel around a desert island in search of voters. By juxtaposing the barren landscape of his native country with the political opinions of different Iranians, writer-director Babak Payami questions ...
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Secret Ballot (CNS)
The Secret Life of Bees
Beautifully produced adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's best-seller set in South Carolina about a spiritual beekeeper (Queen Latifah) and her sisters (Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo) who take in a 14-year-old runaway (Dakota Fanning) and her caretaker (Jennifer Hudson) fleeing the girl's abusive father (Paul Bettany). Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood elicits well-judged ...
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The Secret Life of Bees (CNS)
The Secret Life of Bees
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The Secret Life of Bees (SAM)
Secret Lives of Dentists, The
Domestic drama about a dispassionate suburban dentist (Campbell Scott) whose life unravels when he suspects his wife (Hope Davis), also a dentist, of infidelity. Peppered with pitch-black humor and bolstered by fine performances, director Alan Rudolph's at times off-kilter study of marital dysfunction ultimately stresses the importance of spousal communication in ...
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Secret Lives of Dentists, The (CNS)
Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII
Uplifting documentary about Jewish children saved from the Nazis by non-Jewish families who, at great personal risk, took them into their own homes. Academy-Award winning filmmaker Aviva Slesin, herself a former hidden child in Lithuania, weaves together haunting archival footage, personal photographs, and interviews with both fellow survivors and the families ...
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Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII (CNS)
Secret Window
Absorbing psychological thriller set in an isolated lakefront cabin about a successful novelist (Johnny Depp) who is terrorized by a stranger (John Turturro) claiming that the author plagiarized one of his short stories and demanding restitution, threatening the scribe with a brand of backwater justice that includes cold-blooded murder. Based on ...
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Secret Window (CNS)
The Secret World of Arrietty
This beautifully animated adaptation of the multi-award-winning 1952 children’s novel by Mary Norton, “The Borrowers” is one of the
gentlest films I have seen in a long time.
Arrrietty and her family are little people. They believe
that if human “beans” see them their curiosity will destroy them and therefore
they must move ...
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The Secret World of Arrietty (SRR)
The Secret World of Arrietty
From Japan's celebrated animation outfit Studio Ghibli and director Hiromasa Yonebayashi comes the poignant fable "The Secret World of Arrietty" (Disney).
As remade in English under the supervision of Gary Rydstrom — the Japanese original was released in 2010 — this kid-friendly feature can be wholeheartedly recommended for all but easily ...
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The Secret World of Arrietty (CNS)
Secretariat
Not many Hollywood films open by quoting the Book of Job on the grandeur of horses: "In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground; he paws fiercely, rejoicing in his strength, and charges into the fray, afraid of nothing, when the trumpet sounds." (Job 39: 21-24, New International Version).
But ...
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Secretariat (CNS)
Secretary
Perverted tale of a self-mutilating secretary (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who finds liberation from her compulsion and sexual fulfillment when her sadistic boss (James Spader) begins spanking her and subjecting her to humiliating and demeaning acts of subjugation. Director Steven Shainberg's black comedy saluting sadomasochism presents a tiresome parade of one-note, dysfunctional characters ...
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Secretary (CNS)
Secrets and Lies
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Secrets and Lies (SAM)
Seducing Doctor Lewis
Charming Canadian comedy about residents of a fallen-on-hard-times fishing community who must lure a young physician from the big city and persuade him to stay on in their tiny town as its full-time resident doctor… A simple but exceptionally well-told tale full of hope which celebrates the importance of tradition ...
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Seducing Doctor Lewis (CNS)
See No Evil
Grim and grisly horror film about eight coed juvenile delinquents (including Christine Vidal and Michael J. Pagan) who, while renovating a creepy abandoned hotel as part of their community service, find themselves stalked by a hulking homicidal squatter (professional wrestler Kane) lurking in the hotel's labyrinthine halls. Director Gregory Dark serves ...
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See No Evil (CNS)
Seed of Chucky
Schlocky fifth installment of the "Child's Play" campy horror franchise, in which foulmouthed, killer doll Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) and his bloodthirsty bride (voiced by Jennifer Tilly) are resurrected by their gender-confused offspring (voiced by Billy Boyd), setting the stage for another murderous rampage. Directed by Don Mancini, the formulaic ...
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Seed of Chucky (CNS)
Seeker, The
Slight but entertaining fantasy about a 14-year-old American boy (Alexander Ludwig) living in England with his parents (John Benjamin Hickey and Wendy Crewson), his sister (Emma Lockhart) and four brothers (Gregory Smith, Drew Tyler Bell, Edmund Entin and Gary Entin), who learns that he is "The Seeker," the last in a ...
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Seeker, The (CNS)
Seige, The
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Seige, The (SAM)
Sea Inside, The
True-life drama about Spanish poet Ramon Sampedro (Javier Bardem), tragically paralyzed in a freak diving accident, who fought a losing 30-year legal battle for the right to end his own life, focusing on his relationships with three women: a terminally ill lawyer (Belen Rueda) hired to help with his case, his ...
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Sea Inside, The (CNS)
Sea Is Watching, The
Tender tale set in 19th-century Japan about a young, forlorn Japanese woman yearning to escape her emotionally barren life as a geisha, who ultimately finds true romance when the tides bring in a mysterious man, himself in need of healing. Despite protracted pacing and moments of melodrama, the richly textured film, ...
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Sea Is Watching, The (CNS)
Selena
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Selena (SAM)
Semi-Pro
Outlandish, only sporadically funny sports comedy, set in 1976, about a one-hit singer (Will Ferrell) who becomes the owner and playing coach of a Midwest ABA basketball team and who must work with a new player (Woody Harrelson) and the team's established star (Andre Benjamin) to ensure his franchise's survival after ...
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Semi-Pro (CNS)
SENNA
Aryton Senna de Silva (1960 – 1994) was a Formula One racing
champion from Brazil. He gave hope to the people of Brazil during hard times,
and he gave back through philanthropic work, especially for the education of
Brazil’s millions of poor children.
This documentary follows Senna’s life chronologically. He
fell in love with ...
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SENNA (SRR)
Sentinel, The
Fast-paced political thriller about a veteran Secret Service agent (Michael Douglas) who, framed in a plot to assassinate the president, must clear his name while on the run, with his former protege (Kiefer Sutherland) and a rookie agent (Eva Longoria) in pursuit. Despite holes in the script, director Clark Johnson's engaging ...
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Sentinel, The (CNS)
A Separation
“A Separation” won an Oscar for Best Picture in a Foreign
Language in February. Director Asghar Farhadi has the district honor of being the first Iranian
filmmaker to ever receive an Oscar.
In modern day Tehran, the capitol if Iran, Nadir and Simin
are in court to make Simin’s request for a separation ...
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A Separation (SRR)
September Dawn
Standard-style Western but with a provocative theme as the love story of a Mormon boy (Trent Ford) and pioneer girl (Tamara Hope) unfolds against a backdrop of the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, in which 120 men, women and children from Arkansas were slaughtered as their wagon train journeyed through Utah ...
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September Dawn (CNS)
Seraphim Falls
Downbeat, post-Civil War chase film with surrealistic flourishes, as bedraggled ex-soldier (Pierce Brosnan in an impressively gritty change of pace) flees relentless pursuer (Liam Neeson) and posse, while enduring bitter cold, raging waterfalls, gunshot wounds and other vicissitudes before the film climaxes with a redemptive confrontation in the desert. Director and ...
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Seraphim Falls (CNS)
Serendipity
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Serendipity (SAM)
Serenity
Offbeat sci-fi fantasy based on the short-lived television series "Firefly" set 500 years in the future about a crew of space smugglers (captained by Nathan Fillion) hotly pursued by an operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) of an oppressive interplanetary government intent on recapturing a fugitive doctor (Sean Maher) and his telepath sister (Summer ...
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Serenity (CNS)
Serving Sara
Routine romantic comedy in which a process server (Matthew Perry) is convinced by a good-looking woman (Elizabeth Hurley) to serve her Texas tycoon husband (Bruce Campbell) with divorce papers before he can serve her so that she can get a bigger portion of the marital funds. Low on laughs, director Reginald ...
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Serving Sara (CNS)
Seven Days in Utopia
“Seven Days in Utopia” is based on a best-selling 2009 novel
by renowned sports psychologist Dr. David Cook: Golf’s Sacred Journey: Seven
Days at the Links of Utopia.
