In early-’60s Mississippi, aspiring journalist Skeeter (Emma Stone) decides to write a book based on the experiences of the black maids in her hometown of Jackson, women who keep house and raise white children for minimum wage but aren’t allowed to use their employers’ bathrooms. Great idea! Someone should really make a movie about that. […]
Empire 17 Cinemas Bayers Lake
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Final Destination 5 is what you think it is
Another spectacular disaster, another batch of blandly beautiful survivors, another series of bloody accidents orchestrated by Death to reclaim its escaped prey. Only the specifics change in this film series, which kicks off its fifth edition with a bridge collapse that kills all but a handful of ill-fated office workers. Much like the Saw films, […]
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The Change-Up a cringeworthy bro-mance
Ryan Reynolds (a promiscuous stoner douchebag-with-a-heart-of-gold) and his BFF since grade school, a much older-looking Jason Bateman (a family man with an insatiable appetite for success) star in David Dobkin’s (Wedding Crashers) latest bro-mantic comedy. The premise is as simple as it is stupid: the dudes get drunk, piss in a fountain and voila, switch […]
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Rise of the Planet of the Apes entertains
Your complete appreciation of the entertaining new Planet of the Apes prequel could hinge on your comfort with CGI in close-up. I was never sold on the motion-capture rendering of actor Andy Serkis as the primary primate, Caesar. Roddy McDowell in a rubber mask from 43 years ago—or even Tim Roth in Tim Burton’s Ape […]
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Despite funny moments, Crazy, Stupid, Love disappoints
Despite some truly funny moments (half of which are in the previews), director duo Glenn Ficarra’s and John Requa’s (I Love You Phillip Morris) Crazy, Stupid, Love doesn’t live up to its full potential, falling into a well-worn Hollywood routine of soulmates and grand gestures. As Steve Carell’s 25-year marriage to Julianne Moore breaks up, […]
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Cowboys & Aliens drags
Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens is what you expect: a sci-fi action movie set in a lawless world of saloons and guns. An amnesiac cowboy wearing a digitized wristband that shoots stuff (Daniel Craig) ambles about wreaking havoc, killing some nasty looking aliens who’ve taken people hostage. The town’s head honcho (Harrison Ford), a mysterious […]
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No Smurf-in’ good
Director Raja Gosnell takes Smurfs where they shouldn’t go: out of Smurf Village (an alternate universe that “knows no sadness”) and through a blue moon-induced portal to modern day Manhattan. Hiding from evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria with a prosthetic shnoz)—who’s on a mission to extract the Smurfs’ happiness to become invincible—a band of Smurfs […]
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Captain America: The First Avenger worthy of the stars
It’s no small feat to make a movie about a patriotic weakling transformed into a chiselled slab of prime soldier meat—outfitted in a stars-and-stripes uniform, no less—without succumbing to jingoistic excess. Yet the makers of Captain America somehow do just that, softening the corny edges of the comic book story with several well-placed winks at […]
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Predictable Friends With Benefits
Just when you thought Hollywood was going to break some rules and get all polyamorous, it cranks out another predictable, if R-rated, romcom. Two hotties—an “emotionally damaged” recruiter, Jamie (Mila Kunis), and “emotionally unavailable” GQ recruit, Dylan (Justin Timberlake)—become best buds who just want a li’l hanky-panky on the side, sans relationship. Complications ensue (kinda) […]
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 “an appropriately grand finale”
Director David Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves very nearly meet the impossible demands of wrapping up the past decade’s most successful film series, resolving character and story arcs while serving up the requisite action. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) continue to search out and destroy the pieces of Voldemort’s (Ralph […]
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Winnie The Pooh sweet like “hunny”
With a heavy dose of “hunny,” hand-drawn animation and John Cleese’s narration, Winnie the Pooh is a tongue-in-cheek rendition of AA Milne’s lovable “bear of very little brain.” What starts as a search for Eeyore’s tail (aka “A Very Important Thing To Do”) turns into a quest for Christopher Robin, whom Pooh and his cronies—Kanga, […]
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Stinky Zookeeper
For reasons unbeknownst to me, director Frank Coraci and a slew of writers birthed Zookeeper. Dumped by his bombshell GF (Leslie Bibb), zookeeper Griffin (Kevin James) schemes to win her back half a decade later with the help of the chatty animals he cares for and his sexy colleague (Rosario Dawson), who harbours a crush […]