W.
Largely speculative but generally absorbing dramatization of George W. Bush (an uncannily accurate Josh Brolin) making the decision to invade Iraq and its aftermath, interspersed with flashbacks showing his undisciplined youth, initiation at Yale, courtship of wife Laura (Elizabeth Banks) and his unlikely rise to the governorship of Texas and the ...
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W. (CNS)
Wackness, The
Offbeat coming-of-age drama – set in 1994 New York to a hip-hop soundtrack. A pot-dealing high school graduate (Josh Peck) with a troubled home life forms an unlikely friendship with his drug-addicted therapist (Ben Kingsley in a quirky change of pace) and falls in love with the shrink's promiscuous stepdaughter (Olivia ...
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Wackness, The (CNS)
Wag the Dog
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Wag the Dog (SAM)
Wager, The
Honorable but labored message movie in which an evangelical Christian actor (Randy Travis) tries to live by the tenets of the Sermon on the Mount, even as his wife (Nancy Valen) is suing for divorce, his sister (Nancy Stafford) is seriously ill and his agent (Jude Ciccolella) is trying to tamp ...
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Wager, The (CNS)
Waist Deep
Gritty but empty urban drama about an ex-con (Tyrese Gibson) pulled back into the world of street violence when his young son is taken during a carjacking and, unable to turn to the law, he must race against time to track down the vicious thugs responsible with the help of his ...
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Waist Deep (CNS)
Waiting
Crass comedy about the sophomoric antics of a motley wait staff at a chain restaurant -- including a smug slacker (Ryan Reynolds), his roommate (Justin Long), and his ex-girlfriend (Anna Faris) -- during a single hectic dinner shift. Writer-director Rob McKittrick serves up an unappetizing menu of trashy sex jokes and ...
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Waiting (CNS)
Waitress
A young woman (Keri Russell) with a talent for baking delicious pies finds the strength to deal with her unhappy marriage in this sweet-and-savory independent comedy. Writer, director and co-star Adrienne Shelly -- who died under tragic circumstances months prior to the movie's premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival -- ...
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Waitress (CNS)
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Cleverly satiric but excessively crude "mockumentary" about the life of the titular rock star (John C. Reilly) who must overcome the enmity of his father (Raymond J. Barry), the complaints of his sequential wives (Kristen Wiig and Jenna Fischer) and the lure of a druggie band mate (Tim Meadows) as well ...
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Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (CNS)
Walk the Line
Superior biopic about country singer Johnny Cash (a mesmerizing Joaquin Phoenix, who does his own singing). It traces the singer's childhood marred by the accidental death of his older brother, and his father's subsequent coldness, through an unfulfilling first marriage, and his budding romance with singer June Carter (Reese Witherspoon, who ...
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Walk the Line (CNS)
Walk the Line
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Walk the Line (SAM)
Walking Tall
Remake of the 1973 cult classic, about a retired soldier (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), who upon returning home finds himself waging a one-man war against the crime and corruption that has overtaken his boyhood community. Director Kevin Bray's film stays faithful to the original's good-man-taking-a-stand premise but also follows its predecessor's ...
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Walking Tall (CNS)
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
With a magnetic performance by Michael Douglas—reprising his role as iconic, scruples-free wheeler-dealer Gordon Gekko—offset by heavy-handed attempts at social commentary and a central romantic relationship that puts the sexual cart before the marital horse, the high stakes drama "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" (Fox) makes for an uneven sequel.
Yet, ...
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Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (CNS)
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Frolicsome clay-animated adventure about a cheese-loving inventor (voiced by Peter Sallis) and his faithful pooch, who are hired by a batty blueblood (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter) to catch a monstrous rabbit terrorizing neighborhood gardens before it jeopardizes the town's annual vegetable competition. Co-directed by Nick Park and Steve Box (based ...
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Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (CNS)
WALL-E
Beautiful and deeply touching futuristic fable about a soulful-eyed waste removal robot (voice of Ben Burtt), the last on an abandoned, garbage-strewn earth, who falls in love with a visiting search robot (Elissa Knight) and follows her onto a spaceship manned by an ineffectual Captain (Jeff Garlin) and populated by earth's ...