When Luke Chisolm (Lucas Black) ignores the advise of his
lifelong coach and caddy, his dad Martin (Joseph Lyle Taylor), Luke loses and
his dad ...
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Seven Days in Utopia (SRR)
Seven Pounds
Far-fetched and overlong drama about a guilt-ridden loner (Will Smith) intent on atoning for a terrible sin by giving life-altering assistance to seven needy strangers, including a blind pianist (Woody Harrelson), a Latina mother (Elpidia Carrillo) being physically abused by her boyfriend, and an artistic printer (Rosario Dawson) suffering from heart ...
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Seven Pounds (CNS)
Seven Pounds
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Seven Pounds (SAM)
Seven Year's in Tibet
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Seven Year's in Tibet (SAM)
Sex and the City
Frothy but morally flawed romantic comedy tracing the amorous ups and downs of a columnist turned author (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her three closest friends (Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon) after she and her longtime boyfriend (Chris Noth) purchase an apartment together. Conscientious themes of forgiveness and reconciliation as ...
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Sex and the City (CNS)
Sex and the City
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Sex and the City (SAM)
Sex and the City 2
The skewed values on display in the romantic comedy "Sex and the City 2" (New Line)—writer-director Michael Patrick King's follow-up to his 2008 big-screen adaptation of the long-running HBO TV series—are typified early on when its main character and narrator, New York-based columnist turned author Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), serves ...
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Sex and the City 2 (CNS)
Sex Drive
A hapless teen (Josh Zuckerman) purloins his bullying brother's (James Marsden) classic sports car and, accompanied by his two best friends (Amanda Crew and Clark Duke), embarks on a cross-country road trip hoping to lose his virginity with an alluring woman (Katrina Bowden) he met over the Internet. Though romance eventually ...
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Sex Drive (CNS)
Shaggy Dog, The
Lame reworking of the 1959 Disney comedy, incorporating elements of its 1976 follow-up, about a workaholic Los Angeles deputy district attorney (Tim Allen) who, while trying a case involving a sinister scientist (Robert Downey Jr.), is bitten by a mutt and soon finds himself turning into one, leading to nutty canine ...
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Shaggy Dog, The (CNS)
Shakespeare in Love
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Shakespeare in Love (SAM)
Shall We Dance
Delightful remake of 1996 Japanese film, now set in Chicago, about a lawyer (Richard Gere) in a rut with his loving but preoccupied wife (Susan Sarandon) and two teenage kids, whose life is transformed when he secretly enrolls in a ballroom dancing school, after he observes a beautiful and sad woman ...
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Shall We Dance (CNS)
Shanghai Knights
Madcap action comedy set in 1887 London where a carefree adventurer (Owen Wilson) helps his serious Chinese buddy (Jackie Chan) seeking to avenge the death of his Imperial Guard father and foil a royal family assassination plot. Director David Dobkin tosses current-day music and expressions into an escapist, comic mix of ...
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Shanghai Knights (CNS)
Shape of Things, The
Thought-provoking drama about an iconoclastic graduate art student (Rachel Weisz) who uses the manipulating palette knife of suggestion to transform the appearance and personality of her boyfriend (Paul Rudd), proving that seduction is an art. Director Neil LaBute subverts the Pygmalion story, employing cerebral dialogue, pitch-black wit and a disturbingly manipulative ...
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Shape of Things, The (CNS)
Shark Tale
Visually sparkling, but otherwise underwhelming deep-sea animated comedy about a jive-talking little fish (voiced by Will Smith) who, after taking undeserved credit for slaying a great white shark menacing his coral reef community, finds himself up to his gills in trouble with the shark's dad (voiced by Robert DeNiro), the godfather ...
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Shark Tale (CNS)
Shattered Glass
Fact-based drama about a hotshot Washington journalist (Hayden Christensen) whose rising star is shot down when his editor (Peter Sarsgaard) discovers that many of the stories he wrote were total fabrications. While director Billy Ray's intelligent biopic takes a strong ethical stance, raising important questions concerning public trust issues, the film ...
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Shattered Glass (CNS)
Shaun of the Dead
Mordantly funny but extremely bloody British import inspired by George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" about a twenty-something slacker (Simon Pegg) who -- along with his oafish flatmate (Nick Frost) and former girlfriend (Kate Ashfield) -- try to hold off swarms of flesh-eating zombies while holed up in their favorite London ...
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Shaun of the Dead (CNS)
She Hate Me
Disjointed and didactic drama about a Harvard-educated vice president (Anthony Mackie) of a large pharmaceutical company on the verge of unveiling an AIDS vaccine who, after being fired and having his bank accounts frozen for blowing the whistle on his corporate higher-ups for Enron-like financial malfeasance, is persuaded by his entrepreneurial, ...
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She Hate Me (CNS)
Sherlock Holmes
The game's afoot once more in "Sherlock Holmes" (Warner Bros.). But, though vigorous, this latest addition to the chronicles of perhaps the world's most iconic sleuth—who first figured in a series of novels and short stories published between 1887 and 1927 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—is also frequently violent.
In ...
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Sherlock Holmes (CNS)
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" (Warner Bros.), director Guy Ritchie's second take on the classic detective fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, follows the pattern of its predecessor as it downplays old-fashioned sleuthing in favor of a constant flow of confrontations, escapades and escapes.
While the fast-paced proceedings ought to ...
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Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (CNS)
She's the Man
Breezy if uneven modernizing of Shakespeare's comedy of mistaken identities, "Twelfth Night," about a teenage tomboy (Amanda Bynes) who poses as her twin brother (James Kirk), enrolls in his coed boarding prep school to play soccer, and winds up falling in love with his/her jock roommate (Channing Tatum), who has a ...
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She's the Man (CNS)
She's Out of My League
A seemingly unlikely romance between a nerdy but good-hearted man and a fetching, sophisticated young woman could be the basis for a film exploring worthwhile themes such as the need to reject stereotypes and the value of basing lasting attachments on the appreciation of personal, rather than merely physical qualities.
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She's Out of My League (CNS)
Shine
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Shine (SAM)
Shine a Light
High-energy documentary capturing parts of two hard-driving performances by veteran rockers the Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood) at New York City's Beacon Theatre in fall 2006 during which they perform some of their most familiar songs as well as lesser-known original numbers and cover material. ...
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Shine a Light (CNS)
Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness
As the ad says, before there was
“Fiddler on the Roof” there was Sholem Aleichem, the Yiddish storyteller whose
takes of Tevye the Dairyman were the inspiration for the beloved award-winning
musical and film. Sholem Aleichem was the
pen name for Solomon Naumovich Rabinovic who was born
in the Ukraine in 1859 and
died in New York
in ...
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Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness (SRR)
Shoot 'Em Up
Ultraviolent action film about a mysterious sharpshooter (Clive Owen) and a prostitute (Monica Bellucci) with a baby in tow, on the run from a deadly assassin (Paul Giamatti). Writer-director Michael Davis' film is played tongue-in-cheek and with flashes of genuine wit, the two leads make charismatic adversaries with Giamatti relishing his ...
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Shoot 'Em Up (CNS)
Shooter
Satisfying conspiracy thriller that plays like a Tom Clancy "Rambo," with Mark Wahlberg as an ex-U.S. Army sniper framed by government bigwig Danny Glover for an attempted presidential assassination that killed a foreign bishop instead. Director Antoine Fuqua, who knows his way around guns 'n' ammo from "Training Day" and "Tears ...
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Shooter (CNS)
Shopgirl
Languidly paced story of lonely and lovelorn Saks salesclerk (an appealing Claire Danes) who, after a tentative fling with a nerdy, awkward font artist (Jason Schwartzman), meets a wealthy older man (Steve Martin) and commences a no-strings-attached affair that proves only fitfully satisfying for her. Director Anand Tucker's adaptation of Martin's ...
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Shopgirl (CNS)
Shorts
The old
admonition to be careful what you wish for provides the basic theme of the
clever children's fantasy "Shorts" (Warner Bros.).
Writer-director
Robert Rodriguez's lively yarn, which generally makes for appealing family
entertainment, also carries messages about the dangers of power and the
isolating effects of contemporary technology.
Told in a
series of ...
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Shorts (CNS)
Showtime
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Showtime (SAM)
Showtime at the Apollo
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Showtime at the Apollo (SAM)
Shrek
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Shrek (EDC)
Shrek 2
Whimsical and welcome sequel to the 2001 smash storybook send-up about a green ogre who, this time around, must face something far more imposing than a fire-breathing dragon—his in-laws—when he travels with his new bride to her parents' kingdom, where they find out that their chances of living happily ever after ...
