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We Own The Night (2007) R 117min
2007-11-05 09:03:00
Writer-director James Gray made a new variation of the same film he had done before: “Little Odessa” and “The Yards”, all about family members on different sides of the law, living in the immigrant communities of New York. The presence of stars-producers Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg (both starred in “Yards”) helps, but since the theme has been explored before by so many directors there’s no place left for innovation. “We own the night” was a slogan used by NYPD’s street crime unit in the 80s. Apparently the struggle of NYPD with organized crime back then was very hard. NYPD officers were being killed at the rate of two a month. Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) is a manager of a Russian night club in Brighton Beach owned by his mentor Marat Buzhayev (Moni Moshonov), who is very happy wit If you liked this post, buy me a beer Share This Related reviews and articlesNovember 4, 2007 -- American Gangster (2007) R 157min (...
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American Gangster (2007) R 157min
2007-11-04 19:21:00
This new classic in the gangster genre was directed by legendary director and producer Ridley Scott. Denzel Washington plays Manhattan drug-king-pin-turned-informer Frank Lucas, who was a driver, bodyguard and confidant for one of the Harlem’s crime bosses, and replaced him after boss died in the late 60s. Frank Lucas came up with a novel way to import and distribute heroin. Russel Crowe plays a NYPD officer Richie Roberts. Both men have something in common: each one are religeously following their ethical code, but on opposite sides of the law. All performances were really strong, from main characters to every last supporting actor. Very entertaining film despite 2 hours 40 minutes run time. Soundtrack was awesome. If you liked this post, buy me a beer Share This Related reviews and articlesNovember 5, 2007 -- We Own The Night (2007) R 117min (0)October 22, 2007 -- Gone Baby Gone (2007) R 114min (0)October 19, 2007 -- Satya (1998) 2h 51min (0)October 5, 2007 -- The Fall O...
More About: American , Gangster , American Gangster

Mr. Brooks (2007) R 120min
2007-11-01 04:50:00
The plot: Mr. Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) is a successful businessman, a husband and a father, dedicated to his family. But he has a problem: hunger to kill. He knows about his problem and tries to control his hunger. Mr. Brooks is obsessed with killing and perfectly planned and setup murders, although he knows he’ll be caught some day and wonders if dying from a lethal injection was be a good way out of his addiction. He attends meetings of “Alcoholics Anonymous” and pretends to be an addict, because it helps him to stay in control of his addiction. He’s been on sabbatical for two years until now, when his alter ego Marshall (William Hurt) talks him into murder of a couple in their bed, which Earl meticulously plans and executes and leaves his victims’ bloody thumbprints on the lamp - his signature. But he is seen at the crime scene by an “amateur photographer” from a building across the street, Mr. Smith (Dane Cook), who is often watching ...
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Cars come out on Blu-Ray on Nov 6
2007-10-30 23:43:00
Disney/Pixar animated feature is coming out on Blu-Ray disk on November 6 - same date that Disney also chose to release Ratatouille on. BD features include deleted scenes, Pixar animated shorts, behind the scenes experience and more.If you liked this post, buy me a beerShare This Related reviews and articlesOctober 30, 2007 -- Ratatouille comes out on DVD on Nov 6, 2007 (0)June 30, 2007 -- Ratatuille (2007) (0)
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Dan in Real Life (2007) PG-13
2007-10-29 06:44:00
If you liked the 40 Year Old Virgin, you will love this funny, sweet and touching movie. Steve Carell plays a widower with three girls, who dedicates all his life to them, while two of his elder teenage daughters give him hard time. His character meets a woman (Juliette Binoche) in the bookstore, and love chemistry begins to work over cup of tee and muffin. But he find out that the woman is dating his brother. Great family movie about love and family and “for all the people who are making life plans - expect to be surprised”. If you liked this post, buy me a beerShare This Related reviews and articlesOctober 13, 2007 -- The Heartbreak Kid (2007) R 115min (0)
More About: Life , Real , Real Life , Dan in Real Life

Seventh Horse of the Sun?s Chariot - Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda (1993) 130 min
2007-10-26 06:09:00
Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda (The Seventh Horse of The Sun’s Char iot) is considered one of the Art Film masterpieces by Shyam Benegal, an acclaimed India n director. I saw it about 10 years ago, and it popped in my mind again after I saw
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The Good Shepherd (2006) R 161 min
2007-10-24 08:16:00
This is the story of creation of CIA through the eyes of one of the agents, who through his loyalty and patriotism quickly raises to the top. Directed by Robert De Niro, his first attempt at directing since 1993 A Bronx Tale, and starring Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie , Alec Baldwin, John Torturro, De Niro himself, Joe Pesci and others. In the end his limitless loyalty and blind patriotism destroyed his life and his family.
More About: Movies , World War I , Drama , The Good Shepherd