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WALL-E (CNS)
WALL-E
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WALL-E (SAM)
Wanted
Overheated action rampage in which a downtrodden, panic-prone accountant (James McAvoy) is recruited by the leader (Morgan Freeman) of a secret fraternity of assassins and trained by its members (Angelina Jolie, Marc Warren, Konstantin Khabensky and Dato Bakhtadze) to avenge the murder of his estranged father (David O'Hara), who was also ...
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Wanted (CNS)
War
In this brutal police thriller, an FBI agent (Jason Statham) has his hands full when the legendary assassin (Jet Li) who murdered his partner (Terry Chen) returns to San Francisco and sparks a war between the absent leader of the Japanese Yakuza (Ryo Ishibashi), who is represented locally by his ruthless ...
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War (CNS)
War Horse
It is just before the start of World War I in 1914 where in
a village in Devon in the English countryside a tenant farmer, Ted Narracott
(Peter Mullan), buys a beautiful young horse, Joey, at an auction. He spends
money he doesn’t have on the wrong horse because, as his wife, Rose (Emily
Watson), ...
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War Horse (SRR)
War Horse
"War Horse" (Disney) is director Steven Spielberg's epic screen version of Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel, the stage adaptation of which has proved a critical and popular success both in London and on Broadway.
Despite Morpurgo's tenure as the U.K.'s official children's laureate, though, Spielberg's vast canvas makes unsuitable viewing for kids—because ...
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War Horse (CNS)
War Inc.
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War Inc. (SAM)
War of the Worlds
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War of the Worlds (SAM)
War of the Worlds
Impressive but distressingly violent updating of H.G. Wells' classic sci-fi story, about (in this version) a deadbeat dad (Tom Cruise) who is jolted into responsible parenthood when he must struggle to survive and keep his two children (Justin Chatwin and Dakota Fanning) safe amid a hostile invasion by space aliens bent ...
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War of the Worlds (CNS)
Warm Bodies
Wouldn't classic love stories like Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" be all the better if zombies were thrown into the mix?
Agree or disagree, that's the basic thrust of director and screenwriter Jonathan Levine's "Warm Bodies" (Summit)—an oddly touching picture based on Isaac Marion's novel of the same name. Unusual for its ...
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Warm Bodies (CNS)
Warrior
In the universe of sports films “Warrior” is unique because
the subject is fighting for a spiritual goal through Mixed Martial Arts (MMA),
a “full contact combat” sport. This relatively new sport, though some contend
it does not qualify as such, is a fusion of boxing, wrestling, judo and other
sports. (See the article on ...
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Warrior (SRR)
The Warrior's Way
The West was never wilder than it is in "The Warrior's Way" (Relativity), Korean writer-director Sngmoo Lee's genre-melding U.S. feature debut.
But, while it starts out as a conversion story, this frequently striking piece of cinema—a larger-than-life blend of martial arts, duels in the sun and operatic emotion—winds up graphically ...
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The Warrior's Way (CNS)
Wasabi
Mildly engaging action-comedy in which a French cop (Jean Reno), called to Tokyo upon the death of his long-lost love, discovers she left him a free-spirited 19-year-old daughter (Ryoko Hirosue) and a fortune that Japanese gangsters intend to steal. As directed by Gerard Krawczyk, the melancholy cop and his exuberant daughter ...
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Wasabi (CNS)
Washington Heights
Low-budget ethnic drama about an aspiring comic illustrator (Manny Perez) who must weigh ambition against responsibility when his bodega-owning father (Tomas Milian) is shot and paralyzed during a robbery. With a contrived plot not worth emotional investment, director Alfredo de Villa's cliched narrative is undermined by the protagonist's all-too-familiar dilemma: how ...
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Washington Heights (CNS)
Watchmen
Darkly ironic and exceedingly violent fantasy action tale—set in a dystopian alternate version of 1985 America—in which a lawman turned masked vigilante (Jackie Earle Haley) investigates the murder of a former colleague (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and uncovers a plot to kill off all the members of the self-appointed posse (Malin Akerman, ...
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Watchmen (CNS)
Water
Poignant drama set in 1938 India about the lives of women who, in accordance with Hindu tradition, are required -- following their husbands' deaths -- to live out their days as outcasts in a squalid widows' ashram; they include an 8-year-old child bride (Sarala); a young beauty (Lisa Ray) forced into ...
