Tadpole
Questionable comedy-drama about a precocious 15-year-old boy (Aaron Stanford) who falls in love with his stepmother (Sigourney Weaver) but has an unexpected one-night stand with his stepmother's forty-something best friend (Bebe Neuwirth), complicating matters all around. In relating teen-age angst and unrequited first love, director Gary Winick's film has some touching ...
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Tadpole (CNS)
Tailor of Panama, The
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Tailor of Panama, The (SAM)
Take the Lead
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Take the Lead (SAM)
Take the Lead
Uplifting movie inspired by real-life dance instructor Pierre Dulaine (a very believable Antonio Banderas), who gets permission from the principal of an inner-city high school (Alfre Woodard) to teach ballroom dancing to troubled kids, eventually leading them to participate in a major ballroom competition. Music video director Liz Friedlander makes an ...
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Take the Lead (CNS)
Taken
Formulaic and contrived but effectively tense thriller about an ex-government operative (Liam Neeson) hunting for his missing teenage daughter (Maggie Grace) who's been kidnapped by Albanian sex traffickers in Paris. Director Pierre Morel keeps things moving with a flashy visual style, and Neeson plays with a genuine intensity that almost, but ...
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Taken (CNS)
Taken 2
Liam Neeson scowls his way through the sour sequel "Taken 2" (Fox). Moviegoers may find themselves displaying a similar expression should they choose to spend a long 90 minutes watching Neeson tangle with—and inevitably best—one anonymous heavy after another.
This time out, Neeson's Bryan Mills—a retired CIA agent short of fuse ...
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Taken 2 (CNS)
Taking Lives
Smart and stylish thriller about an FBI profiler (Angelina Jolie) called in by Canadian authorities to help solve a string of grisly unsolved murders stretching back 20 years and who becomes emotionally involved with a witness (Ethan Hawke) in danger of becoming the serial killer's next victim. Despite a formulaic cat-and-mouse ...
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Taking Lives (CNS)
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Brisk but gritty thriller that pits a New York subway dispatcher (Denzel Washington) against a psychopath (John Travolta) whose small gang (including Luis Guzman) has hijacked the titular train, taking its passengers hostage. Performances by the leads and supporting cast—James Gandolfini as the mayor and John Turturro as a police negotiator ...
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The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (CNS)
Taking Sides
Failed drama set in post-World War II Berlin about the prosecution of famed German symphony conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler (Stellan Skarsgard) by an American officer (Harvey Keitel). Despite lush, atmospheric settings, director Istvan Szabo's film, which is based on a true story, lacks dramatic tension as it poorly attempts to convey the ...
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Taking Sides (CNS)
Taking Woodstock
“Taking Woodstock"
(Focus) is a fact-based slice of psychedelic history that sees Elliot Teichberg
(comedian Demetri Martin), the young manager of a failing motel in New York's Catskills,
inadvertently becoming a crucial player in the staging of the iconic 1969 music
festival.
Though it traces its protagonist's growth
toward a healthier relationship with his immigrant ...
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Taking Woodstock (CNS)
The Tale of Despereaux
Charming animated adventure story about a chivalrous mouse (voice of Matthew Broderick) who is banished to a rat-filled tunnel for fearlessly befriending a distressed human princess (voice of Emma Watson), contrary to the timid customs of his society, and gains the protection of a globe-trotting rat (voice of Dustin Hoffman) with ...
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The Tale of Despereaux (CNS)
Talented Mr. Ripley, The
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Talented Mr. Ripley, The (SAM)
Tales From Earthsea
Wizards are fighting, dragons are circling overhead and the natural world has lost its balance in "Tales From Earthsea" (Walt Disney/Studio Ghibli), a Japanese anime adaptation of the popular book series by Ursula K. Le Guin. "Tales From Earthsea" offers multiple parables on life and death; freedom and slavery, and the need ...
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Tales From Earthsea (CNS)
Talk to Her
Troubling Spanish melodrama in which a writer (Dario Grandinetti) whose bullfighter girlfriend (Rosario Flores) is comatose after being gored is befriended by a male nurse (Javier Camara) who loves his own comatose patient (Leonor Watling) and takes extreme action in hopes of bringing her back to consciousness. While writer-director Pedro Almodovar ...
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Talk to Her (CNS)
Talk to Me
Formulaic but still touching and inspiring biographical drama of a prominent Washington radio personality and activist (a fine Don Cheadle) from the Vietnam-Watergate era to his death in 1984. Director Kasi Lemmons uses the redemptive power of friendship and strong performances by a cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor as a radio-station executive, ...
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Talk to Me (CNS)
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Fitfully amusing comedy about a former pit-crew mechanic (Will Ferrell) who rises to the pinnacle of the NASCAR racing circuit, falls from the spotlight and then tries to get back to the top with the help of his beer-guzzling dad (Gary Cole). Despite a goofily entertaining performance by Ferrell, there's not ...
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Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (CNS)
Tangled
After "Shrek," it's easy to forget that filmmakers once played fairy tales straight. Walt Disney, the studio synonymous with such traditional interpretations, offers another enjoyable example in its 50th full-length animated release.
Largely irony-free and lacking the snarky quality of many movies aimed at kids, "Tangled" (Disney) is a throwback ...
