1/2
An Education, thematically complex, elegantly fashioned and breathtakingly acted, is a poignant coming-of-age story for both a character and a country, essentially a soap opera made vibrantly electric. But unhappily, it is a very good film that stumbles in the home stretch and just misses out on being a great film.

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This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.
There are good movies, bad movies and movies that fall somewhere in between. And then there are movies that somehow manage to thoroughly entertain, despite being none (or all) of the above. The first image of Cirque [...]

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This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.
The character of Astro Boy has always been something of a Japanese national symbol (Astro Boy is for Japan what Mickey Mouse is for America), the allegorical phoenix that rose from the postwar ashes and saved itself [...]

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Ong Bak 2, which bears absolutely no relation to the film that preceded it other than a title and a lead actor, is cinematic proof that you can indeed have too much of a good thing. Let’s face it, no one goes to a movie like Ong Bak 2 for the story. We go to [...]

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1/2
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.
Where the Wild Things Are is too simple to be understood by adults. Only a child can truly grasp it (even though this film is in no way intended for them). Reach down deep and find the [...]

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An English professor once told me that the hardships and travails with which you and I wrestle never rise to the height of tragedy, no matter their extremes or intensity. True tragedy only occurs, he said, when immense calamities befall exceptional individuals. Tell that to the ordinary shlub beset by unrelenting heartbreak in the Coen [...]

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1/2
Paranormal Activity stars only four people, with most of the action centered around only two leads. It was shot by the first-time actors themselves over the course of a single week for a price tag of less than $15,000. And since opening at only a handful of fringe festivals, it has generated such a cult [...]

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1/2
Walking into Couples Retreat I overheard someone use the familiar refrain, “I hope the trailer didn’t show us all of the good stuff.” And I thought to myself, “That was good stuff? If that was the good stuff, we’re in for a very long night.” Oh my prophetic soul…

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The Invention of Lying is a small comedy with big things on its mind. A modern morality fable, at its core beats an almost Capra-esque heart. The premise of the film is both original and beguiling, but its reach exceeds its grasp and unfortunately, it fizzles in the end, falling far short of its lofty [...]

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This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.
Zombieland is precisely the movie I was hoping it would be — laugh-out-loud funny, gratuitously gory and endlessly entertaining. It’s fitting that much of the film takes place in an amusement park, because “Zombieland” is one thrill [...]

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