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Water (CNS)
Water
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Water (SAM)
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
Engaging but, by the end, surprisingly intense fantasy adventure, set during World War II, in which a forlorn Scottish boy (Alex Etel), coping with the absence of his sailor father (Craig Hall), discovers an egg in the waters of the local loch that hatches a rapidly growing dinosaurlike creature which he ...
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Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The (CNS)
The Way
Tom
(Martin Sheen) is a prosperous doctor, a widower and a kind of “retired”
Catholic. His son Daniel (Emilio Estevez) is a doctoral student who decides to
put his dissertation on hold to go on a journey to find himself and discover
life’s meaning. Tom thinks he is wasting his time and not taking responsibility
for ...
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The Way (SRR)
The Way Back
"The Way Back" (Newmarket), is an inspirational story with a nagging caveat—its stunning portrayal of a 4,000-mile trek from Siberia to India by escaped political prisoners may not be quite the truth.
The film, directed by Peter Weir, who co-wrote the script with Keith R. Clarke, is nonetheless superbly made, ...
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The Way Back (CNS)
We Are Marshall
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We Are Marshall (SAM)
We Are Marshall
Moving true-life story about the aftermath of a 1970 plane crash in West Virginia that killed 70 players, coaches and fans of a college football team, and how the grieving university town came to recover its spirit by the formation of a largely new team galvanized by the leadership of a ...
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We Are Marshall (CNS)
We Bought a Zoo
Based on the
2007 book “We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing
True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo, and the 200 Wild Animals That
Change Their Lives Forever”, this new film starring Matt Damon as dad and
zoo-owner Benjamin Mee, is much more about family and healing from grief than
it is about ...
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We Bought a Zoo (SRR)
We Bought a Zoo
Of the various endangered species populating "We Bought a Zoo" (Fox), a man hoping for sufficient time to grieve his wife's death is arguably the most threatened.
Based on the real-life experiences of British writer Benjamin Mee, this amiable and ambling holiday feature puts a Capraesque twist on the notion of ...
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We Bought a Zoo (CNS)
We Don't Live Here Anymore
Dour but grimly absorbing story of two unhappily married couples living in a university town who end up having affairs with each other's spouses. Though told with compassion and perception, astutely scripted, and superbly acted by Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern, Peter Krause and Naomi Watts, the film is almost unrelievedly downbeat. ...
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We Don't Live Here Anymore (CNS)
We Have a Pope
In Italian director Nanni Moretti’s latest film a pope has
died and the cardinals are gathering for the consistory that will elect a new
pope. A television newsman tries to interview the cardinals but they ignore
him. His anxiety about being the first to announce a new pope mirrors the
apprehension that the cardinals feel ...
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We Have a Pope (SRR)
We Own the Night
Powerful character-driven drama set in 1980s New York about a drug-taking nightclub manager (a splendid Joaquin Phoenix) who changes his dissolute ways when his police-officer brother (Mark Wahlberg) is shot -- and their police-chief father's (Robert Duvall) life threatened -- by the Russian mobsters who control the venue. Writer-director James Gray ...
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We Own the Night (CNS)
We Were Soldiers
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We Were Soldiers (SAM)
Weather Man, The
Cheerless dramedy about a melancholy Chicago TV weatherman (Nicolas Cage) who, while mulling a career move, struggles to salvage his relationships with his ailing father (Michael Caine), his soon-to-be-remarried ex-wife (Hope Davis), and their two emotionally disconnected children. Directed by Gore Verbinski with an oddly sympathetic performance by Cage, the film's ...
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Weather Man, The (CNS)
Wedding Crashers
Raunchy romantic comedy directed by David Dobkin about two lifelong friends (Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn) who infiltrate weddings as a hobby and a way to seduce women, and who find themselves entangled in comic and romantic complications when they con their way into a high-profile D.C. wedding and wind up ...
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Wedding Crashers (CNS)
Wedding Date, The
Flat and flavorless romantic comedy directed by Clare Kilner about a single New York woman (Debra Messing) who hires a professional "male escort" (Dermot Mulroney) to pose as her new boyfriend -- in a desperate attempt to save face and make her ex-fiance jealous -- when she travels to England to ...