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Tangled (CNS)
Taxi
High-octane, low-wattage buddy comedy about a bumbling New York City cop (Jimmy Fallon) who enlists the aid of a speed-demon cab driver (Queen Latifah) to help him catch a gang of beautiful but deadly female bank robbers (led by Gisele Bundchen). Directed by Tim Story, this revved-up remake of a 1998 ...
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Taxi (CNS)
Teacher's Pet
Wacky and witty animated musical about a dog (voiced by Nathan Lane) whose quest to become a real boy leads him and his master (voiced by Shaun Fleming) to the lab of a mad scientist (voiced by Kelsey Grammer) who claims he can transform animals into humans, yielding unintended and comic ...
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Teacher's Pet (CNS)
Team America: World Police
Intentionally outrageous adventure-comedy, with songs, by the "South Park" creators, featuring surprisingly lifelike marionettes (strings and all), about a governmental police team out to thwart global terrorists in Paris, the Mideast and Korea. A Broadway actor is drafted to help the squad take on the nefarious Korean dictator, Kim Jong II, ...
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Team America: World Police (CNS)
Tears of the Sun
Simplistic war movie-morality play lionizes superheroic Navy SEALs led by Bruce Willis as they rescue refugees and battle evil ethnic-cleansing rebel forces amid a Nigerian civil war. Director Antoine Fuqua's tribute to U.S. military men celebrates fortitude and compassion, but its generic, unconvincing moral dilemmas and dimensionless characters fail as drama. ...
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Tears of the Sun (CNS)
Tears of the Sun
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Tears of the Sun (SAM)
Tell No One
This absorbing mystery thriller focuses on a pediatrician (Francois Cluzet) under renewed suspicion for the death of his wife (Marie-Josee Croze) eight years earlier, now on the run both from the police and some brutish thugs, while he tries to clear his name. Director Guillaume Canet has skillfully adapted American Harlan ...
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Tell No One (CNS)
Ten Commandments, The
Epic and effective retelling of the Exodus story using 3-D computer-generated imagery animation and narration by Sir Ben Kingsley to show how Moses (voice of Christian Slater), in obedience to the call of God (Elliott Gould) and with the support of his brother, Aaron (Christopher Gaze), and sister, Miriam (Kathleen Barr), ...
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Ten Commandments, The (CNS)
Terminal, The
Disappointing romantic comedy about an Eastern European traveler (Tom Hanks) who, after his homeland's government is overthrown by a coup while he is en route to the United States, is denied access to American soil and forced to live in an airport terminal where he befriends several members of the maintenance ...
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Terminal, The (CNS)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
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Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (SAM)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Lavishly violent sci-fi actioner has Arnold Schwarzenegger returning as the cyborg stud from the future sent to protect soon-to-be-savior-of-mankind John Connor (Nick Stahl) from yet another terminator upgrade (Kristanna Loken). Despite a steroid-sized special effects budget, director Jonathan Mostov's film flexes little muscle beyond its smash-and-crash sequences, resulting in an adrenalin-heavy, ...
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Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (CNS)
Terminator Salvation
Explosively violent sci-fi action sequel in which the prophesied victor (Christian Bale) in humanity's post-apocalyptic struggle against a race of murderous supermachines must locate the teen (Anton Yelchin) who will someday travel back in time to become his father while determining whether a bewildered visitor from the past (Sam Worthington) is ...
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Terminator Salvation (CNS)
Tea With Mussolini
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Tea With Mussolini (SAM)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The
Revolting splatterfest about a vanload of teen slackers (including Jessica Biel and Eric Balfour) who find themselves marooned in rural Texas and hunted by a chainsaw-wielding maniac. Director Marcus Nispel's formulaic slasher flick treats mutilation and mayhem as entertainment, assaulting viewers with unabated gratuitous gore fueled by a dehumanizing sadism and ...
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Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The (CNS)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, The
Prequel to the 2003 horror film that revisits the homicidal Hewitt clan (headed by R. Lee Ermey), revealing the early years of the franchise's chainsaw-wielding killer, "Leatherface" (Andrew Bryniarski), with a quartet of young road-trippers (Jordana Brewster, Taylor Handley, Diora Baird and Matt Bomer) served up for slaughter. Director Jonathan Liebesman ...
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Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, The (CNS)
Thank You for Smoking
Trenchant black comedy about tobacco industry lobbyist (a perfectly cast Aaron Eckhart) who, under the approving eye of his boss (Robert Duvall), will stop at nothing to promote cigarette smoking, as he manipulates talk show hosts (Joan Lunden and Dennis Miller), an anti-smoking Vermont senator (William H. Macy), a Hollywood agent ...
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Thank You for Smoking (CNS)
That Thing You Do!
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That Thing You Do! (SAM)
Then She Found Me
Fitfully engaging but mostly humdrum tale of a glum Jewish schoolteacher (Helen Hunt) who reconnects with the gregarious birth mother (Bette Midler) she never knew, and falls in love with a single father (Colin Firth) after her adopted mother dies and her husband (Matthew Broderick) walks out on her. Co-writer Hunt ...
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Then She Found Me (CNS)
There Be Dragons
What many people think they know about the Catholic spiritual movement Opus Dei likely comes—unfortunately—from the slanderous misrepresentations of it fobbed off on the public by author Dan Brown in his 2003 novel "The Da Vinci Code." Brown's fallacies, moreover, were only perpetuated by the 2006 screen version of his feverish ...