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Shrek 2 (CNS)
Shrek 2
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Shrek 2 (EDC)
Shrek 2
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Shrek 2 (SAM)
Shrek Forever After
The green ogre and his princess bride come full circle in "Shrek Forever After" (Paramount), a more conventionally heartwarming and less raucous animated riff on fairy tales than its three predecessors.
Those relishing the cheeky idiom that helped the franchise achieve blockbuster status (and occasionally push the PG envelope) might ...
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Shrek Forever After (CNS)
Shrek the Third
The saga of the lovable ogre continues in the same high quality vein of the first two films, as Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) -- aided by a potential heir to Far Far Away's throne (Justin Timberlake) -- must rescue his wife, Fiona (Cameron Diaz), and the kingdom's other residents who ...
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Shrek the Third (CNS)
Shrek the Third
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Shrek the Third (EDC)
Shutter
Glum, morbid horror tale about a Brooklyn photographer (Joshua Jackson) and his bride (Rachael Taylor) whose Tokyo honeymoon is haunted by the wraith of a Japanese girl (Megumi Okina) they accidentally struck down with their car. Director Masayuki Ochiai's remake of the 2004 Thai film of the same name, while not ...
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Shutter (CNS)
Shutter Island
Martin Scorsese's prolix psychological thriller "Shutter Island" (Paramount) takes place in 1954 and follows U.S. Marshal Ted Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his brand-new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) to a storm-swept island in Boston Harbor, home to a hospital for the criminally insane.
The officers have been assigned to investigate the ...
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Shutter Island (CNS)
Sicko
Michael Moore's excoriating documentary expose of the American health care system, in which he sets out to demonstrate the superior medical treatment people receive in countries such as Canada, England, France and even Cuba, each with tax-based socialized medicine resulting in patients having seemingly few if any out-of-pocket expenses. Moore's approach ...
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Sicko (CNS)
Side Effects
Intriguing but somewhat sordid, the psychiatry-themed drama Side Effects (Open Road) messes, quite successfully, with viewers' heads. Mature moviegoers may enjoy following the twisting trail of director Steven Soderbergh's clever puzzler.
Yet a number of red-flag elements preclude not only youngsters but those in search of casual diversion as well.
This ...
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Side Effects (CNS)
Sideways
Bittersweet comedy about a depressed novelist and wine aficionado (Paul Giamatti), who, in lieu of a bachelor party, treats his womanizing, though soon-to-be-married, best friend (Thomas Haden Church) to a last-hurrah tour of Northern California wineries that becomes a midlife journey of self-discovery. Based on a novel by Rex Pickett, director ...
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Sideways (CNS)
Signs
Struggling with loss of faith after the sudden death of his wife, an Episcopalian minister (Mel Gibson) fears for the life of his children (Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin) after he and his brother (Joaquin Phoenix) discover huge circular patterns in his cornfield that suggest an invasion by hostile aliens. Writer-director ...
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Signs (CNS)
Signs
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Signs (SAM)
Silent Hill
Bleak and surreal supernatural thriller about a mother (Radha Mitchell) whose desperate search for her missing daughter (Jodelle Ferland) leads her to a haunted ghost town -- ravaged by fire 30 years earlier -- where she faces demonic forces and the town's evil past to get her child back. Suffused with ...
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Silent Hill (CNS)
Silent House
Part horror flick, part psychodrama, "Silent House" (Open Road)—a low-budget remake of a similarly down-market Uruguayan film called "La Casa Muda"—ends up being an unsatisfying representative of both genres.
There's more style than substance here, and astute viewers are going to figure it all out at least 30 minutes before the ...
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Silent House (CNS)
Silk
Picturesque but utterly vapid 19th-century period piece about a French ex-soldier (Michael Pitt) sent to Japan by a silk merchant (Alfred Molina) to purchase healthy eggs to restore the local silk business ravaged by a silkworm-egg epidemic; he becomes obsessed by a concubine (Sei Ashina) of the baron (Koji Yakusho) with ...
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Silk (CNS)
Silver City
Smartly crafted but overstuffed drama set in Colorado centering on a reporter-turned-private-detective (Danny Huston) hired by the campaign manager (Richard Dreyfuss) of a verbally challenged gubernatorial candidate (Chris Cooper) to investigate the appearance of a corpse during the taping of a campaign commercial. Though well acted, the film, written and directed ...
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Silver City (CNS)
Silver Linings Playbook
In "Silver Linings Playbook" (Weinstein), filmmaker David O. Russell attempts to fashion a winsome romantic comedy that also addresses mental illness with perceptiveness and sensitivity.
It's not an easy maneuver to pull off. But it works because the source material, a novel by Matthew Quick, is rooted in an actual place ...
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Silver Linings Playbook (CNS)
Simon Birch
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Simon Birch (SAM)
Simone
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Simone (SAM)
Simone
Likable drama in which a down-on-his-luck director (Al Pacino) secretly creates a computer-generated actress to star in his film and she becomes an instant success, but when the creation becomes more famous than the creator, it threatens to ruin his life. Spiked with some witty dialogue, director Andrew Niccol's film amusingly ...
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Simone (CNS)
Simpsons Movie, The
Full-length, glossier version of long-running TV series with many clever gags has doltish Homer Simpson (voice of Dan Castellaneta) running afoul of the EPA head (Albert Brooks) after he dumps his pet pig's droppings in Springfield's pollution-free lake, resulting in the town being quarantined under a giant dome, which incites the ...
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Simpsons Movie, The (CNS)
Sin City
Visually bold but ultraviolent movie based on Frank Miller's hard-edged graphic novels which weaves together pulp-crime stories from the popular comic book series, including the tale of an honest cop (Bruce Willis) trying to protect a girl from a politically connected sadistic killer, and a street brawler (Mickey Rourke) who goes ...
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Sin City (CNS)
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
Animated adventure about the legendary Arabian swashbuckler (voiced by Brad Pitt) who, along with a spunky princess (Catherine Zeta-Jones), must battle fantastical creatures and steal a magic book from a treacherous goddess (Michelle Pfeiffer) in order to save his friend, Proteus (Joseph Fiennes). Despite polished animation which draws from various mythologies, ...
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Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (CNS)
Singin' in the Rain
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Singin' in the Rain (SAM)
Singing Detective, The
Quirky hardboiled musical about a pulp novelist (Robert Downey Jr.) hospitalized for a severe skin disorder who imagines himself the title character of his dime-store detective stories -- a crooning 1950s-era gumshoe -- in order to exorcise the personal demons that have plagued him since childhood, aided along the way by ...
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Singing Detective, The (CNS)
Sister Helen
Poignant documentary about Sister Helen Travis, a tough 69-year-old Benedictine Oblate who runs a halfway house for recovering addicts in a poor section of the Bronx. Filmmakers Ron Fruchtman and Rebecca Cammisa show the harsh reality of the sister's life and the courage she has in following Jesus' example, but repeated ...
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Sister Helen (CNS)
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
Overcrowded but mostly enjoyable romance sequel updating the lives of four friends (Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Alexis Bledel) as they pursue disparate adventures during the summer after their first year in college. While director Sanaa Hamri's lightweight adaptation of Ann Brashares' novels promotes youthful self-confidence, it also takes ...
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Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The (CNS)
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The
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Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The (SAM)
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The
Tender, if at times overly sentimental, teen drama about four lifelong friends (Alexis Bledel, Blake Lively, America Ferrera and Amber Tamblyn) who spend their first summer apart, during which they experience life-changing adolescent ordeals, but remain linked by a shared pair of magical denim jeans. Directed by Ken Kwapis from the ...
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Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The (CNS)
The Sitter
Felony child endangerment presented as "life lessons" constitutes the theme, such as it is, of "The Sitter" (Fox).
Director David Gordon Green and screenwriters Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka run the gamut of degradation, tossing in some racism for good measure.
Jonah Hill plays Noah, a schlubby failure whose only goal ...
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The Sitter (CNS)
Sixth Sense, The
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Sixth Sense, The (SAM)
Skeleton Key, The
Minor but effective hokum about a hospice care worker (Kate Hudson) hired to take care of a dying man (John Hurt) in a creepy Louisiana mansion, under the eye of a suspiciously protective wife (Gena Rowlands) and a slick estate lawyer (Peter Sarsgaard), as voodoo, curses and spells abound. Director Iain ...