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Wedding Date, The (CNS)
Wedding Singer, The
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Wedding Singer, The (SAM)
Weight of Water, The
Moody drama in which a contemporary photojournalist (Catherine McCormack) investigating a brutal 1873 double murder begins to suspect a sexual relationship between her poet husband (Sean Penn) and a seductive fan (Elizabeth Hurley) as they share a weekend boat near the century-old murder site. Kathryn Bigelow directs a murky tale of ...
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Weight of Water, The (CNS)
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
Unruly family farce in which a successful TV talk-show host (Martin Lawrence), accompanied by his controlling fiancee (Joy Bryant), returns to his parents' (James Earl Jones and Margaret Avery) home in Georgia to attend their 50th wedding anniversary, only to encounter a host of eccentric relatives and resume the rivalry with ...
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Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (CNS)
Welcome to Collinwood
Passable crime comedy set in a Cleveland working-class neighborhood where several petty crooks (including William H. Macy, Sam Rockwell and Michael Jeter) plot a big robbery that goes entirely awry. Written and directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, the film's clueless characters are mostly lovable losers but the jaunty tone can't ...
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Welcome to Collinwood (CNS)
Welcome to Mooseport
Lukewarm comedy about a local handyman (Ray Romano) who, in an attempt to win back his girlfriend (Maura Tierney), decides to run against a former president (Gene Hackman) for mayor of his quaint New England town. Part triangular romance, part political satire, director Donald Petrie's flat farce pokes fun at the ...
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Welcome to Mooseport (CNS)
Wendell Baker Story, The
Minor but engaging story of a con artist (appealing Luke Wilson) who, paroled from prison after forging driver's licenses for Mexican migrant workers, takes a job at a senior retirement home run by corrupt administrators (Owen Wilson and Eddie Griffin) and helps the exploited residents (including Harry Dean Stanton, Seymour Cassel ...
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Wendell Baker Story, The (CNS)
Whale Rider
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Whale Rider (SAM)
Whale Rider
Evocative coming-of-age tale set among contemporary New Zealand Maoris where a 12-year-old girl (Keisha Castle-Hughes) secretly trains to become the warrior-like tribal leader against the fierce objections of her tradition-bound grandfather, the aging chief (Rawiri Paratene). Writer-director Niki Caro sensitively weds the ancient culture's rites to hardscrabble times, in the process ...
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Whale Rider (CNS)
Whale Rider
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Whale Rider (EDC)
What The Bleep Do We Know?
Part documentary, part narrative film which uses a loose story line about an unfulfilled wedding photographer (Marlee Matlin) as a launching pad for discussions of quantum physics, the intersection of science and spirituality, and the underlying nature of reality. Directed by William Arntz, Betsy Chasse and Mark Vicente, the docudrama incorporates ...
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What The Bleep Do We Know? (CNS)
What Dreams May Come
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What Dreams May Come (SAM)
What a Girl Wants
Contemporary fairytale about a spirited American teen-ager (Amanda Bynes) who travels to London in search of the father she has never known only to find out that she is the daughter of a blueblood politician (Colin Firth) running for Parliament. Directed by Dennie Gordon, this delightful modern Cinderella story celebrates the ...
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What a Girl Wants (CNS)
What Happens in Vegas
An inebriated couple -- a commodities trader (Cameron Diaz), dumped by her longtime boyfriend, and a womanizing slacker (Ashton Kutcher), fired from his closet-building job -- get married in Las Vegas, much to their later regret, and must live with the consequences when they return to New York and a judge ...
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What Happens in Vegas (CNS)
What Just Happened
Perceptive, sporadically funny comedy as a beleaguered producer (Robert De Niro) tries to salvage his latest film starring Sean Penn (as himself), and convince star Bruce Willis (also as himself) to shave a bushy beard before filming another, and reconcile with his separated wife (Robin Wright Penn). Much of the humor ...
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What Just Happened (CNS)
What to Expect When You're Expecting
"What to Expect When You're Expecting" (Lionsgate) is a fruitless reproductive comedy that awkwardly juggles the stories of five expectant couples as they prepare for four deliveries and an Ethiopian adoption.
Director Kirk Jones' fictionalization of Heidi Murkoff's best-selling advice book veers between vulgar humor and trite sentimentality. It also showcases ...