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There Be Dragons (CNS)
There Be Dragons
The death of a Spanish priest by the name of Josemarie Escriva in 1975 generated a lot of talk about his holiness.
A Spanish journalist living in London, Robert Torres (Dougray Scott) , is assigned to investigate the life of Escriva, the founder of a Catholic group called Opus ...
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There Be Dragons (SRR)
There Will Be Blood
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There Will Be Blood (SAM)
There Will Be Blood
Extraordinarily fine drama loosely based on Upton Sinclair 1927 novel, "Oil!" set during the early 20th century, about the rise and fall of a ruthless oil tycoon (Daniel Day-Lewis) who, accompanied by his young son (Dillon Freasier), fleeces a poor central California family of their land, and eventually finds himself pitted ...
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There Will Be Blood (CNS)
Therese
Earnest if modest period piece which reverently dramatizes the life of St. Therese of Lisieux (Lindsay Younce), known more affectionately as the "Little Flower." Based on her posthumously published autobiography, "The Story of a Soul," and directed by Leonardo Defilippis, the film is not so much a textured spiritual portrait of ...
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Therese (CNS)
Therese
Earnest but mawkish period piece which reverently dramatizes the life of St. Therese of Lisieux (Lindsay Younce), known affectionately as the "Little Flower." Based on her posthumously published autobiography, "The Story of a Soul," and directed by Leonardo Defilippis, the film is not so much a textured spiritual portrait of the ...
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Therese (CNS)
Thin Red Line, The
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Thin Red Line, The (SAM)
The Thing
"The Thing" (Universal) is billed as a prequel to horror specialist John Carpenter's 1982 movie of the same name. Carpenter's celebrated film was itself a remake of the 1951 classic "The Thing From Another World," produced by Howard Hawks. And that influential picture was, in turn, based on the science-fiction novella ...
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The Thing (CNS)
Thing About My Folks, The
Well-intentioned but talky father-son bonding movie, as irascible dad (a superb Peter Falk), suddenly abandoned by his wife (Olympia Dukakis), takes a road trip with his son (Paul Reiser who also wrote the script). They survey farm property, attend a baseball game, play pool, instigate a barroom brawl, dine with a ...
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Thing About My Folks, The (CNS)
Things We Lost in the Fire
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Things We Lost in the Fire (SAM)
Things We Lost in the Fire
Captivating exploration of the bond between a young widow (Halle Berry) and her late husband's (David Duchovny) best friend (Benicio Del Toro), a charismatic recovering junkie who also influences the lives of her son (Micah Berry) and daughter (Alexis Llewellyn), her brother (Omar Benson Miller), a fellow addict (Alison Lohman) and ...
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Things We Lost in the Fire (CNS)
Think Like a Man
Comedian Steve Harvey, the current host of the
syndicated television show “Family Feud,” published a best selling book in 2009
“Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man:
What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment.”
This film provides a fictional story that explores the many themes of Harvey’s
book. For example: The Ninety
Day ...
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Think Like a Man (SRR)
Thirteen
Unflinching drama about a clean-scrubbed seventh-grader (Rachel Evan Wood) who is led astray by her charismatic but out-of-control classmate, plunging headlong down the slippery-slope of teen peer-pressure. While its raw unfiltered depictions of self-destructive behavior, including drugs and casual sex, are at times difficult to watch, director Catherine Hardwicke's film strikes ...
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Thirteen (CNS)
This Christmas
Spirited but somewhat pat family drama in which a well heeled African-American clan gathers for the holidays at the Los Angeles home of their mother (Loretta Devine) and her companion (Delroy Lindo) who then try to help the oldest daughter (Regina King) cope with her domineering husband (Laz Alonso) -- as ...
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This Christmas (CNS)
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Lively but disjointed and ultimately unconvincing documentary that sets out to expose biases and inconsistencies in the ratings process of the Motion Picture Association of America, the film industry's lobbying organization, arguing that the ratings board treats sexual content more stringently than violence, curbs the freedom of independent filmmakers, favors the ...
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This Film Is Not Yet Rated (CNS)
This Is England
Interesting semiautobiographical story by writer-director Shane Meadows about the England of a quarter-century ago, as a lonely 12-year-old boy (Thomas Turgoose) who lives with his widowed mother after his father has died in the Falklands War, joins a group of skinheads to have a sense of belonging, and comes under the ...
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This Is England (CNS)
This Means War
Ill-conceived cinematically, and pervaded by a misguided view of human sexuality, the action and romance blend "This Means War" (Fox) quickly fights itself to a stalemate.
Director McG tracks the rivalry between two CIA agents and best friends, FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy), after they both fall for perky ...
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This Means War (CNS)
Thor
Over the centuries, Norse mythology, like its Greek and Roman counterparts, has been appropriated by artists seeking to enlighten as well as by those with the more modest goal of providing entertainment. Based on the exploits of the titular Marvel Comics superhero, "Thor" (Paramount) falls satisfyingly into the latter category.
The ...
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Thor (CNS)
A Thousand Words
Silence may indeed be golden. But the comedy "A Thousand Words" (DreamWorks) — which lumbers forth from an elaborate premise whereby a fast-talking literary agent must learn to hold his peace or kick the bucket — turns out to be about 90 minutes worth of barely alloyed lead.
