Apparently, another record was broken his weekend. Mamma Mia! managed to have the best opening for a musical. However, I’m not surprised it’s been left out of the media hype because if you don’t like musicals or at least like ABBA, you are really not going to enjoy this movie. Thankfully, I’m quite happy with both.
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The other day I got a haircut and my hairdresser, knowing that I contribute to CoP, went on about how I simply must go see and do a review of The Fall (2006). When I asked her, what it’s about she said,” Well, nothing really, it’s just beautiful. You have to go see it.” I’m often suspicious of films described in this way. More often than not they end up being exercises in conspicuous directorial egotism. Still, I’m not about to upset Francis, my hairdresser, who is one of the best in New York City. So when Francis makes this small request, I feel obliged to give it a go. Not only did I enjoy the cooling of the theater’s air conditioning on this very hot July day, the movie turned out to be rather charming, and best of all, it actually is about something.

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In Batman Begins, the restart of the new and improved Batman franchise, the audience was treated to the beginnings of Bruce Wayne’s journey into the Caped Crusader. There was also a small teaser of things to come in the form of a joker playing card. Now here we are, three years later, and the masses are treated to the that famous Batman foe, and his rise to power in the criminal underworld, among other surprises and storylines. There has been much advance word on how well done the film is, and it was clearly helped by one of the strongest viral marketing efforts I ever seen in regards to a single film. The Dark Knight becomes massive in scale and story, near epic proportions. The biggest strength the film has is that there’s a lot of pizzazz non-stop. The movie goes on…and on…and on…and sadly, that is also the film’s major fault.
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On its release, Penelope made little impression in the film world and went largely unnoticed. I had seen a trailer though and thought the concept seemed rather sweet and endearing. A cursed girl born with pig features tries to find love. Also, the cast list was amazingly impressive, with James McAvoy, Christina Ricci, and Reece Witherspoon, to name but a few. So I gave it a go. The first thirty minutes were extremely enjoyable and very funny, but then the film lost its way and became a bit of a disappointment.
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In this summer of comic book heroes coming to a theater near you to rescue you from heat, boredom or both, Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) muscles it’s way out front of a pretty competitive pack. The visual effects alone are worth your ticket price. From start to finish the solid cast of actors sells this fantasy and we are presented with something not often found in this genre; well fleshed out characters. Sure, there are plenty of things getting blown up, ripped apart and beaten up, just as one would expect from any self respecting action movie; but Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) delivers even more and like the title character, this movie has heart.
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Funny Games is about two preppy young men who psychologically and physically terrorize an upper class family in their home. This is the Americanized version of the 1997 film. Although artistic and well crafted, the film is about as unpleasant as the countless number of torture porn movies that are manufactured these days. The irony about Funny Games is not that it isn’t funny but that the joke is on the audience and the director, Michael Haneke, is the only one who’s laughing.
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Meandering through a Dallas suburb, Richard Linklater’s characters are vaguely connected by circumstance rather than plot. As the title suggests, they are slackers. None seem to work or have anything of particular importance to be doing as the film simply runs along like a slow motion relay where the focus of attention baton is passed along. What motivates you to care enough to sit through all 97 minutes is that these slackers are quirky, amusing and interesting.

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Every time Pixar, that is now officially part of the House of the Mouse, pitches a new film to its audience by the means of releasing an excruciatingly small teaser or just some conceptual art, I can’t help but wonder how they are going to pull it off this time. WALL•E, as their latest effort is called, was a project that evolved even before Pixar scored big time with Toy Story that initially sounded and felt rather cold and machine-like. Like good wine, the film was shelved for nearly ten years, turning it into Pixar’s most ambitious and tender project to date.
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Fido’s premise is a unique one; take the 1950’s suburban era and add flesh-eating zombies. You would think that the idea itself would give all sorts of opportunities for great social satire. Sadly, this is not the case. Perhaps if the movie was an animated cartoon, the laughs would have occurred more often; I only found myself merely chuckling every once in a while. Upon more thought, Fido, simply takes the last 30 seconds of Shaun of the Dead (a much superior film) and struggles to extend it to 90 minutes.
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When I first saw the trailers for Wanted, I wasn’t excited to see CGI bullets spinning in slow motion, but the cast alone is worthy of checking out the film. In addition, the film is under the direction of Timur Bekmambetov, best known for the Nightwatch horror-action film series out of Russia. It’s alright if you haven’t seen his past work before, but even if you have, a good chunk of Wanted screams stylist to and fro; it’s one of those films where nothing really makes sense, and maybe it isn’t supposed to. It’s also a film that is too big, and overpraised for its britches.
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