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What to Expect When You're Expecting (CNS)
What Women Want
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What Women Want (SAM)
Whatever Works
A pessimistic New York grouch (Larry David) finds his life transformed when he reluctantly shelters a homeless but irrepressibly cheerful young Southerner (Evan Rachel Wood), and they fall for each other. Though undeniably clever at times, writer-director Woody Allen's comedy of manners mocks evangelical Christians through the waif's parents (Patricia Clarkson ...
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Whatever Works (CNS)
What's Your Number?
Though it possesses all the accoutrements of the genre observed to the limit of luxe, "What's Your Number?" (Fox) nonetheless comes across as romantic comedy's slatternly, potty-mouthed cousin.
Working from Karyn Bosnak's novel "20 Times a Lady," director Mark Mylod and screenwriters Gabrielle Allan and Jennifer Crittenden attempt to mine laughs ...
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What's Your Number? (CNS)
When I Find the Ocean
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When I Find the Ocean (SAM)
When in Rome
While the familiar proverb that supplies its title ultimately derives from the advice of one church father (St. Ambrose of Milan) quoted in the writings of another (St. Augustine of Hippo), the perky romantic comedy "When in Rome" (Touchstone) draws on the Eternal City's religious heritage only incidentally.
The graceful ...
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When in Rome (CNS)
When a Stranger Calls
Mediocre remake of the marginal 1978 psychological thriller about a high-school student (Camilla Belle) who, while baby-sitting at a secluded lakefront home, is terrorized by the phone threats of an unseen homicidal stalker, only to discover that the calls are coming from inside the house. Director Simon West forgoes plot and ...
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When a Stranger Calls (CNS)
Where God Left His Shoes
Somber but touching inner-city drama in which a down-on-his-luck professional boxer (John Leguizamo) and his 9-year-old stepson (David Castro) spend Christmas Eve crisscrossing New York in search of a job that will qualify him to move his family—including his wife (Leonor Varela) and daughter (Samantha Rose)—out of a homeless shelter and ...
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Where God Left His Shoes (CNS)
Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?
Genial but not particularly insightful documentary in which average citizen Morgan Spurlock's ostensible search for the titular terrorist takes him to North Africa and the Middle East, where he mingles with the mostly friendly locals and ponders the origins of Islamic extremism. Spurlock, who also directed, rehashes the familiar shortcomings of ...
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Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? (CNS)
Where the Truth Lies
Stylish but unnecessarily salacious retronoir murder mystery based on the novel by Rupert Holmes. A young celebrity journalist (Alison Lohman), in researching a tell-all book on a Martin and Lewis-like comedy team (Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon), attempts to uncover the real story behind their breakup 15 years earlier and the ...
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Where the Truth Lies (CNS)
Where the Wild Things Are
Though it's based on a children's book, and though
objectionable elements are minimal, the intriguing fantasy Where the
Wild Things Are (Warner Bros.), which combines live action, puppetry
and computer-generated animation, is hardly a film for kids.
Instead, director and co-writer (with Dave Eggers) Spike
Jonze's subtle adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic tale—winner of
the ...
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Where the Wild Things Are (CNS)
Whip It
The hard-edged world of women's roller derby provides
the setting for the coming-of-age tale "Whip It" (Fox Searchlight).
Rather than serving as a forum for feminist self-expression, as
first-time director Drew Barrymore seems to intend, the rough and
tumble of the showcased competition—with its skimpy outfits and
bruising smackdowns calculated to delight boorish male fans—comes
across as ...
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Whip It (CNS)
The Whistleblower
As the war in Bosnia was winding down in 1999 and the
country transitioning to peace, the UN had a multinational police force in
place, mostly to observe. These were peacekeepers who came from the national
police forces of various countries. Because the US does not have national
police Kathryn Bolkovak (Rachel Weisz) takes a ...
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The Whistleblower (SRR)
White Chicks
Painfully inept comedy in which two FBI agents (brothers Shawn and Marlon Wayans) go undercover to protect a pair of young white socialites at an exclusive summer resort from kidnappers by pretending to be the women. Director Keenen Ivory Wayans' preposterous premise quickly grows tiresome as do the unconvincing prosthetics and ...
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White Chicks (CNS)
White Countess, The
Lavish, final collaboration of director James Ivory and the late Ismail Merchant with an original screenplay by novelist Kazuo Ishiguro about an impoverished Russian countess (Natasha Richardson) supporting her young daughter and ungrateful family (Vanessa Redgrave, Lynn Redgrave, John Wood, Madeleine Potter) while working as a hostess in a nightclub run ...