Eddie Murphy plays ...
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A Thousand Words (CNS)
Three
Pedestrian thriller about a seminary student (Marc Blucas) being stalked by a serial killer who's targeted him as retribution for some dark secret buried in their shared past, while a police psychologist (Justine Waddell), whose brother was also a victim, races to crack the case. Director Robby Henson's adaptation of author ...
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Three (CNS)
Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, The
Ruminative Western drama set in rural Texas about a grizzled ranch foreman (Tommy Lee Jones) who makes good on his promise to bury an undocumented migrant (Julio Cedillo) -- with whom he had developed a deep friendship -- back in his native Mexico, forcing the dead man's murderer (Barry Pepper) to ...
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Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, The (CNS)
Three Kings
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Three Kings (SAM)
Three Roses
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Three Roses (SAM)
Thunderbirds
Thunderously disappointing action adventure set in 2065 about a family-run global rescue squad (headed by Bill Paxton) whose only hope of stopping a criminal mastermind (Ben Kingsley) from using their fleet of fantastic vehicles for his own dastardly designs rests on the untested shoulders of the team's youngest member. Based on ...
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Thunderbirds (CNS)
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
Darkly enchanting animated love story based on a Russian folk tale about a timid groom (voiced by Johnny Depp) whose arranged marriage to the shy daughter (voiced by Emily Watson) of stuffy aristocrats, is derailed the night before they are to wed when, practicing his vows alone in the woods, he ...
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Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (CNS)
The Time Traveler's Wife
At its core the enjoyable tale of a
lifelong committed relationship, "The Time Traveler's Wife" (Warner
Bros.) benefits from persuasive central performances by Eric Bana and Rachel
McAdams as a pair of chronologically challenged lovers, turns that successfully
divert attention from the story's logical loose ends.
But director Robert Schwentke's romantic
drama also features ...
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The Time Traveler's Wife (CNS)
Tin Cup
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Tin Cup (SAM)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Spy master John La Carre’ wrote seven novels featuring
George Smiley the head of British intelligence agency MI6, the “Circus”, during
the Cold War. The final three novels put Karla, head of Moscow’s spy ring, in
opposition to Smiley. If director Tomas Alfredson’s cinematic interpretation of
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” is successful perhaps the other ...
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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (SRR)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
There's a double agent on the loose, and seemingly no one can be trusted in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (Focus), a faithful adaptation of John le Carre's best-selling 1974 novel.
Swedish director Tomas Alfredson ("Let the Right One In") sets a deliberately slow pace, especially for an espionage thriller, demanding ...
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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (CNS)
Titanic
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Titanic (SAM)
TMNT
Computer-animated feature revives the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise, as four brothers set out to defeat a villain poised to unleash 13 monsters on New York. Writer-director Kevin Munroe navigates a rather overly complicated plot with aplomb, successfully balancing action and humor while enforcing the values of solidarity and atonement. Cartoon-level ...
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TMNT (CNS)
To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday
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To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (SAM)
To Kill a Mockingbird
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To Kill a Mockingbird (EDC)
To Rome with Love
With films set in London, Barcelona and Paris under his belt, quintessential New Yorker Woody Allen extends his European tour in "To Rome With Love" (Sony Classics). His farce follows various couples around the Eternal City as they search for romance, happiness, and -- all too frequently -- sin.
Writing, directing ...
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To Rome with Love (CNS)
Together
Touching story about a young violin prodigy (Tang Yun) and his father (Liu Peiqi), who, having traveled from a rural Chinese town to big-city Beijing, find themselves torn between two violin instructors, one passionate about music, the other promising fame. Weaving larger cultural issues into the father-son plot, director Chen Kaige ...
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Together (CNS)
Tooth Fairy
Though it features scenes of former pro wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson sporting a pair of more-or-less gossamer wings, "Tooth Fairy" (Fox), a feeble fable about the importance of childhood imagination and the pursuit of dreams, never really takes flight.
Additionally, this mostly family-friendly comedy from director Michael Lembeck includes ...
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Tooth Fairy (CNS)
Topsy-Turvy
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Topsy-Turvy (SAM)
Torque
Sleek but vacuous action flick in which a heartthrob biker (Martin Henderson) is framed for murdering the brother of a motorcycle gang leader (Ice Cube) by a ruthless drug dealer (Matt Schulze) from whom he stole several motorcycles stuffed with drugs. Director Joseph Kahn's tightly choreographed fight scenes and outrageous, far-fetched ...
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Torque (CNS)
Tortilla Heaven
Well-meaning misfire about wacky complications and a mysterious stranger in a devout Southwestern hamlet when the image of Jesus manifests itself on a tortilla. The ensemble comedy-drama by first-time feature director Judy Hecht Dumontet, who also co-wrote the script, finds curmudgeonly nonbeliever Isidor Navarro (Jose Zuniga), owner of the Tortilla Heaven ...
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Tortilla Heaven (CNS)
Total Recall
Remakes are all the rage in the movie industry at the moment. While some retreads manage to introduce classic films to a new generation, others leave theatergoers scratching their heads, wondering why anyone involved bothered. The latter reaction, alas, is likely to be provoked by "Total Recall" (Columbia).
Director Len Wiseman ...