Michael Clayton (2007) R 119min
2007-10-16 21:53:00
An intelligent high-powered legal thriller, this is not a action film, so it's a departure from shaky camera of the Bourne films. Very realistic. The title is appropriate: a story of a man who's a great lawyer, not such a good friend, and an unsuccessful family man. There's a little of The Firm, Civic Action and Erin Brokovich - a crusade of individual against an evil corporation, but for the most part the focus of the movies is drama of human beings who just happen to be lawyers.
More About: Movies , Drama , Michael , Thrillers , Michael Clayton

The Kingdom (2007) R 110min
2007-10-08 08:24:00
Just saw it in the theatre 1 hour ago. Plot-wise it’s a clone of “Clear and Present Danger” 15 years ago, where instead of Doctor Ryan we’ve got the team of four FBI agents and set in modern-day Saudi Arabia. In the compound where American company oil workers and their families work under protection of Saudi government there’s a car bomb explosion during baseball game. Many people got injured. When help arrives there’s a bigger explosion that kills some 100 people. FBI wants to send their investigators, but Saudi government insists that they would be a target and a liability under these conditions. After tough negotiations a team of elite FBI investigators, Ronald Fleudy (Jammie Foxx), Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), Janes Mayes (Jennifer Garner) and Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman), is finally allowed to go to the site to investigate and they are granted only one week to do it and get out. A Saudi security officer, Colonel Faris Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom...
More About: Kingdom , The Kingdom

The Italian (2005)
2007-09-27 08:49:00
An Italian family wants to adopt a child from a Russian orphanage, and six-year-old Vanya (Kolya Spiridonov) is their pick. Which is why kids at the orphanage immediately gave him name “Italianets” (The Italian). The couple is very nice, but Vanya is yearning for his birth mother. Determined to find her, he runs away from his orphanage to the house where he was left and lived until he was assigned to the orphanage. This is an incredibly moving drama, and received many international awards. Not a tearjerker, but almost. Director Andrei Kravchuk has done an excellent job creating this very authentic, realistic drama. It was released in United States in 2007. All the orphan kids were acting like professional actors - so good I felt like I was among them and like I knew them all my life. A 5-start movie. The orphanage is a realy poor condition. Kids have to work on the worst kind of job for peanuts to make ends meet. The director of the orphanage is not a bad man. He&rsquo...

Flushed Away (2006)
2007-09-11 19:36:00
“Flushed Away ” did not make me laugh, just a forced smile here and there. It’s not entirely bad, but not exciting either. I watched this 3D animated feature on DVD, so I don’t know if children will like it. Rody (Hugh Jackman) is a pet mouse who lives in a golden cage in an upper-class penthouse in Kensington. ...

3:10 to Yuma (2007)
2007-09-10 19:59:00
It’s nice to see the revival, or a come back, of the Western genre. I have seen the 1957 version, and not 50 years later this remake brought Elmore Leonard’s short story back to the screen. Watch the trailer. The plot: one-legged civil war veteran Dan Evans (Christian Bale) is in dire straits as powerful landlord ...
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The Last King Of Scotland (2006)
2007-09-05 10:08:00
*** May contain spoilers *** The plot: Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), Scott, graduated from medical school and randomly picked Uganda to practice his skills. He arrived in the poor, but beautiful country just in time for Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) to take over the country from deposed president Milton Obote after a military coup. To Nicholas it appeared ...
More About: Scotland , Drama , Historical , Thrillers , King

After the Sunset (2004)
2007-09-03 09:07:00
I‘ve seen this movie in theatre couple of years ago, and now it was again on TNT in HD. I remember from the first time I saw it that there was a lot of confusion because at the same exact time there was a movie called “Before Sunset ”. Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek play a couple ...

Stardust (2007)
2007-09-02 23:24:00
Went to see it late last night with friends. I did not know what the movie is about. I heard from completely forgettable commercials that the movie has Michelle Pfeiffer and De Niro in it, so I thought it might be worth a look. Well, it’s one of the strangest movies I’ve seen. For the first five ...
More About: Adventure , Fantasy , Romance , Stardust

Cold Summer of 1953 (1987)
2007-09-02 22:23:00
I think I have seen this grim movie once about 20 years ago. It’s the last role and last film starring Anatoli Papanov, one of the greatest and beloved Soviet actors. The plot is quite simple. In 1953, after Stalin’s death, Nikita Khruschev became secretary general of the Communist Party, and denounced Stalin as a murderous ...
More About: Drama , Summer , Cold , War

The Time Machine (2002)
2007-08-25 08:07:00
This adaptation of H.G. Wells’s classic is a big departure from the novel. Here an inventor living in New York is trying to go back in time using his invention to save the life of his girlfriend - because he’s in love and he has a guilt complex about her death. This movie did not work ...
More About: Adventure , Machine , Time , Sci-Fi , Time Machine

The Lost City (2005)
2007-08-25 06:31:00
*** This review may contain spoilers *** A film by Andy Garcia starring himself, Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray and Elizabeth Peña - quite a constellation of stars. It begins in 1958 in one of pre-revolution Havana’s (though film is shot in Dominican Republic) club’s room. We are witnessing a typical “fathers and sons” conflict. The family is torn by conflicting feelings: on one ...
More About: Lost , Drama , Romance , Historical , City