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White Countess, The (CNS)
White Noise
Schlocky supernatural thriller by director Geoffrey Sax about an architect (Michael Keaton) who, while mourning the tragic death of his wife, becomes obsessed with trying to contact her spirit through electronic means, resulting in unforeseen consequences from beyond the grave. Badly written, acted and directed, this paranormal potboiler makes almost no ...
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White Noise (CNS)
White Oleander
Agonizing tale of a teen-age daughter (Alison Lohman) who is shuttled through a series of foster homes after her manipulative mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) is convicted of killing her lover. Directed by Peter Kominsky, fine performances bolster a harrowing coming-of-age drama exploring mother-daughter relationships, foster care and the role of art in ...
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White Oleander (CNS)
Whiteout
Logic is among the casualties in the
Antarctic murder mystery "Whiteout" (Warner Bros.).
Director Dominic Sena's often grisly
adaptation of Greg Rucka's 1998 graphic novel follows the exploits of federal
marshal Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale). Burdened by a troubled past—about
which we learn only gradually by way of flashbacks—Carrie has been posted to
the U.S. ...
|
Whiteout (CNS)
Who's Your Caddy
Witless attempt at a comedy about a rap mogul's (Antwan Patton, Big Boi of Outkast) entry to a South Carolina country club where his late father had been a caddy. Director Ron Paul, who co-wrote with Bradley Allenstein and Robert Henny, puts a competent cast through a series of uninspired sequences ...
|
Who's Your Caddy (CNS)
Wicker Man, The
Uninspired remake of the 1973 cult thriller, here transposed from Scotland to the Pacific Northwest, about a policeman (Nicolas Cage) who, investigating the disappearance of a young girl, becomes entangled in the strange goings-on of a secretive island community of modern pagans led by a mysterious matriarch (Ellen Burstyn). Following the ...
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Wicker Man, The (CNS)
Wicker Park
Uneven drama set in Chicago about a lovelorn advertising executive (Josh Hartnett) who, after sighting someone he thinks is his former girlfriend (Diane Kruger), becomes obsessed with tracking her down and finding out the truth as to why she suddenly walked out of his life two years earlier. Director Doug McGuigan's ...
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Wicker Park (CNS)
Wild Hogs
Four middle-age biker buddies from suburbia (Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy) seize the day by taking a cross-country road trip and suffering various humiliating mishaps as they attempt to recapture their youthful vitality. The sputtering comedy of director Walt Becker ("National Lampoon's Van Wilder") subjects the ...
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Wild Hogs (CNS)
Wild Man Blues
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Wild Man Blues (SAM)
Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
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Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (EDC)
Wild Strawberries
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Wild Strawberries (SAM)
Wild Thornberrys Movie, The
Sprightly animated tale about a little girl (voice of Lacey Chabert) who can converse with animals and must rescue a cheetah cub from poachers also set on killing a herd of elephants. Directors Jeff McGrath and Cathy Malkasian's family-oriented adventure has just enough sass and humor to overcome the limitations of ...
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Wild Thornberrys Movie, The (CNS)
Wild, The
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Wild, The (SAM)
Wild, The
Visually vibrant computer-animated movie about a New York City zoo lion cub (voiced by Greg Cipes) who finds himself on a ship bound for "the wild," forcing his father (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland) and several zoo buddies (voiced by Jim Belushi, Janeane Garofalo, Richard Kind and Eddie Izzard) to break out ...
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Wild, The (CNS)
Willard
Grisly horror-comedy about a misfit (Crispin Glover), oppressed by a harridan mother and overbearing boss, who befriends an ever-growing army of rats in his basement. Glen Morgan's remake of the 1971 B-movie camps it up with over-the-top performances from Glover and his oppressors; the result, though decidedly not for all tastes, ...
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Willard (CNS)
William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
Visually rich, if overly somber, adaptation by director Michael Radford of Shakespeare's classic play about Shylock (Al Pacino), a Jewish moneylender in the 16th century who lends the merchant Antonio (Jeremy Irons) a sum of money, and then insists on the contractual "pound of (Antonio's) flesh" when the money cannot be ...