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Total Recall (CNS)
Towelhead
Sensitively handled if extremely disquieting coming-of-age story of an alienated 13-year-old Arab-American girl (played by 18-year-old Summer Bishil) living with her divorced Lebanese father (Peter Macdissi) in Texas, who succumbs to a pedophiliac Army reservist (Aaron Eckhart) whose son she baby-sits, until an empathetic neighbor (Toni Collette) interferes. Writer-director Alan Ball's ...
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Towelhead (CNS)
Tower Heist
Workers at a luxury Manhattan apartment building plan to rob a felonious financier in the action-comedy "Tower Heist" (Universal).
What could have been a crowd-pleasing caper is marred by a steady stream of crude language. Though it features some amusing moments courtesy of a talented ensemble, the topical romp is also ...
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Tower Heist (CNS)
Tower Heist
Whatever you think “Tower Heist” is as a film, it is really
not a comedy, despite comedian Ben Stiller in the lead as Josh, the manager of
a luxury condominium complex in Manhattan and the presence of Eddie Murphy as
“Slide” the gangster.
Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) is a millionaire financier who lives
in ...
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Tower Heist (SRR)
The Town
Set in the insular Irish-American underworld of Charlestown, Mass. -- the bank-robbery plagued burg of the title—and adapted from Chuck Hogan's 2004 novel "Prince of Thieves," this is the story of failed pro hockey player-turned-thief Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck).
Despite a seriously intended and morally weighty script, director and co-writer ...
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The Town (CNS)
Toy Story 3
The third time's a charm with "Toy Story 3" (Disney/Pixar), the action-packed sequel to two of the biggest animated films of all time, "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2." Arriving 15 years after the start of the franchise, "Toy Story 3" offers a satisfying and poignant conclusion with valuable lessons on ...
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Toy Story 3 (CNS)
Tracker, The
Starkly engrossing tale set in the 1922 Australian Outback where a blatantly racist official (Gary Sweet) accompanied by an old-timer and a raw recruit as they hunt down a convicted native murderer discover the aboriginal tracker (David Gulpilil) leading them is far from a servile, ignorant hired hand. Writer-director Rolf de ...
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Tracker, The (CNS)
Trade
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Trade (SAM)
Trade
Absorbing story of 13-year-old Mexican girl (Paulina Gaitan) kidnapped into the sex trade, after which her delinquent brother (Cesar Ramos) joins with a Texas cop (Kevin Kline) to rescue her before she is auctioned to the highest bidder online in the United States. Marco Kreuzpaintner's gritty and uncompromising film -- which ...
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Trade (CNS)
Traffic
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Traffic (SAM)
Training Day
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Training Day (SAM)
Traitor
Astute espionage thriller centered on a deeply religious, Sudanese-born Muslim American (Don Cheadle) who once served as a U.S. special operations officer in Afghanistan, but whom two FBI agents (Guy Pearce and Neal McDonough) now suspect of terrorism, in part because of his ties to a Yemeni jihadist (Said Taghmaoui). Writer-director ...
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Traitor (CNS)
Transamerica
Road drama about a preoperative transsexual man (Felicity Huffman), whose much anticipated sex-switching surgery is put on hold when he finds out he had unknowingly fathered a son (Kevin Zegers), a troubled youth arrested on drug charges, with whom he bonds -- without revealing his paternal identity -- while driving cross-country. ...
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Transamerica (CNS)
Transformers
Engineered to appeal to a wide cross section of the public, this lumbering, mindless summertime entertainment -- based on the Hasbro action toys from the 1980s -- follows a teenager (Shia LaBeouf) embroiled in a battle between two factions of shape-shifting alien robots, with the fate of mankind and the universe ...
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Transformers (CNS)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Though clearly pitched at youthful viewers—sports cars that turn into robots, cool!—"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" (Paramount) is director Michael Bay's 3-D third installment of a franchise based on a line of Hasbro toys. It includes plot and dialogue elements that make it exclusively suitable, if not especially satisfying, for those ...
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Transformers: Dark of the Moon (CNS)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Overlong, mindlessly violent action adventure sequel in which a college freshman (Shia LaBeouf) and his girlfriend (Megan Fox) assist a group of friendly, shape-shifting alien robots as they battle to defend humanity against the designs of a hostile horde of similar creatures. Derived from the back story of a line of ...
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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (CNS)
Transporter 2, The
Violence-drenched follow-up to the 2002 action film which finds dapper but lethal driver-for-hire Frank Martin (Jason Statham) playing chauffeur for the young son of a wealthy Miami family, before shifting gears into bone-breaking mode when the boy is kidnapped as part of a plot to spread a deadly virus. Despite slick ...
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Transporter 2, The (CNS)
Transporter 3
In the third go-round for this extremely violent, borderline nonsensical action franchise, courier-for-hire Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is forced to drive the kidnapped daughter of Ukraine's environment minister from Marseilles, France, to Odessa, Ukraine, as part of a scheme to persuade her father to let a sinister multinational corporation dump toxic ...
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Transporter 3 (CNS)
Transporter, The
Ridiculous action movie in which a shady courier (Jason Statham) finds himself in mortal danger after reluctantly rescuing a kidnap victim (Shu Qi) and stumbling into a plot to smuggle immigrant slave labor into the south of France. Director Corey Yuen barely stitches together the absurd plot contrivances in what is ...
