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valley girl
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relative values
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the legend of 1900
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being human
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the great outdoors
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dont you forget about me
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the interviews are interesting, catching up with some of the old cast members from films like 'breakfast club', 'weird science', 'sixteen candles', and others. all of the actors glow about how amazing john hughes was and how they all miss his voice in films today. all of this is well and good, but much of their praising films of the past come at the expense of talking about how terrible movie are today. granted, i might agree with them on much of what they say, but i'm sure adults felt the same about these hughes movies when they were coming out. its all a matter of perspective, really. everyone things that movies that came out when they were 12-18 are the best ever and everything else is a pale comparison. except that this generation will think that the last generations and future generations stuff sucks too. you cant win with this type of complaining. another thing that bugged me about the movie is that the film makers try to talk with john hughes himself by going to his house and trying to get an interview. hey guys, he left hollywood for a reason. he doesnt do interviews for a reason. i dont know what that reason is, but ambushing him at his private house is not going to change his mind, i'm sure of it! since the film was completed, john hughes passed away so i guess we will never get those answers from him, but this movie doesnt really do his memory justice either.
man of the century
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her alibi
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princess of thieves
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2012
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bubba ho-tep
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the bumblebee flies anyway
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the winter guest
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chronicles of narnia: prince caspian
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me without you
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easy virtue
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the wonder of it all
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plunkett & macleane
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hook
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james and the giant peach
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the importance of being earnest
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rachel getting married
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the education of charlie banks
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the movie isnt that great, and the direction is mediocre, but what lifts this one one out of the one star category is the fantastic acting by jesse eisenberg. that guy is so good at playing tormented socially stunted outsiders that it elevates a bad movie to ok.
bright star
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muppets take manhattan
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land before time
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bye bye love
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it might get loud
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the proposal
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pagemaster
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the story follows a boy, played by mackulay culkin, who is too worried about safety. he finds himself in a library and is drawn into a magical book that turns him into an animated character. while in there he befriends three different book characters: horror, adventure, and fantasy. the four of them then go on different journeys through those three genres, eventually having to fight off the mighty dragon! along the way he learns that safety is important, but so is fun. the live action stuff is fine, but once we get to the animation it is so poorly done. the lines and color are all washed out to the point where the characters all blend in with the backgrounds and its hard to tell them each apart! remember the old don bluth style of animation? well, this is even more bland and beige (if thats even possible...). the characters are also really annoying and the journey is not at all interesting. really a disappointment. but my nephew enjoyed it, so theres that...
hellbound: hellraiser 2
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beverly hills chihuahua
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the generic story follows a spoiled rich dog as she gets lost and kidnapped (dognapped?) in mexico and must find her way home. along the way she meet some friends and some enemies, and of course there is a life lesson to be learned as well. very bland and predictable. the movie would have gotten only one star because its so dumb, but there is one scene in the movie that elevates it higher than that: as they are traveling through the mexican country side, the dogs come across a whole tribe of chihuahuas that live in an ancient aztek city where they are encouraged to keep on their course by a the king chihuahua. he gives a speech rousing the dogs where he talks about how 'grand' and 'proud' the chihuahua race really is. he says 'we are not accessories to be carried around, we are mighty! we do not shiver because we are cold, we shiver because we are filled with pride, we are the mighty chihuahua!' and it is hysterical! the rest of the movie is garbage, but that one scene is hilarious!
hellraiser
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paranormal activity 2
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turns out that it was pretty creepy, but neither of us lost any sleep over it. this one is just like the first in that it is found footage from a family that is dealing with some strange events around their house. the first one was about a woman and her boyfriend, this one is about her relatives as they deal with the same strange presence. the movie did a good job of slowly building the tension, letting us get to know the family before we start to see the weird things happening. the quality was still there and the creepy factor was in full effect, but i think it suffers from the fact that we have seen this before. there were some new twists in this story that were different from the last one, but it just didnt get under my skin the way the last one did. i liked the way they tied in the first one with this though. over all, it was a good scary movie, just not the homerun of the first.
surrogates
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the story is set in the not too distant future where they have created robot avatars that people can link up to and live through while still staying in the comfort of their own home. by this point most people do everything through their surrogate robots instead of going out and doing anything themselves. as the story unfolds we find that there is someone out there who has been killing the surrogates and the people linked in to them are dying too, which is something that has never happened before. bruce willis plays a cop who ditches his surrogate to try and get to the bottom of it all.
is sounds like a pretty interesting idea, but it really never goes anywhere. the whole thing gets muddled up with anti technology rebels and the guy who created the surrogates in the first place. the whole movie is a terrible mess, and worst of all: its boring. from the stories we heard, it sounds like the problems started on the set between the actors and director and he never seemed to be able to make anything of interest out of it.
romy and michelle's high school reunion
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anyway, i cant justify enjoying this movie, but i did anyway.
shutter island
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beowulf and grendel
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a dog's breakfast
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the story is about a cooky shut-in, played by hewlett, who's sister comes to visit and she brings along a surprise: her fiancee! she's there to introduce him to her brother and hopefully get him to accept the new man in her life. well, hewlett doesnt take too kindly to him and overhears a conversation that sounds like the fiancee is cheating on his sister. he takes matters into his own hands and ends up killing the fiancee, accidentally of course, but kind of on purpose. he quickly buries the body and tries to hide the whole thing from his sister. the guilt haunts him, and so does the body of the fiancee...
the story is alright, the murder/accident and its cover-up are meant to be comedic and played for laughs. most of the humor seems to stem from silly sound effects that accompany a quick turn or a hit to the head. the problem is that its not really funny at all, which is never good for a movie that bills itself as a comedy. the one nice thing that i liked about the movie is that everyone in it is from a stargate tv series, which brings the score up from one star, which is what it should really be.
hot tub time machine
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the red violin
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aladdin and the king of thieves
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i know this isnt really a review of the movie, but the story of my wanting to see the movie is infinitely more interesting that anything in the movie! ok, fine, here's the story: aladdin meets his dad and finally married jasmine. and its crap. the end. now you happy?
(500) days of summer
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for love of the game
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my super ex-girlfriend
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max
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insomnia
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its a pretty interesting film with the character's conscience being symbolized by their inability to sleep. this is due to the fact that they are in an alaskan summer where the sun doesnt go down for days at a time. the twists and turns along the way are pretty interesting and robin williams does a great job as the creepy killer. its certainly one of nolan's lesser works, but it is well done.
predator 2
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the bodyguard
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evolution
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the story follows a couple guys who come across a meteorite that has fallen to earth and starts producing alien life. the title comes from the fact that these aliens start off as single cell organisms, but quickly evolve into plants, worms, insects, animals, apes, and eventually a huge giant creature of some sort. as these two ill equipped guys try to do what ever they can, the military gets involved and messes everything up (which they always seem to do in movies, dont they?). the humor falls pretty flat, and the obvious attempt to capitalize on the recycled 'ghostbusters' formula doesnt really work here. the one saving grace to this film, that keeps it from completely falling apart, is david duchovny, who got to stretch his comedy chops for the first time on the big screen in this movie. unfortunately, its not enough to keep this movie afloat.
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