96 Minutes2012
96 Minutes maintains a brisk pace and generates a satisfying degree of suspense with its credibly contrived tale of disparate lives forever changed by a violent carjacking.
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The Babymakers2012
Yet another attempt to mix raunchy excess and romantic-comedy sweetness in an anything-goes raucous farce, The Babymakers offers a few big laughs between ho-hum stretches of frenetic vamping.
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Bad Kids Go to Hell2012
A slickly produced and brazenly clever piece of work that could attract a cult by sheer dint of its ingenious nastiness and self-aware snark.
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Citadel2012
Especially nerve-wracking for any parent who's ever doubted whether he or she could overcome immobilizing fear and spring into action to defend an endangered offspring. Foy exploits that cruel doubt with ruthless efficiency in this impressive debut.
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The Cup2012
Although it canters down a well-trod path toward a predictable finish line, The Cup sustains interest through the smooth efficiency of its storytelling and the engaging performances of its lead players.
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The Devil Inside2012
Despite the palpable air of deja vu that hangs over it like a light fog, The Devil Inside generates a fair amount of suspense during sizable swaths of its familiar but serviceable exorcism-centric scenario.
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Fat Kid Rules the World2012
Affecting performances and effective storytelling are the hallmarks of Fat Kid Rules the World, actor Matthew Lillard's debut effort as a feature director.
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For Greater Glory2012
Despite enough good intentions to pave a four-lane highway, the ardently sincere but dramatically unfocused For Greater Glory plays like a multipart miniseries that has been hacked down to feature length.
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Gayby2012
[Balances] broad comedy and warm-and-fuzzy sentiment.
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LOL2012
LOL is DOA, a shapeless and charmless teen-skewing trifle stocked with trendy slanguage and social-network gimcracks that make it seem like something four years past its expiration date.
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Meeting Evil2012
Writer-director Chris Fisher flirts with over-the-top exaggeration so often during Meeting Evil that auds might wish he'd gone all the way and dialed everything up to 11.
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Nature Calls2012
A brazenly foul-mouthed but ultimately soft-hearted comedy of bad manners.
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October Baby2012
Newcomer Rachel Hendrix grabs attention and sustains sympathy as a lovely yet troubled 19-year-old student determined to unlock the secrets of her past.
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Tyler Perry's Good Deeds2012
An otherwise unremarkable pic that takes what feels like a very long time to unwind a drearily predictable storyline.
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Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning2012
The grand finale is a series of what appear to be single-take sequences of bone-breaking, bullet-blasting violence, almost all of it presented with a practical-effects, minimal-CGI approach bound to impress genre devotees.
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Waiting For Lightning2012
A slickly produced, unabashedly celebratory pic about professional skateboarder Danny Way.
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Echotone2011
There's a potentially fascinating and appreciably more concise 60-minute documentary to be found somewhere amid the uneven and unfocused 88-minute hodgepodge.
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Paranormal Activity 32011
Paranormal Activity 3 earns points for its low-key ability to keep viewers primed over long stretches to expect that something very bad, or even worse, may happen at any moment.
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A Bag of Hammers2010
First-time feature helmer Brian Crano maneuvers some tricky tonal shifts with impressive ease in A Bag of Hammers, a droll, quirky comedy with a pleasant amount of heart.
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Standing Ovation2010
Despite its absurdly optimistic title, Standing Ovation deserves a resounding chorus of boos, and maybe a few well-aimed tomatoes.
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Tiny Furniture2010
Written and directed by newcomer Lena Dunham, who also plays the lead role, this technically polished indie often feels like a semi-autographical effort by a filmmaker trying to work out issues in her art that she's still confronting in life.
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White Irish Drinkers2010
A modestly engaging domestic drama that earns few points for originality but rewards aud attention with persuasive performances, outbursts of robust humor and a vivid yet understated evocation of time and place.
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Zenith2010
Smoothly incorporating influences as diverse as Philip K. Dick and Terry Gilliam, Zenith commands attention and builds suspense by taking inventive detours through familiar territory.
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Cleanflix2009
Pic is undeniably amusing when focused on extreme measures by self-appointed censors, but there's only a token effort made to seriously examine central questions.
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The Perfect Game2009
It's an unabashedly corny but occasionally stirring dramedy based on the true-life story of scrappy young baseball players from Mexico.
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Forever Strong2008
This earnest indie production comes across like formulaic fiction while taking cues (and recycling cliches) from the 'inspirational sports drama' playbook.
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Humboldt County2008
An amiably paced, character-driven comedy-drama about a disenchanted student who finds himself among the unreconstructed hippies and second-generation fringe dwellers who farm marijuana in the Lost Coast region of Northern California.
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Tinker Bell2008
A polished, pleasant trifle that should enchant wee ones during hours and hours of repeat viewings.
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Being Michael Madsen2007
Michael Mongillo's modestly clever mockumentary Being Michael Madsen could generate smiles of approval (and shocks of recognition) among showbiz insiders and media-savvy civilians as homevid and pay-cable fare.
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Steal a Pencil for Me2007
Describing what Steal a Pencil for Me is about might actually do a disservice to this affectionately observed documentary.
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Bloodrayne2006
Pic lurches from incident to incident at a graceless plodding place, offering little in the way of genuine excitement -- the swordfights often are confusingly cut and choreographed -- and only minimal amounts of guilty-pleasure titillation.
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Jackass: Number Two2006
To call the humor sophomoric would be to overstate its sophistication. Call it infantile, and you'll be much closer to the mark. But it's hard to deny that many of the more outrageous bits have an exhilaratingly potent, shock-you-into-guffawing impact.
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Maxed Out2006
Intelligent, informative and unusually entertaining docudocu errs only when it yanks too insistently on heartstrings.
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Nacho Libre2006
Nacho Libre strikes a delicate balance of whimsy and absurdity that may surprise auds primed to expect wall-to-wall slapstick.
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Carlito's Way: Rise to Power2005
Even by the notoriously undemanding standards of direct-to-vid spin-offs, Carlito's Way: Rise to Power is conspicuously underwhelming.
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Psychopathia Sexualis2005
Psychopathia Sexualis seems both plodding and snickering in its almost comically tepid rendering of masochism, homosexuality,
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Stagedoor2005
Shiva's most impressive achievement here is her ability to communicate universal verities through specific details.
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Word Wars2004
There's a pronounced lack of emotional pay-off that likely will derail any attempts to position Word Wars as an aud-friendly crowd-pleaser with breakout potential comparable to Spellbound.
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In Too Deep1999
In Too Deep doesn't exactly abound in surprise plot twists. Even so, director Michael Rymer does a satisfying job of infusing the cliches with edgy persuasiveness.
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Beavis and Butt-Head Do America1996
Faithful fans of the MTV series will no doubt be amused. But the few newcomers who pay the price of admission likely will wonder what all the fuss has been about.
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