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Transporter, The (CNS)
Transylmania
The film subgenre known as "painful to watch" has a fresh champion in "Transylmania" (Full Circle), a witless, grotesque, misogynistic, badly performed horror spoof with all the charm of Dracula's coffin.
Directors David and Scott Hillenbrand and screenwriters Patrick Casey and Worm Miller work out a sad premise involving a ...
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Transylmania (CNS)
Trapped
Ridiculous thriller in which child kidnapers Kevin Bacon and Courtney Love are thwarted by aggressive parents (Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend) desperate to save their little girl, who is subject to life-threatening asthma attacks. As directed by Luis Mandoki, the narrative becomes increasingly ludicrous before its drawn-out, over-the-top finale. Some violence, ...
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Trapped (CNS)
Treasure Island
Imaginative new animated spin on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate yarn is set in outer space as swashbuckling young Jack Hawkins traverses the galaxy searching for the fabled secret hiding place of a storied treasure trove. Directors John Musker and Ron Clements combine cutting-edge digital effects and traditional animation with captivating ...
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Treasure Island (CNS)
Treasure Planet
Imaginative new animated spin on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate yarn is set in outer space as swashbuckling young Jack Hawkins traverses the galaxy searching for the fabled secret hiding place of a storied treasure trove. Directors John Musker and Ron Clements combine cutting-edge digital effects and traditional animation with captivating ...
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Treasure Planet (CNS)
The Tree of Life
For his fifth movie, reclusive filmmaker Terrence Malick takes as his subject nothing less than the universe and our place within it. A metaphysical rumination that gives free rein to the writer-director's impressionistic style and background as a philosophy professor, "The Tree of Life" (Fox Searchlight) is consistently beautiful and often ...
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The Tree of Life (CNS)
The Tree of Life
When director/writer Terrence Malick’s new film opens we
hear the quiet voice of 1950’s wife and mother Mrs. Obrien (Jessica Chastain):
“The nuns always taught us that there is the way of nature and the way of
grace; it is up to us to choose.”
Actually, it’s not that simple, as we discern ...
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The Tree of Life (SRR)
Trials of Darryl Hunt, The
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Trials of Darryl Hunt, The (SAM)
Triplets of Belleville, The
Surreal animated tale about a club-footed grandmother who, along with her faithful slobbering hound and a trio of ex-music hall crones, must rescue her cyclist grandson after he is kidnapped by French mobsters during the Tour de France. Told virtually without any dialogue, director Sylvian Chomet's visionary adult cartoon, though laced ...
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Triplets of Belleville, The (CNS)
Tristan & Isolde
Occasionally stirring but mostly somber retelling of the classic star-crossed love story set in the 6th century, about an English knight (James Franco) and his Irish lover (Sophia Myles) -- promised in marriage to his liege (Rufus Sewell) -- who must choose between passion and duty with the peace of their ...
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Tristan & Isolde (CNS)
Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story
Fitfully amusing saga of a movie crew attempting to film British pastor Laurence Sterne's 1767 novel, "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman," considered unfilmable because of its wildly nonlinear structure. Director Michael Winterbottom offers a good chunk of the 18th-century story, but devotes equal time to the off-camera travails ...
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Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story (CNS)
Tron: Legacy
Films spawned by Pac-Man-era video arcades are like mullet haircuts. They may make for a fond memory, but actually going back there can be creepy and awkward.
Welcome to "Tron: Legacy" (Disney), in which the elements of the briskly entertaining, unpretentious and prescient 1982 cult classic have been loudly updated and ...
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Tron: Legacy (CNS)
Tropic Thunder
Relentlessly vulgar and only fitfully funny action comedy about a group of washed-up movie actors (Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. among them) who think they're making a big-budget war movie in Vietnam, but actually find themselves facing off against ruthless heroin dealers. Co-writer and director Stiller's premise must ...
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Tropic Thunder (CNS)
Trouble With the Curve
With a few exceptions, every character Clint Eastwood has portrayed during his long career has had an ornery streak, regardless of their capacity for righteous or noble acts.
In the 2008 hit "Gran Torino," which he also directed, Eastwood starred as a curmudgeonly Detroit widower who surprises even himself by coming ...
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Trouble With the Curve (CNS)
Troy
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Troy (SAM)
Troy
Epic-scale rendering of the Trojan War, loosely based on Homer's "The Iliad," which chronicles the siege and eventual sack of Troy by an invading Greek army, beginning with Paris (Orlando Bloom) spiriting away Helen (Diana Kruger) from her husband, King Menelaus of Sparta (Brendan Gleeson), and culminating in the Greeks using ...
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Troy (CNS)
True Crime
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True Crime (SAM)
True Grit
With "True Grit" (Paramount)—the second screen version of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same title, first adapted in a 1969 production helmed by Henry Hathaway and memorably starring John Wayne—writer-directors (and brothers) Joel and Ethan Coen combine dramatic excellence and moral heft to create an exceptionally fine reimagining of the ...
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True Grit (CNS)
Truman Show, The
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Truman Show, The (SAM)
Trust the Man
A good cast is wasted in this tepid and coarse domestic comedy-drama about an actress (Julianne Moore), her philandering house-husband (David Duchovny), her commitment-phobic brother (Billy Crudup), and his longtime live-in girlfriend (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Writer-director Bart Freundlich's film offers the occasional sharp observation about modern-day relationships, but the characters' infidelities and ...