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Skeleton Key, The (CNS)
Skinwalkers
Werewolves-on-motorcycles action movie pits four biker-werewolves (including Jason Behr) against good werewolves (Elias Koteas among them) protecting a 12-year-old boy (Matthew Knight) who was prophesied as being the one to end the curse afflicting them. Director Jim Isaac's low-budget horror film is hardly a classic, but he provides intentional comic-book stylings ...
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Skinwalkers (CNS)
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Visually striking but essentially empty-headed and unrelievedly loud action-adventure film that attempts to pay homage to film noir and the serials of the '30s such as "Flash Gordon" in a tale of an intrepid reporter (Gwyneth Paltrow) and pilot (Jude Law) setting out to find a dastardly villain (a posthumous appearance ...
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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (CNS)
Sky High
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Sky High (EDC)
Sky High
Fun-filled and smartly crafted coming-of-age comedy about an adolescent superhero (Michael Angarano) attending an elite academy for the children of costumed crimefighters, who must live up to his parents' (Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston) world-saving reputation while navigating the equally trying teen trials of high school. Director Mike Mitchell strikes the ...
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Sky High (CNS)
Skyline
There's a single fascinating moment in "Skyline" (Universal), an otherwise forgettable (but with sequels to come!) apocalyptic yarn about aliens who invade Los Angeles with the munchies for humans.
A giant insectlike spaceship sucks thousands of computer-generated sticklike people into the sky like a giant vacuum. This being a low-budget ...
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Skyline (CNS)
Slap Her…She's French
One-dimensional comedy about a Texas teen (Jane McGregor) who gets deposed from her seat as the most popular girl in high school when a French foreign exchange student (Piper Perabo) hosted by her family steals her fame. Poorly written, director Melanie Mayron's film is showered with double entendres, cliches and stereotypes ...
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Slap Her…She's French (CNS)
Sleeper
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Sleeper (SAM)
Sleepover
Bubblegum comedy about four 13-year-old girls (including Alexa Vega) whose summer slumber party becomes a high-stakes adventure when they agree to sneak out of the house and enter an all-night scavenger hunt against their "popular" schoolyard rivals. Director Joe Nussbaum does some scavenging of his own, swiping freely from past teen ...
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Sleepover (CNS)
Sleepwalking
Somber working-class story of a good-hearted construction worker (an empathetic Nick Stahl) who bonds with his sister's 11-year-old daughter (AnnaSophia Robb) when her promiscuous mother (Charlize Theron) suddenly deserts them, eventually taking the girl to stay with his abusive farmer father (Dennis Hopper) after he loses his job and they run ...
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Sleepwalking (CNS)
Sleuth
Taut, though rather cold, remake of the 1972 film based on Anthony Shaffer's Broadway and West End hit play about a wealthy mystery writer (Michael Caine) who engages his wife's lover (Jude Law) in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Director Kenneth Branagh expertly sustains suspense, and his leads -- ...
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Sleuth (CNS)
Sling Blade
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Sling Blade (SAM)
Slipstream
Visually daring but disorienting drama in which a writer (Anthony Hopkins) has a series of what may or may not be hallucinations peopled by the characters in the screenplay he's revising and by the actors and crew of the movie-within-a-movie (Stella Arroyave, Christian Slater, John Turturro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Camryn Manheim, ...
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Slipstream (CNS)
Slither
Campy but repulsive horror film about a small town besieged by world-conquering space slugs that turn its residents -- starting with Michael Rooker -- into flesh-eating zombies, leaving it up to the local police chief (Nathan Fillion) and a handful of survivors (including Elizabeth Banks and Tania Saulnier) to save the ...
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Slither (CNS)
Slow Burn
This modern-day film noir about a big-city district attorney (Ray Liotta) running for mayor, a beautiful assistant district attorney (Jolene Blaylock) who says she killed an amorous store clerk in self-defense, and a faceless criminal kingpin is told in a series of flashbacks and half-baked sociological musings. Director-screenwriter Wayne Beach is ...
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Slow Burn (CNS)
Slumdog Millionaire
Vibrant drama in which a Mumbai, India, slum dweller (Dev Patel), suspected of cheating on a television quiz show, explains to a police inspector (Irrfan Khan) how his life experiences growing up with his brother (Madhur Mittal) and his loving pursuit of a childhood friend (Freida Pinto) enabled him to answer ...
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Slumdog Millionaire (CNS)
Slumdog Millionaire
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Slumdog Millionaire (SAM)
Small Time Crooks
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Small Time Crooks (SAM)
Smart People
Well-acted, edgy, but only so-so comedy-drama about a self-absorbed, arrogant college professor-widower (a fine Dennis Quaid) in midlife crisis who improbably falls in love with a former student, now a doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker), while coping with a freeloading brother (Thomas Haden Church), a precocious, overachieving daughter (Ellen Page) and a ...
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Smart People (CNS)
Smoke
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Smoke (SAM)
Smoke Signals
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Smoke Signals (SAM)
Smokin' Aces
Violent dark action comedy about a mob-connected Las Vegas conjuror, Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven), who, having cut a deal to turn witness against his underworld associates, holes up in a Lake Tahoe, Nev., casino penthouse waiting to be taken into protective custody by FBI agents (Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta), ...
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Smokin' Aces (CNS)
The Smurfs
Young children should giggle constantly through "The Smurfs" (Columbia), a comedy mixing animation and live action in which 3-D versions of the famous blue elves (only three apples high) leave their enchanted forest village to interact with an all-star cast in our world—and get tossed around and squished like so many ...
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The Smurfs (CNS)
Snakes on a Plane
The witness (Nathan Phillips) to a brutal murder in Hawaii is flown to Los Angeles with an FBI agent (Samuel L. Jackson) to testify against a vicious mob boss who unleashes hundreds of poisonous snakes inside the aircraft, causing terror among passengers and crew. The setup of director David R. Ellis' ...
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Snakes on a Plane (CNS)
Snitch
How should society balance the government's need to combat drug use—and its attendant evils—against the right of a citizen to be judged and punished according to the individual circumstances of his or her case?
If the fact-based film "Snitch" (Summit) is any evidence, the current use of mandatory sentences as a ...
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Snitch (CNS)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
This is a beautiful motion picture about Chinese women from
director Wayne Wang who also brought us “The Joy Luck Club” in 1993. Whereas “The Joy Luck Club” was based on the
best-selling novel by Amy Tan about mother-daughter relationships and the
tensions between Chinese and American culture, “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”,
also ...
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Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (SRR)
Snow White and the Huntsman
The "Fairest One of All" morphs into a butt-kicking warrior princess in "Snow White and the Huntsman" (Universal), the latest and darkest take yet on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale first published 200 years ago.
In a sharp contrast to spring's campy comedy "Mirror Mirror," first-time director Rupert Sanders colors the ...
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Snow White and the Huntsman (CNS)
The Social Network
The founder of Facebook gets unfriended big time in "The Social Network" (Columbia).
While the fact-based story of socially inept but technically gifted Mark Zuckerberg—convincingly portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg—and of the online empire he created makes for an engrossing drama, it also includes strictly adult material not at all suitable ...
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The Social Network (CNS)
Solaris
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Solaris (SAM)
Solaris
Sluggish, futuristic tale in which a widowed psychologist (George Clooney) arrives on board an imperiled space station only to find his late wife (Natascha McElhone), whom a rattled crew member (Viola Davis) insists is just a clone they must destroy before returning to Earth. Director Steven Soderbergh's strikingly minimalist story of ...
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Solaris (CNS)
The Soloist
Engrossing drama in which a Los Angeles journalist (Robert Downey, Jr.) profiles and befriends a musically gifted homeless man (Jamie Foxx), and discovers, through the challenging relationship, an underworld of his city's dispossessed. Director Joe Wright's adaptation of Steve Lopez's book features impressive performances by both leads that lend eloquence to ...
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The Soloist (CNS)
Something Borrowed
Before debiting themselves a dozen dollars to take in "Something Borrowed" (Warner Bros.), viewers of faith, or just of sense, would be well-advised to remember Polonius' famous advice to his son Laertes in Shakespeare's "Hamlet": "Neither a borrower nor a lender be."
That admonition applies in spades to the heroine ...
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Something Borrowed (CNS)
Something New
Lackluster interracial romance about a career-minded African-American executive (Sanaa Lathan) who falls for her white gardener (Simon Baker) prompting predictable reactions from her friends and family. Directed by Sanaa Hamri, the film reverses racial stereotypes in exploring society's unspoken prejudices, but its sentimental "love is colorblind" message is weedy with cliches ...