Black Dog (1998)
2007-08-23 09:14:00
I must have seen this movie a 100 times already, but I can watch it more. It’s one of my favorite movies along with Rush Hour (1), The Police Academy (1) and Lethal Weapon (1). And probably the best movie the dirty dancer Patrick Swayze was ever in. It’s just as cheesy as Die Hard movies ...
More About: Black , Black Dog , Lack

The Sentinel (2006)
2007-08-21 09:09:00
Michael Douglas is playing a Secret Service agent who was credited with saving president Raegan’s life, and the beautiful Kim Basinger is playing president’s wife. Michael Douglas (don’t remember the name of his character, Pete I think it was) is to protect the First lady. And they have an affair that probably began since before ...
More About: Thrillers , The Sentinel

Superbad (2007)
2007-08-20 18:33:00
No matter how bad or filthy the jokes is, the key to its delivery is perfect timing. And this movie is super bad! It’s full of sexual humor, the F word was said hundreds of times, and even the closing credits have cartoons with cocks as the main characters - very crude but funny nevertheless ...
More About: Comedy , Erotic , Sexual , Superbad

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005)
2007-08-19 21:13:00
A struggling actor/comedian Albert Brooks, played by a comedian Albert Brooks (The Simpsons Movie, The in-laws, Doctor Dolittle, Taxi Driver, Real Life, Lost in America etc.), receives a letter from the State Department. First he thinks he’s going to jail for checking out Al Quaeda website on the Internet (same fears people in USSR had ...
More About: Comedy , World , Muslim , Muslim World

Silent Hill (2006)
2007-08-19 09:48:00
Based on video game, which I haven’t played. Since I’ve seen other game-to-movie adaptation I didn’t expect much. “Doom”, for example, was a really bad movie. It’s about a woman, Rose, has a sick daughter, Sharon, who has seizures and nightmarish dreams about a city of Silent Hill , and who’s also sleep-walking. To help her, Rose takes her to this ...
More About: Drama , Horror , Supernatural

The Hitchhiker?s Guide To The Galaxy (2005)
2007-08-16 08:45:00
I love the Douglas Adams’s book (the 5-part trilogy). It was not easy to read, but it was hilarious. The twisted logic, the irony and the wild imagination in every story of the book - so funny. And yes, Earth does get destroyed (Don’t Panic!) by the Vogon demolition fleet - to make way for a new hyperspace ...
More About: Comedy , Adventure , Guide , Galaxy , Hitchhiker

Brokeback Mountain (2005)
2007-08-16 06:03:00
It’s been two years this the “Gay cowboys” movie came out in theatres, and the subject has been bread and butter of movie critics, stand-up comedians and late night TV show hosts. And, to be honest, I was trying to avoid this movie, just like I was trying to avoid the “Million Dollar Baby”. The ...
More About: Movies , Drama , Brokeback Mountain , Mountain , Mount

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
2007-08-05 11:04:00
We tried to get into the theater for an 8PM show, but it was sold out so we had a dinner and went for a 10PM show, which already was forming a line outside the theater. After waiting anxiously through almost half an hour of commercials and previews, the movie began. The plot: In this third ...
More About: Movies , The Bourne Ultimatum , Bourne , Ultimatum

Tae Guk Gi (2005)
2007-08-04 06:02:00
The movie was released in United States under the title “The Brotherhood of War”.  The plot: This is a story of two brothers, Jin-Tae (Jang Dong-Gun) and Jin-Seok (Won Bin). Jin-Tae shines shoes and tries to save money for his younger brother’s education. They live with their mute mother, who runs a noodle shop. The family is ...
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Saint Ralph (2004)
2007-08-02 07:38:00
1954. 14-year old Ralph is about to become an orphan: he doesn’t have a father and his mother is seriously ill. As a penance for sinful behavior at his Ontario Roman Catholic school’s pool he is assigned to a cross-country running team. He is desperate to save his - nothing would help but a miracle. ...
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Saints and Soldiers (2003)
2007-08-01 05:49:00
The movie is based on actual historic events. The plot: Middle of December, 1994. A unit of American soldiers is captured in Ardennes forest in Belgium. When one of the American soldiers tries to wrestle out a weapon from a German soldier, the Germans open fire on the prisoners. This event has later become known as the Malmedy massacre. ...
More About: Saints , Soldiers , Sold

Saints and Soldiers (2003)
2007-08-01 05:49:00
The movie is based on actual historic events. The plot: Middle of December, 1994. A unit of American soldiers is captured in Ardennes forest in Belgium. When one of the American soldiers tries to wrestle out a weapon from a German soldier, the Germans open fire on the prisoners. This event has later become known as the Malmedy massacre. ...
More About: Saints , Soldiers , Sold