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Trust the Man (CNS)
Truth About Cats and Dogs, The
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Truth About Cats and Dogs, The (SAM)
Truth About Charlie, The
Breezy mystery-romance in which a murdered man's wife (Thandie Newton) discovers he had stolen a fortune, which assorted dangerous strangers (including Mark Wahlberg, Tim Robbins and Lisa Gay Hamilton) assume she now has. Loosely based on 1963's "Charade," director Jonathan Demme's genial, somewhat convoluted tale plays like a minor valentine to ...
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Truth About Charlie, The (CNS)
Tsotsi
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Tsotsi (SAM)
Tsotsi
Powerful, beautifully acted film about vicious South African hoodlum (Presley Chweneyagae) who shoots a woman and steals her car, not realizing her baby is in the back seat, and how his life is transformed by the experience. Though the squalid underworld milieu, and the periodic acts of violence will not be ...
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Tsotsi (CNS)
Tuck Everlasting
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Tuck Everlasting (SAM)
Tuck Everlasting
Charming fantasy about a young girl (Alexis Bledel) whose first love (Jonathan Jackson) and his welcoming family offer her a chance to remain forever young with them. Director Jay Russell crafts an uplifting tale, based on Natalie Babbitt's novel, with enough twists, turns and excitement to keep young and older audiences ...
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Tuck Everlasting (CNS)
Turistas
A tropical paradise becomes a torture chamber for a group of (mostly) American tourists (including Josh Duhamel, Beau Garrett, Melissa George and Olivia Wilde) marooned in Brazil when they're tricked into hiking to a remote jungle cabin where they're held captive by a "gringo"-hating doctor (Miguel Lunardi) who wants to harvest ...
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Turistas (CNS)
Turtles Can Fly
Quietly powerful drama set in Kurdistan on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which follows the shattered lives of three orphaned children: a hustling street urchin (Soran Ebrahim) who runs a business installing satellite dishes and clearing fields of land mines, an armless boy (Hirsh Feyssal) who may be ...
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Turtles Can Fly (CNS)
Tuxedo, The
Drawn-out fantasy in which cabbie-turned-secret-agent Jackie Chan dons a tuxedo that gives him superhero powers as he teams with a novice agent (Jennifer Love Hewitt) to thwart a water mogul's plot for world domination. Director Kevin Donovan's generally innocuous action comedy is a James Bond wannabe whose continuous choreographed fight scenes ...
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Tuxedo, The (CNS)
TV Set, The
Lightly amusing behind-the-scenes story of writer (David Duchovny) whose pilot for a network comedy-drama, inspired by his brother's suicide, is gradually watered down by the iron-fisted, velvet-gloved network president (Sigourney Weaver) with the empathetic but weak-willed British production head (Ioan Gruffudd) reluctant to intervene, and an erratic leading man (Fran Kranz) ...
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TV Set, The (CNS)
Twelve Monkeys
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Twelve Monkeys (SAM)
Twenty Four Hour Party People
Frenetic musical comedy about Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan), a British TV journalist who founded a recording label in the late-1970s which ushered in a new era of pop culture music including punk and new wave. Set to a blaring soundtrack and defiantly in-your-face, director Michael Winterbottom's biographical cautionary tale follows the ...
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Twenty Four Hour Party People (CNS)
Twenty-fifth Hour
Gritty urban parable charting the final 24 hours of freedom of a convicted New York drug dealer (Edward Norton) struggling to redeem his life and mend tattered personal relations. Directed by Spike Lee and based on David Benioff's novel, the engaging drama offers solid ensemble performances and a strong message about ...
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Twenty-fifth Hour (CNS)
Twilight
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Twilight (SAM)
Twilight
Gothic romance about a self-possessed high school student (Kristen Stewart) who moves to Washington state to live with her divorced father (Billy Burke) and falls for a mysterious classmate (Robert Pattinson) who turns out to be a vampire. Though set against a lush, misty background, director Catherine Hardwicke's stylish screen version ...
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Twilight (CNS)
Twilight
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Twilight (SAM)
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Though it sticks to a tried-and-true recipe that will undoubtedly delight the legions of enthusiastic followers who have made the franchise it extends a box-office blockbuster, "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" (Summit) may strike less-committed viewers as occasionally over-familiar.
On the plus side, director David Slade's third installment in the hugely ...
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The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (CNS)
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
There is something at once reassuring and sad in the
fervor with which its target audience of tween and teen girls will
undoubtedly greet the lovelorn Gothic romance sequel The Twilight
Saga: New Moon (Summit), at least to judge by the squealingly
delighted reaction of such viewers at a recent preview screening.
Their enthusiasm ...
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The Twilight Saga: New Moon (CNS)
Twisted
Abysmally bad thriller about a newly promoted homicide detective (Ashley Judd) with a tortured past who becomes the prime suspect in a serial murder case she is investigating with her partner (Andy Garcia). Director Philip Kaufman unskillfully navigates a minefield of ridiculous cop cliches and laughable dialogue to craft one of ...