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Something New (CNS)
Something's Gotta Give
Sprightly if predictable romantic comedy in which an aging Lothario (Jack Nicholson) falls for his latest girlfriend's (Amanda Peet) mother (Diane Keaton) while she is being courted by a much younger doctor (Keanu Reeves). Although implied affairs are a given, lovely visuals and engaging performances allow writer-director Nancy Meyers to tickle ...
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Something's Gotta Give (CNS)
Son of the Mask
Daffy but disappointingly derivative special-effects-laden comedy directed by Lawrence Guterman about an aspiring cartoonist (Jamie Kennedy) whose life is thrown for a loop when he stumbles upon an ancient Norse mischief-making mask that transforms its wearer into a grimacing, green-skinned demigod, only to discover that by donning the mask he somehow ...
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Son of the Mask (CNS)
Son of Rambow
Rollicking but also touching chronicle, set in 1980s Britain, of the unlikely friendship between a reserved schoolboy (Bill Milner), who's being raised by his puritanically religious widowed mother (Jessica Stevenson), and a rambunctious fellow student (Will Poulter) who's been left in the care of his dictatorial older brother (Ed Westwick), as ...
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Son of Rambow (CNS)
Son of Rambow
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Son of Rambow (SAM)
The Song of Sparrows
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The Song of Sparrows (SAM)
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
Gripping true-life drama chronicling the final six days in the life of Sophie Scholl (Julia Jentsch), a 21-year-old German college student executed by the Nazis in 1943 after being arrested for distributing anti-war leaflets at her university, detailing her ordeal from her three-day cross-examination by a Gestapo interrogator (Alexander Held), to ...
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Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (CNS)
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
By the time viewers sit through the two flashbacks—one set in the Middle Ages, the other a mere 10 years ago—that are required to get "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (Disney) rolling, they will likely have a sense that director Jon Turteltaub's generally inoffensive but routine fantasy adventure is on track to do ...
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The Sorcerer's Apprentice (CNS)
Sorority Row
Early on in the cut-rate horror tale "Sorority Row"
(Summit), a hard-drinking coed who goes by the poetic moniker Chugs
(Margo Harshman) watches via computer cam as her brother Garrett (Matt
O'Leary) beds Megan (Audrina Patridge), one of her sorority sisters
whom Garrett has drugged to make her more cooperative. This uplifting
scene pretty much sets ...
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Sorority Row (CNS)
Sorry, Haters
Murky tale of a Muslim taxi driver (Abdellatif Kechiche) who picks up a distraught television executive (Robin Wright Penn) who takes an interest in his personal life, and offers to help him extricate his unjustly jailed brother, leading to bizarre complications he could not have imagined. Writer-director Jeff Stanzler has created ...
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Sorry, Haters (CNS)
Soul Food
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Soul Food (SAM)
Soul Men
Good-hearted but frequently crude comedy about two retired soul-music backup singers (Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac) who uneasily reunite and drive across the country to appear in a tribute to their recently deceased front man (singer-songwriter John Legend), joined along the way by the daughter (Sharon Leal) of the woman ...
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Soul Men (CNS)
Soul Surfer
The true story of a teenage girl who overcame a horrific shark attack to rise to the top of her sport is translated to the big screen in "Soul Surfer" (Tri-Star), an uplifting film about the power of faith and perseverance.
Bethany Hamilton (AnnaSophia Robb) is a happy, ordinary 13-year-old living ...
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Soul Surfer (CNS)
Sound of Music, The
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Sound of Music, The (EDC)
Sound of Thunder, A
Clumsy sci-fi actioner about a corporation that offers time-traveling safaris (led by Edward Burns) for wealthy clients to hunt dinosaurs, during one of which a seemingly inconsequential accident triggers a chain reaction of evolution-altering effects that end up rewriting millions of years of natural history and threatening to wipe out mankind. ...
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Sound of Thunder, A (CNS)
Source Code
Taut direction by Duncan Jones and game performances all around help disguise the logical conundrums underlying the time travel-themed sci-fi thriller "Source Code" (Summit).
As for the musings on life, death and parallel existences that crop up in Ben Ripley's screenplay, these are too confused either to challenge or reinforce ...
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Source Code (CNS)
Space Chimps
Lively computer-animated children's adventure in which a happy-go-lucky circus performer (voice of Andy Samberg), whose grandfather was the first chimp astronaut, is invited to join a pompous commander (voice of Patrick Warburton) and his sensible lieutenant (voice of Cheryl Hines) on an all-simian mission to retrieve an expensive space probe that's ...
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Space Chimps (CNS)
Space Cowboys
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Space Cowboys (SAM)
Spanglish
James Brooks' observant and charming story about a non-English-speaking Mexican mother (Paz Vega) who takes a job as a housekeeper with an affluent California family -- an easygoing chef (Adam Sandler), his hypercontrolling, self-absorbed wife (Tea Leoni), two children, and alcoholic mother-in-law (Cloris Leachman) -- to support herself and her young ...
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Spanglish (CNS)
Spartan
Dense and dark thriller about a brutally efficient commando (Val Kilmer) who, along with his wet-behind-the-ears protege (Derek Luke), is recruited by a shadowy task force to rescue the president's kidnapped daughter (Kristen Bell), only to become entangled in a deadly network of conspiracies that reach up to the highest corridors ...
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Spartan (CNS)
Speed 2
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Speed 2 (SAM)
Speed Racer
Overly long and only so-so live-action adventure yarn -- based on the 1960s Japanese animated TV series -- about a young race car driver (Emile Hirsch) who, with the loving support of his parents (John Goodman and Susan Sarandon) and girlfriend (Christina Ricci), stands up to the corrupt race sponsor (Roger ...
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Speed Racer (CNS)
Spellbound
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Spellbound (Frost)
Spellbound
Uplifting Oscar-nominated documentary about eight students from across the country competing for all the marbles at the National Spelling Bee in Washington. While effectively capturing the nail-biting pressure-cooker atmosphere of the grueling two-day event, director Jeff Blitz interweaves disparate stories creating an engaging tapestry which celebrates the kaleidoscope of the American ...
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Spellbound (CNS)
Spencer Tracy, Hollywood priest
Screen legend Spencer Tracy (1900-1967), who won one of his two Academy Awards for portraying a priest during Hollywood's golden age, played Catholic clergymen three other times, but was never comfortable with it, reveals a forthcoming book about the star.
In "Spencer Tracy: A Biography," to be published this fall by ...
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Spencer Tracy, Hollywood priest (CNS)
Sphere
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Sphere (SAM)
Spider
Bleak psychological drama about a mentally ill man (Ralph Fiennes) living in a decrepit London halfway house who struggles to discover the dreadful truth about the death of his mother (Miranda Richardson) as his frail mental state declines. Director David Cronenberg spins together muddled childhood memories in a disturbed adult mind ...
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Spider (CNS)
Spider-Man 2
Satisfying sequel which finds the masked web-slinger (Tobey Maguire) struggling to choose between his lifelong love (Kirsten Dunst) and his superpowered destiny, while battling a new menace -- Dr. Octopus (Alfred Molina), a mad genius whose indestructible titanium tentacles give new meaning to the term armed and dangerous. Director Sam Raimi ...
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Spider-Man 2 (CNS)
Spider-Man 2
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Spider-Man 2 (SAM)
Spider-Man 3
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Spider-Man 3 (SAM)
Spider-Man 3
Excellent second sequel has Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire), on the verge of proposing marriage to girlfriend Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) while Peter's friend-turned-nemesis Harry (James Franco) recovers from an amnesia-inducing accident which temporarily erases their enmity, though Peter's increasingly prideful behavior and two formidable villains, Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) ...
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Spider-Man 3 (CNS)
Spider-Man
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Spider-Man (SAM)
Spider-Man
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Spider-Man (EDC)
Spiderwick, Chronicles, The
Gothic fantasy adventure tale set on an isolated Victorian estate once occupied by an eccentric student of the paranormal (David Strathairn) and now home to his great-niece (Mary-Louise Parker), her twin sons (both played by Freddie Highmore) and daughter (Sarah Bolger), all of whom find themselves caught up in a struggle ...
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Spiderwick, Chronicles, The (CNS)
The Spirit
Artistically crafted but ultimately insubstantial adventure in which a slain policeman (Gabriel Macht) mysteriously returns as the invulnerable titular hero, working with the local police commissioner (Dan Lauria) and a physician (Sarah Paulson) to fight the schemes of a maniacal drug dealer (Samuel L. Jackson) and a seductive jewel thief (Eva ...