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William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (CNS)
Wimbledon
Appealing love story about retiring thirtyish British tennis pro (Paul Bettany) who, frustrated by his losing streak and encroachment by the younger set, is about to play his final Wimbledon tournament. But when he meets a rising American star (Kirsten Dunst), and they begin an affair under the disapproving eye of ...
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Wimbledon (CNS)
Win a Date With Tad Hamilton
Breezy but slight teen romantic comedy about a small-town grocery clerk (Kate Bosworth) who enters a fan contest and wins a date with her idol (Josh Duhamel), a Hollywood heartthrob who warms up to her homespun charm, and, pledging to clean up his act, decides to follow her back home to ...
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Win a Date With Tad Hamilton (CNS)
Wind That Shakes the Barley
Powerful war drama about two brothers (Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney) fighting against British forces in 1920s Ireland. Director Ken Loach, demonstrably on the side of the Irish, vividly illustrates the pitfalls of violence without casting the conflict in sectarian religious terms while espousing a socialist political philosophy that doesn't obscure ...
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Wind That Shakes the Barley (CNS)
Winded Migration
Spectacular documentary that follows the annual journey of various birds as they often travel more than 10,000 miles between the tropics and the Arctic to ensure their survival. With minimal dialogue and exhilarating cinematography, director and narrator Jacques Perrin's quietly thrilling film provides a heady vicarious experience as it captures the ...
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Winded Migration (CNS)
Wings of the Dove, The
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Wings of the Dove, The (SAM)
Winnie the Pooh
“Winnie the Pooh” is the “sweetest” movie to come out of
Disney in a long time. No high concept story lines, no Pixar CGIs
(action-capture computer generated images), just a dulcet tale of Christopher
Robin’s (voice of Jack Boulter) stuffed animal collection come to life.
One morning in the Hundred Acre Wood, ...
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Winnie the Pooh (SRR)
Winslow Boy, The
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Winslow Boy, The (SAM)
Winter Solstice
Engrossing domestic drama about a blue-collar widower (Anthony LaPaglia) coping with his two teenage boys -- one who announces he's leaving home (Aaron Stanford), and the other a troublesome, moody student (Mark Webber) -- and the compassionate woman (Allison Janney) who moves into a nearby house and reaches out to them. ...
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Winter Solstice (CNS)
Without a Paddle
Fitfully funny comedy about three lifelong friends (Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard), inspired by the untimely death of the clique's fourth amigo, who impulsively set out to make good on a childhood pact and search for a hidden treasure in the Pacific Northwest wilderness. But their canoe trip downriver ...
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Without a Paddle (CNS)
Without a Trace
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Without a Trace (SAM)
Witless Protection
Generally crude and lowbrow comedy in which a headstrong rural sheriff's deputy (Larry the Cable Guy) kidnaps an elegant heiress (Ivana Milicevic) from the custody of an FBI special agent (Yaphet Kotto) he believes to be corrupt, and drives her to Chicago to testify against her former boss (Peter Stormare), who ...
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Witless Protection (CNS)
Wolf Creek
Repulsive thriller inspired by true events about a trio of hikers (Cassandra Magrath, Nathan Phillips and Kestie Morassi) who, stranded in a remote region of the Australian Outback, find themselves in a nightmarish ordeal when they are "rescued" by a neighborly bushman (John Jarratt) who turns out to be a sadistic ...
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Wolf Creek (CNS)
The Wolfman
Alternately spooky, savage and silly, "The Wolfman" (Universal) entertains by rendering the trappings of lycanthrope lore with first-rate special effects and actors willing to feast on the material. A remake of the 1941 monster classic "The Wolf Man," it strikes a tone that might be described as "visceral camp."
The amount ...
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The Wolfman (CNS)
Women, The
Lackluster third filming of Clare Booth Luce's classic 1936 comedy set against a contemporary fashion and publishing backdrop, as a clothing designer (Meg Ryan) learns her husband is having an affair with a perfume sales gal (Eva Mendes), and fights to win him back with the help of her friends (Annette ...
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Women, The (CNS)
The Woman in Black
Reputed to be one of the most frightening ghost stories ever written, Susan Hill's 1983 novel "The Woman in Black" must certainly count as one of the sturdiest: It has been adapted both for British radio and U.K. television, while the 22-year-long—and still ongoing—run of its London stage version makes that ...
