<P>It may seem strange to hear a life-long commentator on film say this, but the fact is that many movie reviewers are odd ducks, indeed. Sometimes, they eat with their mouths OPEN. Sometimes, they NEVER clean their rooms. Sometimes, they use a…
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<P>"A Little Princess" exquisitely re-creates the ephemeral world of childhood, an enchanted kingdom where everything, even make-believe, seems possible. Where decrees are made to be broken, save one that is inviolate: "All girls are princesses…
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<P>And so Robin Williams' career has come full circle. Twenty years ago, his celebrity was insured when he played an innocent to the ways of humanity, drawing sit-com laughs from his literalist misunderstanding of idioms and his awkward attempt…
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<P>The main problem with Coach Carter can be summed up simply: too much sermonizing. In a way, it's hard to fault the film, because its heart is in the right place. The movie wants to impress upon teenagers that education is the first step on t…
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<P>One of Shakespeare's most powerful and controversial plays finally comes to the screen in Michael Radford's splendid adaptation of The Merchant of Venice. Briskly paced and passionately alive, Radford's compelling and handsomely filmed versi…
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<P>Theatre buffs may be outraged that the film version of Chicago scraps the trademark choreography of Bob Fosse, but this miraculously resourceful movie is the best possible tribute to the late dance legend. Perhaps the best movie musical sinc…
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<P>Villains usually last through only one crime novel, while heroes are good for a whole series. That's a great inconvenience for their authors, because villains are usually more colorful than heroes. Patricia Highsmith's novels about Tom Riple…
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<P>"Girl With a Pearl Earring" is a quiet movie, shaken from time to time by ripples of emotional turbulence far beneath the surface. It is about things not said, opportunities not taken, potentials not realized, lips unkissed. All of these ele…
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<P>There are some indignities that Drew Barrymore should never be made to suffer: Her sugar-bowl curves should never be hidden away in a boxy suit. Her hair should never be coiled into an uptight little bun. Her lips like cherries -- the kind o…
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<P>Jude Law continues his assault on the oeuvre of Michael Caine that began with Alfie by tackling Sleuth. The results are more successful this time out, although perhaps not in the way Law intended. Co-starring opposite his evident hero, the o…
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<P>Reading Laura Hillenbrand's wonderful "Seabiscuit" was like finally discovering a standard song you'd heard about but had never actually heard. A love song that drew a firm line between well-deep emotion and sentimentality and never strayed,…
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<P>I've never been much of a fan of the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko-created comic book character, Doctor Strange, which is why I'm surprised to say that Marvel's fourth animated direct-to-video feature proves to be their best so far (after the disappo…
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<P>At first I thought, in spite of myself: Okay, this might work. I mostly hate romantic comedies because they tend to be neither romantic or comedic, and because they tend to be full of characters who behave in ways illogical even in the roman…
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<P>"Remember the Titans" is a parable about racial harmony, yoked to the formula of a sports movie. Victories over racism and victories over opposing teams alternate so quickly that sometimes we're not sure if we're cheering for tolerance or to…
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<P>Nothing kills a romantic comedy faster than romanticism. When characters start making moony remarks about how each person can have only one true love in a lifetime, or launch into overheated speeches about how they long for "a love so real t…
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