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The Spirit (CNS)
Spirited Away
Fantastical, animated adventure about a young Japanese girl (voice of Daveigh Chase) who, separated from her parents, goes through a mysterious tunnel and enters a nightmarish world of spirits and bizarre mythical creatures where she must learn to trust strangers and look within herself to find strength and courage. Writer-director Hayao ...
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Spirited Away (CNS)
Spirited Away
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Spirited Away (SAM)
Spitfire Grill, The
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Spitfire Grill, The (SAM)
Splice
"Splice" (Warner Bros.) is an unintentionally amusing and not-very-scary horror film which reminds us, once again, that it's not nice to fool with Mother Nature. Though its message is ambiguous, this perverse tale of genetic engineering run amok ought to win new converts to the Catholic Church's repeated warnings that scientists ...
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Splice (CNS)
SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, The
Wacky animated comedy-adventure about a yellow sea sponge (voiced by Tom Kenny) who, along with his starfish best friend (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke) must recover King Neptune's crown in order to save their underwater home from the diabolical plans of an evil amoeba (voiced by Doug Lawrence). Based on the hugely ...
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SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, The (CNS)
Springtime in a Small Town
Bittersweet post-World War II tale set in rural China where a young doctor (Baiqing Xin) comes to stay with his sickly childhood friend (Jun Wu) only to find him married to the girl (Jingfan Hu) he reluctantly left behind years earlier, which threatens to change the dynamics of their friendship and ...
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Springtime in a Small Town (CNS)
Spy Kids
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Spy Kids (EDC)
Spy Kids 2
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Spy Kids 2 (EDC)
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
Enjoyable fantasy-action sequel in which a brother-and-sister spy duo (Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara) working for the government travel to a mysterious island where they meet an eccentric scientist (Steve Buscemi) and his odd crossbred animals before being helped in their quest to save the world by their spy parents (Antonio Banderas, ...
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Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (CNS)
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
Flat kiddie-actioner which finds junior agent Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) entering a 3-D video game in order to save his sister, Carmen (Alexa Vega), from a diabolical menace known as the Toymaker (Sylvester Stallone) bent on taking over the world's youth through a video game that controls their minds. Despite a ...
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Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (CNS)
Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World 4D
In director/writer Robert Rodriguez’ fourth installment of
the “Spy Kids” franchise we have a new spy family headed by step-mom Marissa
(Jessica Alba) and Wilbur (Joel McHale). His two kids are twins Rebecca and
Cecil ( for the entire cast see the Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517489/).
Marissa is a real-life sky who ...
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Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World 4D (SRR)
Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D
Had your fill of 3-D movies? Take a whiff of "4D," otherwise known as "Aroma-Scope," now, um, airing in "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World" (Dimension). This third sequel to 2001's "Spy Kids" offers viewers the chance, via a scratch-and-sniff card, to "smell" the action as they watch (in ...
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Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D (CNS)
The Spy Next Door
Though generally good-hearted, and clearly aimed at family audiences, "The Spy Next Door" (Lionsgate/Relativity) -- a thin martial-arts comedy showcasing genre veteran Jackie Chan—includes scenes of hand-to-hand combat that make it unsuitable for the smallest viewers, while brief interludes of mildly risque humor further restrict its appropriate audience.
Chan plays ...
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The Spy Next Door (CNS)
Squid and the Whale, The
Downbeat but keenly observant story of dysfunctional Brooklyn-based family -- vain, pseudointellectual writer (a superb Jeff Daniels) in career slump; his estranged wife (Laura Linney), beginning to get attention as a writer; and their two confused children (Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline) shuttling between the two households. Writer-director Noah Baumbach does ...
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Squid and the Whale, The (CNS)
Stage Beauty
Bawdy and bustling period drama about a stage actor (Billy Crudup) famed for women's parts in the days before women were allowed to appear in the theater. The actor's livelihood is threatened when King Charles II (Rupert Everett) decides to allow women and ban men appearing in women's roles, while the ...
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Stage Beauty (CNS)
Stander
True-life drama set in 1970s' South Africa about white police captain Andre Stander (Thomas Lane), deeply disillusioned by the dehumanizing injustices of apartheid, who, along with two accomplices, bucks the racist system he had spent his life enforcing by pulling off a series of increasingly audacious bank robberies, which he rationalizes ...
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Stander (CNS)
Star Trek
Exhilarating prequel to the "Star Trek" franchise as the youthful rabble-rousing James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine) forgoes his delinquent ways to join the crew of the Starship Enterprise—including Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (James Cho) and Chekhov (Anton Yelchin)—where he soon clashes with rival Spock (Zachary Quinto) ...
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Star Trek (CNS)
Star Trek Into Darkness
The original fans of the long-lived "Star Trek" franchise may be getting older; the TV series that started everything off, after all, first hit antennas (remember them?) nearly 50 years ago.
But director J.J. Abrams continues to keep the perennially appealing characters of this sci-fi stalwart young with his second chronicle ...
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Star Trek Into Darkness (CNS)
Star Trek: Nemesis
Satisfyingly familiar if predictable sci-fi adventure in which Starship Enterprise Capt. Picard (Patrick Stewart) and crew are pitted against Picard's youthful clone and nemesis (Tom Hardy), who leads a Romulan revolt to trick the Federation with a peace overture, then capture the Enterprise and destroy the Earth. Director Stuart Baird sticks ...
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Star Trek: Nemesis (CNS)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Animated action fantasy in which a courageous but arrogant warrior (voice of Matt Lanter) is saddled by his commander (voice of Tom Kane) with an unwanted apprentice (voice of Ashley Eckstein) while combating a kidnapping plot by an evil nobleman (voice of Christopher Lee) and his battle-hardened minion (voice of Nika ...
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Star Wars: The Clone Wars (CNS)
Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones
Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his impatient apprentice Anakin (Hayden Christensen) must foil an assassination plot against the former queen (Natalie Portman) as a secret enemy is building a massive army to destroy the Republic. Director George Lucas displays great visual panache but dull dialogue drags down the narrative ...
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Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones (CNS)
Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith
Satisfying, but decidedly dark climax of the "Star Wars" saga, in which Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), seduced to the dark side by the sinister Sith Lord (and soon-to-be evil Emperor) Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), betrays his mentor Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and forsakes his Jedi ways to become Darth Vader. Full of eye-popping ...
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Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith (CNS)
Stardust
Eventful fairy tale based on a popular book by Neil Gaiman about a star that falls to earth in human form (Claire Danes), and how she's pursued by a witch (Michelle Pfeiffer) who hopes to acquire eternal youth, a murderous prince (Mark Strong) trying to secure his late father's (Peter O'Toole) ...
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Stardust (CNS)
Starsky & Hutch
Lame comedy based on the 1970s' buddy-cop TV drama about two maverick cops (Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson) on the trail of a kingpin who has perfected a process of making cocaine undetectable to drug-sniffing dogs. Full of forced humor and canned camp, director Todd Phillips' ode to disco detective work ...
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Starsky & Hutch (CNS)
Starter for Ten
Appealing British film set in the 1980s about a gauche working-class student (James McAvoy) at Bristol University whose lifelong penchant for trivia makes him a natural to join the four-person team competing on "University Challenge," an actual game show akin to the old "College Bowl" series in the U.S., and finds ...
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Starter for Ten (CNS)
State of Play
Engrossing political thriller about a veteran reporter (Russell Crowe) and a rookie blogger (Rachel McAdams) on the same Washington paper who join forces to investigate a series of murders, one of which involves a crusading congressman (Ben Affleck) who's trying to expose corruption involving a powerful military contractor. Kevin Macdonald directs ...
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State of Play (CNS)
Statement, The
Tautly paced but ideologically skewed cat-and-mouse thriller about a French former Nazi collaborator (Michael Caine) who is shielded from being brought to trial by a shadowy network of high-ranking members of the French government and the Catholic Church. Norman Jewison's loosely fact-based tale derails from its serious subject matter into commercial ...
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Statement, The (CNS)
Station Agent, The
Tender drama about a reclusive dwarf (Peter Dinklage) who inherits an abandoned train depot, which becomes an oasis of emotional healing for him, as well as an artist (Patricia Clarkson) mourning the loss of her child and a chatty snack vendor (Bobby Cannavale) who just needs a friend. A poignant, well-written ...