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The Woman in Black (CNS)
The Woman in Black
Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliff) is a London lawyer around
1910 that is performing poorly since lost his wife four years previously when
his son was born.
His boss at the law firm gives him one last chance and sends
him to a remote town on the northern coast of England to go ...
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The Woman in Black (SRR)
Woman Thou Art Loosed
Soul-inspiring drama about a young woman (Kimberly Elise) who, with the help of a compassionate evangelical minister (T.D. Jakes), struggles to come to terms with her troubled past and find redemption, while awaiting execution for murder. Based on the best-selling novel by Jakes, the hope-filled film deals with difficult subjects -- ...
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Woman Thou Art Loosed (CNS)
Wonder Boys
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Wonder Boys (SAM)
Wonderland
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Wonderland (SAM)
Wonderland
Fact-based story of porn-movie king John Holmes' involvement in a grisly quadruple homicide which took place in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1981. Full of graphically disturbing violence, director James Cox sets out to explore a morally bleak landscape so devoid of redeemable features that it is nearly ...
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Wonderland (CNS)
Woodsman, The
Somber but mesmerizing film about a convicted pedophile (Kevin Bacon, in a terrific performance) who, after serving his 12-year sentence, attempts to reform his life by taking a job in a lumberyard, forming a romantic relationship with a tough but understanding woman (Kyra Sedgwick), while coping with harassment from his outraged ...
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Woodsman, The (CNS)
The Words
Right up to its ending, "The Words" (CBS) is a pleasing rumination on moral choices. Then, after a full 93 minutes of illustrating and explaining ethical ambiguity, the filmmakers let their star-laden fable lurch to close with a finish likely to please no one.
Mary McCarthy once said of her novels ...
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The Words (CNS)
World Trade Center
Two police officers (Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena) wait to be found after being crushed in the rubble of the World Trade Center terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, while their frantic wives (Maggie Gyllenhaal and Maria Bello) wonder if they've survived, and intrepid good Samaritans (Michael Shannon and Stephen Dorff ...
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World Trade Center (CNS)
World Trade Center
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World Trade Center (SAM)
World's Fastest Indian, The
Feel-good film about real-life New Zealand race car driver Burt Munro, an elderly man with his 1920s Indian Twin Scout motorbike, who against all odds packed up and went to the United States to break the land speed record at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. Roger Donaldson has directed Anthony Hopkins to ...
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World's Fastest Indian, The (CNS)
Wrath of the Titans
Nothing less than the fate of the universe, so we're assured, is at stake in the mythological sequel "Wrath of the Titans" (Warner Bros.). Who would have guessed that an Olympian-scale near-apocalypse could prove such a bore?
Director Jonathan Liebesman's stilted 3-D follow-up to 2010's "Clash of the Titans" — itself ...
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Wrath of the Titans (CNS)
The Wrestler
Seamy but powerful character portrait of an aging professional wrestler (a superb Mickey Rourke) whose marginal career is threatened by a heart attack, as he initiates a tentative romance with a stripper (Marisa Tomei) and makes fumbling efforts to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood). Director Darren Aronofsky's study ...
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The Wrestler (CNS)
Wristcutters: A Love Story
Gritty, downbeat drama set in a purgatorial afterlife for suicides, three of whom -- a young slacker (Patrick Fugit) in search of the girlfriend (Leslie Bibb) for whose sake he killed himself, a young woman (Shannyn Sossamon) who insists she is there by mistake, and a Russian musician (Shea Whigham) whose ...
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Wristcutters: A Love Story (CNS)
Wrong Turn
Schlocky slasher flick about a foursome of oversexed twentysomethings (including Desmond Harrington, Eliza Dushku and Jeremy Sisto) lost in the West Virginia wilderness and hunted by a trio of flesh-hungry, homicidal hillbillies. Buckets of blood flow in this clunky formulaic gorefest directed by Rob Schmidt, who leaves no cliche unturned and ...
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Wrong Turn (CNS)
WXIII: Patlabor The Movie 3
Third in an animated Japanese movie series in which two police detectives investigating suspicious deaths on the waterfront discover the perpetrator is a bioengineered monster lurking in Tokyo Bay. Director Takayama Fumihiko's animation is well done but the jumbled narrative is a mishmash of sci-fi Japanese monster movie and plodding police ...
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WXIII: Patlabor The Movie 3 (CNS)
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