Gold Winner and Hall of Fame inductee Oxford Theatre Silver Winner Empire Bayers Lake Bronze Winner Empire Dartmouth Crossing The best movie-going experience in town looks a little something like the first row of the balcony seats at Oxford Theatre. Seriously, the leg room alone deserves an award. That’s just one of the reasons our […]
Empire 17 Cinemas Bayers Lake
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The Way is long
Actor/writer/director Emilio Estevez casts his dad (Martin Sheen) as Tom Avery, whose only son, Daniel (Estevez), is killed as he commences his pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. The 60-something Tom decides to make the pilgrimage himself, Daniel’s ashes in tow. En route, he collects a slew of companions—Sarah (Deborah Kara Unger), Joost (Yorick van […]
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A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is a gift to fans
For Harold and Kumar fans, this is a welcome third installment, written by the same duo as the first two movies, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. TV director Todd Strauss-Schulson (new to the franchise) didn’t have to use 3D, but puts it to good use with self-conscious cheekiness: smoke rings swirl in the air and […]
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Tower Heist a limp caper
(image-1) A big-budget, mindless blockbuster entertainment, Brett Ratner’s (Rush Hour, The Red Dragon) Tower Heist doesn’t quite hit the mark. When businessman Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) defrauds the employees of the swanky high-rise he calls home, ex-building manager Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) leads a robbery of Shaw’s apartment with the aid of a team of […]
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In Time a waste
Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, The Truman Show) brings another clever idea to the screen with a future-world where people’s bodies stop aging at 25 and time literally is money, but doesn’t execute well enough to make the most of it. Justin Timberlake plays a poor worker who’s given an extra century by a suicidal old dude […]
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Bollywood superhero movie Ra. One exhausts
Anubhav Sinha’s Ra. One links a video game-inspired storyline and liberal dollops of CGI to Bollywood storytelling staples such as high melodrama, raucous musical numbers and an ass-numbingly long running time. Game designer Shekhar (Shah Rukh Khan) impresses his son (Aman Verma) by creating an invincible virtual villain, but things get messy when the bad […]
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Puss in Boots is feline fun
The badass Puss (Antonio Banderas) of Shrek 2 is back as a leading feline: an outlaw seeking to clear his name. We’re privy to Puss’ backstory when Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) reappears—they were “brothers” in a Spanish orphanage. They pursue the magic beans (a dream they’ve shared since childhood), which they must steal from a […]
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The Rum Diary a hot mess
It’s 1960 and Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) has just arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Going to work at a failing local newspaper staffed by layabouts and alcoholics, Kemp writes horoscopes and stories about tourists bowling, but also sees the dichotomy on the island, the impoverished locals being screwed by American hotel owners and land-grabbers. […]
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Paranormal Activity 3 familiar but scarily effective
Like the charity haunted house at your nearest community centre, Paranormal Activity 3 arrives in time for Halloween with familiar but nevertheless effective scares. A prequel to its two predecessors, the film travels back to 1988 and the childhoods of sisters Kristi and Katie as they are plagued by a sinister apparition. Mom’s boyfriend attempts […]
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Sharp blades but dull wit of The Three Musketeers
Once upon a time, we didn’t need CGI to be lured into theatres. It’s now a staple of any action flick, including Paul W.S. Anderson’s (Resident Evil) iteration of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel. It does a good job pretending it’s part of the Pirates franchise—befuddled plot, sword fights and Orlando Bloom included—only in Louis XIII’s […]
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Atkinson shines as Johnny English Reborn
Rowan Atkinson doesn’t need a gargantuan budget to be funny. (Remember Mr. Bean or the Blackadder series?) Oliver Parker’s Johnny English Reborn, the sequel to Peter Howitt’s 2003 English debut, reinstates English as an MI7 agent after his five-year retreat as a Tibetan monk. His mission: to stop Vortex, a CIA-MI7-KGB assassination trio, from killing […]
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The Maiden Danced to Death is clumsy
With a heavy-handed (and heavy-footed) touch, director-writer-actor Endre Hules parades his Hungarian folk dance drama onto the screen. Hules, who fled communist Hungary, returns to the homeland, his brother (Zsolt Làzslò), his brother’s wife (Bea Melkvi) and the dance company he abandoned. Montages punctuate choppy camera work—including Hules, Làzslò and Melkvi prancing like buffoons through […]