Jake Kasdan’s comedy is a series of disjointed gags and one-liners without a satisfying through-line, intermittently amusing but ultimately unsatisfying. Cameron Diaz plays the unprofessional educator, Elizabeth, whose teaching repertoire consists of R-rated movies and whose life ambition amounts to finding a sugar daddy. Spotting a candidate for that role in a wealthy colleague (Justin […]
Empire Studio 7 Lower Sackville
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Perfunctory Mr Popper’s Penguins
Jim Carrey does his best impression of a manic businessman turned penguin-hoarder for an hour and a half. Mike Waters (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) alters a classic children’s novel beyond recognition: As Mr. Popper, Carrey winterizes his swanky Manhattan apartment for Antarctic waterfowl bequeathed to him by his absentee father, attempts to reignite a broken-up […]
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Green Lantern provides comic relief
It’s hard to take this shade of green seriously. Martin Campbell’s (Casino Royale) adaptation of the DC comic establishes the universal battle between the yellow power of “fear” and the green power of “will.” Unfortunately, this “info-dump” happens twice: first for the audience, then again for pilot turned superhero Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds). We get […]
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Super 8 scratches summer movie itch
Just when you thought we’d gone digital for good, J.J. Abrams (Star Trek) brings Kodak back with a bang. The extraterrestrial mystery unfurls when a pack of preteens shooting a movie —on super 8 film, duh— witnesses an explosive train accident leaving behind countless little “white Rubik’s cubes,” misbehaving electronics and prompts clandestine Air Force […]
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X-Men: First Class a relaunch for mutant franchise
The fifth X-Men movie feels like a fresh start for the franchise, and not just because it’s a prequel that chronicles the origin of the mutant superhero team in the JFK era. From the early introductions of the cocky but good-hearted scientist Charles Xavier (James MacAvoy) and the vengeance-driven Holocaust survivor Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender), […]
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The Hangover Part II recycles predecessor
Same hangover, new city: Todd Phillips reunites the original Alan-Stu-Phil (Zack Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper) “wolf pack” for raunchy comedy round two. The gang treks to Thailand, where Stu is getting hitched to Lauren, who has a “solid rack for an Asian.” After Alan roofies the crew (again), they regain consciousness in Bangkok in […]
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Kung Fu Panda 2 “animation at its best”
Jack Black whips some animal butt as the voice of Po, the rotund Dragon Master panda, in Jennifer Yuh’s Kung Fu sequel. A vengeful peacock, Shen (Gary Oldman), invents a contraption that “eats fire and breathes metal”—a cannon—to help him conquer China. Po, yearning to discover his past (his “father” is a goose, after all), […]
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Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides sinks
The fourth Pirates movie is a forgettable attempt to extend an expired Disney franchise. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley have abandoned ship, leaving Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Depp. Even the director of the first three movies has bailed, replaced by Rob Marshall (Chicago). The plot involves a group of pirates (a British flotilla, religious Spaniards, […]
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Bridesmaids hilarious
The movie starts with a bang: down-on-her-luck Annie (Kristen Wiig) and her handsome fuck-buddy (Jon Hamm) are going at it like rabbits—Wiig’s exasperated expressions and flailing limbs will make you laugh so hard you cry. This sets the tone for a hilarious trip down the aisle as Annie attempts to fulfill her Maid of Honour […]
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Unspectacular Priest
Scott Stewart’s adaptation of the eponymous graphic novel series opens with a couple of minutes of bloody, animated exposition, during which we learn that after years of warfare, super-powered priests have beaten back a race of eyeless vampires and the church has established Orwellian colonies for the human survivors. As silly as all that is, […]
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Something Borrowed “insipid”
I don’t know how true Jennie Snyder’s screenplay is to Emily Griffin’s novel because I never finished reading it. In the movie, smarty-pants lawyer Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) and bossy party girl Darcy (Kate Hudson) are BFFs. After Rachel’s birthday party, she hooks up with her boring but supposedly hunky lawyer friend Dex (Colin Egglesfield) who […]
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Thor swings a big hammer
Take a Marvel Norse god superhero, Shakespearean director Kenneth Branagh, and special effects up the wazoo and you get the epic battle-fest, Thor. After venturing to icy Yodenheim to fight blue-skinned, red-eyed giants, the jacked, blonde Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is banished from Asgard—his magical, gilded home in the sky—landing on Earth in a magnetic tornado, […]