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Twisted (CNS)
Twister
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Twister (SAM)
Two Brothers
Captivating family drama set in Southeast Asia about a pair of tiger cubs, separated by fate, whose lives ultimately cross paths when they are reunited in a fighting arena and pitted against each other as forced enemies. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud earns his stripes, combining stunning wildlife photography with tenderhearted storytelling from ...
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Two Brothers (CNS)
Two Brothers
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Two Brothers (SAM)
Two Brothers
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Two Brothers (EDC)
Two for the Money
Uninvolving drama about a former star college quarterback (Matthew McConaughey) with a Midas touch for picking winners seduced into the high-stakes arena of sports gambling by a con-man oddsmaker (a hammy Al Pacino) who runs a top betting operation and grooms him as his protege, until he hits a cold streak. ...
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Two for the Money (CNS)
Two For the Road
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Two For the Road (EDC)
Two for the Road
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Two for the Road (SAM)
Two Lovers
Downbeat but well-acted domestic drama set in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., about the depressed son (an especially fine Joaquin Phoenix) of Jewish dry cleaners (Moni Monoshov and Isabella Rossellini) torn between his emotionally troubled new gentile neighbor (Gwyneth Paltrow) who considers him a friend, and the stable young ...
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Two Lovers (CNS)
Two Weeks
Heartfelt yet unflinchingly frank story of a dying mother (the transcendent Sally Field) and the four adult children who've come to be with her in her last days including her eldest son, a filmmaker (Ben Chaplin), who hopes to tape her for posterity. First-time feature director Steve Stockman accomplishes the near-impossible ...
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Two Weeks (CNS)
Two Weeks Notice
Bland romantic comedy in which an altruistic activist lawyer (Sandra Bullock) gives notice to her vacuous, wealthy boss (Hugh Grant), neither of them ready to admit they are in love. Writer-director Marc Lawrence's cliched script and predictable path undermine the comic talents of the leads. Sexual situations and references and fleeting ...
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Two Weeks Notice (CNS)
Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls
Romantic drama about a hard-luck Atlanta mechanic and devoted single father (Idris Elba) battling to get custody of his three daughters (Sierra Aylina McClain, Lauryn Alisa McClain and China Anne McClain) from his ex-wife (Tasha Smith) and her drug-dealing boyfriend (Gary Sturgis). To help pay the bills, he chauffeurs a successful, ...
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Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls (CNS)
Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys
Sudsy African-American domestic saga, set in Atlanta, charting the unlikely friendship between a white real-estate tycoon (Kathy Bates) and a hardworking and devout diner owner (Alfre Woodard) whose ambitious married daughter (Sanaa Lathan) is having an affair with the tycoon's son (Cole Hauser), who connives to take over his mother's business. ...
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Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys (CNS)
Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself
Anyone looking to spend a couple of delicious hours
with Madea in her fourth film outing, "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All
By Myself" (Lionsgate), will be disappointed.
"I Can Do Bad," a hard-driving, if entirely predictable,
morality play with music, is based on an older Perry play, the first in
which Perry's ...
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Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself (CNS)
Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion
Wacky but warm follow-up to the 2005 dramedy "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," which finds outrageous southern matriarch Madea (played in drag by Tyler Perry) helping one niece (Rochelle Aytes) escape her abusive live-in fiance (Blair Underwood); another niece (Lisa Arrindell Anderson) find love with a gentlemanly bus driver (Boris ...
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Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion (CNS)
Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection
Madea, the familiar, frequently mixed-up, but mostly moral force of nature in a muumuu, has one of her weaker outings in the laboriously titled "Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection" (Lionsgate).
Perhaps the formula is spent. Certainly, the feisty old gal—writer-director Perry himself, of course, in drag—has lost much of her comic ...
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Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection (CNS)
Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail
Intermittently amusing sequel in which the outsized antics of the comically wayward titular matriarch (Tyler Perry) are interspersed through a sober drama about an Atlanta assistant district attorney's (Derek Luke) effort to reclaim a childhood friend (Keshia Knight Pulliam) who's become a drug-addicted prostitute, despite the objections of his pampered fiancee ...
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Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail (CNS)
Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns
Listless romantic comedy about a struggling inner-city Chicago single mother (Angela Bassett) who falls for her son's (Lance Gross) generous basketball trainer (Rick Fox) while also getting to know her long-absent, recently deceased father's other children (Jenifer Lewis and David Mann, among others). Writer-director Perry's screen adaptation of his own play ...
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Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (CNS)
Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor
The stereotyped characters and windup plot of "Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor" (Lionsgate) put the stale in morality tale.
Only Perry's most devoted fans will likely enjoy this story of Judith (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and her struggle—not, admittedly, an especially heroic one—with adultery.
No one actually listens to Judith. ...
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Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (CNS)
Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married
Raucous humor alternates with a serious examination of the challenges of married life as four couples gather in the Rockies for their annual vacation and retreat: a best-selling pop psychiatrist (Janet Jackson) resists her architect spouse's (Malik Yoba) efforts to come to grips with a recent family tragedy; a successful lawyer ...
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Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married (CNS)
Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?
Fans of the prolific—and often predictable—Tyler Perry will find themselves on familiar terrain with his ninth film project in five years, the sequel "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?" (Lionsgate). Though dramatically uneven, this mix of comedy and drama is, for the most part, a morally steady examination of ...
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Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? (CNS)
Tyler's Ride
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Tyler's Ride (SAM)
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