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Station Agent, The (CNS)
Station Agent, The
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Station Agent, The (EDC)
Stay
Cinematically dazzling mood piece about a psychiatrist (Ewan McGregor) helping a guilt-racked, suicidal youth (Ryan Gosling) who blames himself for his role in the car accident that killed his parents, while the therapist copes with his own mental turmoil and that of his girlfriend (Naomi Watts) with latent emotional problems of ...
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Stay (CNS)
Stay Alive
Forgettable thriller set in New Orleans about a group of gamers (Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, Frankie Muniz, Sophia Bush and Jimmi Simpson) who race to unravel the mystery of a sinister video game -- possessed by a vengeful spirit -- after they start winding up dead, killed in the exact manner ...
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Stay Alive (CNS)
Stealth
Turbo-paced but vacuous action movie directed by Rob Cohen about a trio of elite Navy pilots (Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx) who must stop a highly advanced unmanned warplane, whose artificial intelligence has run amok, from triggering a world war. Combining elements of "Top Gun" and "2001: A Space ...
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Stealth (CNS)
Stella Days
Its title notwithstanding, night falls on 1950s Catholic Ireland in "Stella Days" (Tribeca). Director Thaddeus O'Sullivan's adaptation of Michael Doorley's memoir tells the story of a country in transition and one priest's struggle to keep his flock -- and himself -- from spiritual exhaustion.
Antoine O. Flatharta's script does not condemn ...
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Stella Days (CNS)
Step Brothers
Frantic confrontational comedy in which two middle-age but immature stay-at-home sons – one a would-be singer (Will Ferrell), the other an aspiring drummer (John C. Reilly) – become unwilling roommates and violent rivals after their respective single parents (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins) wed, later bonding as friends based on their ...
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Step Brothers (CNS)
Step Up
Diverting if inconsequential dance drama about a street punk (Channing Tatum) who splits his time between break dancing and stealing cars, and who finds himself doing community service at an elite performing arts academy, where his flashy dance moves catch the eye of a ballerina (Jenna Dewan) who is desperate to ...
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Step Up (CNS)
Step Up 2 the Streets
Lighthearted, enjoyable dance sequel about an orphaned teen (Briana Evigan) who enrolls at a prestigious arts academy and, with the encouragement of a popular fellow student (Robert Hoffman), forms a hip-hop dance crew made up of likable eccentrics (Adam G. Sevani, Mari Koda and Luis Rosado, among others) from the school ...
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Step Up 2 the Streets (CNS)
Step Up 3D
Three-dimensional effects enhance the precision choreography showcased in "Step Up 3D" (Disney).
But the nimble numbers in this tale retreading familiar Hollywood themes of dream fulfillment and the self-selecting circle of friends as do-it-yourself substitute family are interspersed with flat-footed dialogue, a creaky plot and some provocative moves and lyrics. This ...
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Step Up 3D (CNS)
Step Up Revolution
One adage holds that it's best to stick to what you're good at. It's too bad screenwriter Amanda Brody didn't take that advice on board when writing "Step Up Revolution" (Summit).
This fourth installment of the steamy dance and romance franchise continues to showcase the kind of top-notch choreography to which ...
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Step Up Revolution (CNS)
The Stepfather
"The Stepfather" (Screen Gems) is director Nelson
McCormick's tedious remake of Joseph Rubin's 1987 chillfest of the same
title which, like its two sequels, received an "O" classification from
the Office for Film & Broadcasting. Though the homicidal episodes
in this misguided attempt at a reboot are relatively restrained, the
moral outlook of the latest version ...
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The Stepfather (CNS)
Stepford Wives, The
Uneven remake of author Ira Levin's thriller about a hyper-driven TV executive (Nicole Kidman) who, after being axed from the network, relocates with her husband (Matthew Broderick) and children to the suburban Shangri-La of Stepford, Conn., where the men have replaced their wives with remote-controlled replicas who doltishly wait on them ...
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Stepford Wives, The (CNS)
Stick it
High-energy but formulaic teen sports movie about a 17-year-old former world-class gymnast (Missy Peregrym) who, after a run-in with the law, is sent by the court, as an alternative to juvenile detention, to a hard-core gymnastics academy, where a tough-love coach (Jeff Bridges) helps her get a second chance at the ...
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Stick it (CNS)
Stir of Echoes
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Stir of Echoes (SAM)
Stomp the Yard
After his brother's tragic death, a Los Angeles street dancer (Columbus Short) relocates to Atlanta to attend a prestigious black university, where he is recruited by members of a fraternity impressed by his hip-hop moves to help them dethrone their campus rivals as reigning national champs of "stepping," a traditional style ...
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Stomp the Yard (CNS)
The Stoning of Soraya M.
Compelling and often moving, if necessarily violent, fact-based drama set in Iran, in which a philandering husband (Navid Negahban) falsely accuses his wife (Mozhan Marno) of adultery with her employer (Parviz Sayyad), eventually convincing her neighbors (David Diaan and Ali Pourtash, among others) to condemn her, despite the vigorous protests of ...
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The Stoning of Soraya M. (CNS)
Stop-Loss
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Stop-Loss (SAM)
Stop-Loss
Harshly realistic war drama about a decorated Army sergeant (Ryan Phillippe) who returns from Iraq expecting to be discharged, but is ordered to return to combat under the titular policy and instead defies his commander (Timothy Olyphant) by taking off without leave and going to Washington with the help of his ...
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Stop-Loss (CNS)
Story of Us, The
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Story of Us, The (SAM)
Story of the Weeping Camel, The
Captivating docudrama set against spectacular expanses of the Gobi Desert about a family of nomadic Mongolian herders who summon a musician from a far-off village to perform an ancient ritual, which they hope will coax a mother camel into nursing the newborn calf which she rejected at birth. Though it doesn't ...
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Story of the Weeping Camel, The (CNS)
Straight Story, The
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Straight Story, The (SAM)
Strange Wilderness
Pointless road movie about the slacker host of a failing wildlife TV program (Steve Zahn) who sets out with an equally clueless technical crew (Allen Covert, Jonah Hill, Ashley Scott, Justin Long and Kevin Heffernan) to save his show by tracking down and taping Bigfoot. Co-writer and director Fred Wolf's film ...
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Strange Wilderness (CNS)
Stranger Than Fiction
Quirky dramatic comedy about a lonely and neurotic IRS auditor (Will Ferrell) who wakes to find his life being narrated by a seemingly omniscient voice only he can hear, which turns out to belong to a famous reclusive author (Emma Thompson) working on a new novel in which he is the ...
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Stranger Than Fiction (CNS)
Strangers With Candy
Vulgar farce based on the Comedy Central television series about a 47-year-old misfit (Amy Sedaris) recently released from prison who tries to reform her life by going back to high school, where she competes in a science fair with some nerdy students against a team of popular kids. With wit at ...
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Strangers With Candy (CNS)
Strangers, The
Reasonably taut thriller in which a quarrelling unmarried couple (Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) are menaced by a trio of masked intruders (Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks and Laura Margolis) at his parents' isolated summer home. Before its grisly climax, writer-director Bryan Bertino's feature debut mostly eschews bloodletting in favor of old-fashioned ...
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Strangers, The (CNS)
Straw Dogs
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Dreary Southern stereotypes and grotesque, by-rote violence devalue "Straw Dogs" (Screen Gems), a pointless remake of the 1971 Sam Peckinpah film.
The setting in this version (also an adaptation of the novel "The Siege of Trencher's Farm"), directed and written by Rod Lurie, has been moved from ...
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Straw Dogs (CNS)
Street Kings
Bleak, gritty police drama about a corrupt LAPD detective (Keanu Reeves), one of several evidence-planters led by a scheming captain (Forest Whitaker), who joins with an action-hungry rookie (Chris Evans) to investigate the death of his ex-partner (Terry Crews), who was informing on him to an internal affairs officer (Hugh Laurie), ...
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Street Kings (CNS)
Stuart Little 2
Cute sequel in which Stuart (voiced by Michael J. Fox), the talking white mouse adopted by the Little family (Geena Davis, Jonathan Lipnicki and Hugh Laurie), is befriended by a tiny bird (voiced by Melanie Griffith) forced into thievery by a vicious falcon (voiced by James Woods). Director Rob Minkoff repeats ...
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Stuart Little 2 (CNS)
Stuck On You
Surprisingly tender screwball comedy about a pair of small-town conjoined twins (Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear) who leave their insular home in Massachusetts for the bright lights of Hollywood so that one of the brothers can pursue his dream of being an actor. Conjoined in their creativity, sibling directors Peter and ...
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Stuck On You (CNS)
Sum of All Fears, The
Espionage thriller loosely based on the Tom Clancy novel in which rookie CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) races to prove a nuclear attack on the U.S. was not ordered by Russia while both the American and Russian presidents prepare to initiate a nuclear response. Sleekly directed by Phil Alden Robinson, ...
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Sum of All Fears, The (CNS)
Sum of All Fears, The
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Sum of All Fears, The (SAM)
Summer of Sam
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Summer of Sam (SAM)
Sunshine
Powerful contemporary science fiction tale set a half-century in our future when the sun in dying and an international expedition (Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis and Troy Garrity among them) hopes to regenerate the once powerful star. Director Danny Boyle pays homage to past cinematic space stories like ...
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Sunshine (CNS)
Sunshine Cleaning
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Sunshine Cleaning (SAM)
Sunshine State
Tale of two women, one of whom has never left the small Florida island she grew up on (Edie Falco) and the other who is returning for the first time in 25 years (Angela Bassett), who are confronting the past and preparing for the future as real estate developers swoop down ...
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Sunshine State (CNS)
Super 8
Perhaps a fitting alternative title for "Super 8"
(Paramount) -- writer-director J.J. Abrams' able blend of nostalgia,
drama and sci-fi thrills -- might be "Stand By Me Meets Godzilla."
Like its 1986 predecessor, in which a quartet of boys from rural Oregon
set off through the woods in search of ...
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Super 8 (CNS)
Super 8
This sci-fi thriller takes place in rural Ohio in 1979. A
group of junior high school students led by Charles (Riley Griffiths) are
making a super 8 mm film for a film contest but they are making it up as they
go. Zombies are prominent.
Joe (Joel Courtney) makes model trains. He ...
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Super 8 (SRR)
Super Capers
Shoddy comedy in which a would-be superhero (Justin Whalin) joins a crew of crime fighters (Samuel Lloyd, Ryan McPartlin, Ray Griggs and Danielle Harris) endowed with marginal powers to foil the schemes of a corrupt judge (Michael Rooker). In his feature debut, Griggs, who also wrote and directed, creates a well-intentioned, ...
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Super Capers (CNS)
Superbad
Two nerdy high school friends (Jonah Hill and Michael Cera), who are about to graduate and go to different colleges, team up with their more dweebish sidekick (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) to pursue the girls of their dreams (Emma Stone, Martha MacIsaac and Aviva), elude the local police (Bill Hader and Seth Rogen) ...
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Superbad (CNS)
Supercross: The Movie
Turbo-charged turkey about two motorcycle-racing brothers (Steve Howey and Mike Vogel) who dream about competing professionally and whose bonds are tested when one is offered a spot on a corporate-sponsored team with a chance of winning the motorbiking world's equivalent of the Super Bowl. Directed by Steve Boyum, the fast-paced but ...
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Supercross: The Movie (CNS)
Superman Returns
The world's greatest superhero flies triumphantly back onto movie screens in "Superman Returns" (Warner Bros.) which has the Man of Steel (Brandon Routh) returning to earth after a five-year absence to find that while some things haven't changed -- arch-nemesis Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is still plotting mass destruction -- Metropolis ...
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Superman Returns (CNS)
Superman Returns
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Superman Returns (SAM)
Surf's Up
Animated action-comedy about a teenage penguin surfer (Shia LaBeouf) is a warm-weather diversion with a relaxed summer vibe that earns low scores for originality but higher marks for execution and its winning-isn't-everything message. Aware that moviegoers may have had their fill of screen penguins, some minor objectionable elements notwithstanding, directors Ash ...
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Surf's Up (CNS)
Surrogates
"Life, only better." So runs the advertising slogan
of the conglomerate whose technological breakthrough—the development
of a race of ideal-looking robotic alter egos remote-controlled by
their human owners' thoughts—provides the premise for the futuristic
thriller "Surrogates" (Touchstone).
This generally intriguing cautionary tale begins with a series
of flashbacks showing us the profound, and seemingly positive, ...
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Surrogates (CNS)
Surviving Christmas
Uneven comedy about a successful Chicago ad man (Ben Affleck) who, tired of spending Christmas alone, pays the family living in his childhood house (headed by James Gandolfini) a small fortune to "adopt" him for the holiday season, so he can relive the idyllic Christmases of his youth. Directed by Mike ...
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Surviving Christmas (CNS)
Suspect Zero
Relentlessly dreary thriller set in New Mexico about a demon-haunted FBI agent (Aaron Eckhart) on the trail of a government-trained telepath (Ben Kingsley) who may or may not be responsible for the gruesome string of homicides he is investigating. Following a generic cat-and-mouse formula, the stylish film is weighed down by ...
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Suspect Zero (CNS)
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Bloody but artful screen version of Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical (and now a staple of opera houses) recounting the Victorian legend of the crazed barber (an intense Johnny Depp, singing surprisingly well) determined to exact revenge on the lecherous judge (Alan Rickman) who robbed him of his wife and daughter years ...
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Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (CNS)
Sweet and Lowdown
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Sweet and Lowdown (SAM)
Sweet Hereafter, The
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Sweet Hereafter, The (SAM)
Sweet Home Alabama
High-spirited tale in which a small-town Southern girl (Reese Witherspoon) hides the truth about her previous marriage and humble Southern roots in hopes of marrying an up-and-coming politician whose mother is the mayor of New York City. Directed in breezy fairy-tale manner by Andy Tennant, the movie suggests following your heart ...
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Sweet Home Alabama (CNS)
Sweet Land
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Sweet Land (EDC)
Sweet Sixteen
Bleak drama about a resourceful, working-class Scottish teen (Martin Compston) who becomes entangled with a vicious drug dealer in order to raise enough money to buy a home for him and his recovering-addict mother (Michelle Coulter). Director Ken Loach elicits a nuanced performance out of his adolescent lead to create an ...
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Sweet Sixteen (CNS)
Swept Away
Sporadically funny romantic comedy in which an American magnate's haughty wife (Madonna), stranded on a deserted island with an Italian fisherman (Adriano Giannini), falls in love with him after he gives her a taste of her own medicine. As directed by Guy Ritchie, Madonna is convincing when arrogant but drippy when ...
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Swept Away (CNS)
Swimming Upstream
Alternately inspiring and sordid true story of Australian swimming champion Tony Fingleton, who grew up with a brutish, alcoholic father (Geoffrey Rush), and a loving, supportive mother (Judy Davis). Russell Mulcahy's film, with a script by Fingleton himself (based on a book written with his sister, Diane), features superb performances by ...
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Swimming Upstream (CNS)
Swing Vote
Smartly made if unabashedly formulaic comedy about a beer-chugging, slovenly single father (Kevin Costner) whose civically minded child (Madeline Carroll) surreptitiously tries to vote on his behalf, leading to an anomaly where his vote will determine the U.S. presidential race between the incumbent Republican (Kelsey Grammer) and his Democratic rival (Dennis ...
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Swing Vote (CNS)
Swing Vote
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Swing Vote (SAM)
Swingtown
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Swingtown (SAM)
The Switch
Though it showcases some of the tangled emotional complications brought about by severing conception from its divinely intended source and setting, the bond of marital love, "The Switch" (Miramax)—a frequently distasteful comedy of modern manners—fails to reach the moral conclusions its own plot should make obvious.
Instead, co-directors Will Speck ...
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The Switch (CNS)
Sydney White
Quirky campus comedy in which an irrepressible tomboy (Amanda Bynes) leaves her home and widowed father (John Schneider) for college, pledges her late mother's sorority with the support of a fellow initiate (Crystal Hunt) and despite the hostility of its snooty president (Sara Paxton), but ultimately finds her true role as ...
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Sydney White (CNS)
Synecdoche, New York
Surreal, pessimistic drama in which a theater director (Philip Seymour Hoffman), deserted by his artist wife (Catherine Keener), endlessly rehearses a constantly expanding autobiographical play while battling bizarre illnesses and seeking emotional fulfillment from his second spouse (Michelle Williams) and an on-again-off-again lover (Samantha Morton). Writer Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, an ...
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Synecdoche, New York (CNS)
Syriana
Intermittently engaging but mostly confusing political thriller which explores corruption in the international oil industry through a mosaic of interlocking stories involving: a veteran CIA operative (George Clooney); a reform-minded Arab sheik (Alexander Siddig); an energy analyst (Matt Damon) grieving the death of his son, and a Washington lawyer (Jeffrey Wright), ...
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Syriana (CNS)
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