The Eagle
The contradictions of imperialism and the relationship of a marginal culture to a temporarily dominant one are background themes that add some depth to the period action-adventure movie "The Eagle" (Focus).
Even so, adults and mature teens who approach this vigorous screen version of Rosemary Sutcliff's popular 1954 novel "The ...
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The Eagle (CNS)
Eagle Eye
Well-executed action yarn about two strangers—a gifted underachiever (Shia LaBeouf) and a divorced mother (Michelle Monaghan)—who are thrown together when they become the unwilling agents of an anonymous, seemingly all-powerful entity that uses technology and personal information to blackmail them into obedience, while an FBI agent (Billy Bob Thornton) and an ...
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Eagle Eye (CNS)
Earth
Majestic and moving nature documentary chronicling a year in the lives of a variety of wild animals in different habitats, most prominently a polar bear, an elephant and a humpbacked whale. In this big-screen adaptation of their television series, "Planet Earth," co-directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield make the most of ...
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Earth (CNS)
Eastern Promises
Taut, grippingly powerful story of the Russian underworld as a midwife in a London hospital (Naomi Watts) tries to locate the family of Russian girl who died giving birth; when she reveals she has the dead girl's incriminating diary, she becomes the target of a restaurateur-mobster (Armin Mueller-Stahl), his alcoholic bully ...
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Eastern Promises (CNS)
Easy A
Despite its title, director Will Gluck's satire of high school life, "Easy A" (Screen Gems), confronts viewers with a tangled thicket of positive and misguided values that is anything but easy to negotiate.
And, in the end, worthwhile messages about the dangers of judging from appearances and the temptation to ...
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Easy A (CNS)
Easy Virtue
Glossy but ho-hum retread of an early Noel Coward play (1924), adapted by director and co-writer Stephen Elliott, wherein a landed young Englishman (Ben Barnes) brings home his vivacious new bride, a glamorous American widow (likable Jessica Biel) with a "past," who clashes with her husband's stodgy mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) ...
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Easy Virtue (CNS)
Eat Pray Love
Many of the off-kilter values that characterize contemporary Western society are showcased in "Eat Pray Love" (Columbia), the fact-based narrative of one woman's yearlong globe-trotting quest for enlightenment and self-understanding.
Julia Roberts portrays Liz Gilbert, a New York travel writer in the throes of a midlife crisis. Bored with ...
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Eat Pray Love (CNS)
Echoes of Innocence
Well-intentioned, Christian-flavored teen "romantic thriller" about a high school senior (Sara Simmonds) who is obsessed with St. Joan of Arc and whose childhood vow to remain a virgin until she can marry her long-disappeared first love attracts the curiosity -- and eventually, affections -- of a reporter from the school paper ...
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Echoes of Innocence (CNS)
Ed TV
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Ed TV (SAM)
Edge of Darkness
In 1985, BBC television aired director Martin Campbell's miniseries "Edge of Darkness," a thriller about intrigue in the nuclear energy industry.
With Cold War tensions mounting at the time, the program achieved both popularity and critical acclaim, receiving six British Academy of Film and Television awards and being ranked 15th ...
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Edge of Darkness (CNS)
Edge, The
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Edge, The (SAM)
Eight Below
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Eight Below (SAM)
Eight Below
Winning family-friendly adventure inspired by real events about a team of sled dogs left behind during a forced evacuation of a remote Antarctic research station who struggle against the odds to survive in the inhospitable environment while their devoted handler (Paul Walker) races against time and indifference to mount a rescue ...
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Eight Below (CNS)
Eight Crazy Nights, Adam Sandler's
Cartoon comedy, with songs, in which a 33-year-old Jewish wastrel (voiced by Adam Sandler) redeems himself during Hanukkah by coaching basketball, befriending a fatherless boy and helping an elderly man win a prize. As directed by Seth Kearsley, positive values flood the final scenes but only after a considerable quantity of ...
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Eight Crazy Nights, Adam Sandler's (CNS)
Eight Mile
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Eight Mile (SAM)
Eight Mile
Raw foray into the high-stakes world of Detroit's hip-hop subculture in which a volatile young rapper (Eminem) navigates turbulent personal relations while struggling to rise above his dead-end existence. Despite a strong debut performance by the controversial rap star, director Curtis Hanson's "Rocky"-with-rap drama suffers from a hackneyed storyline and predictable ...
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Eight Mile (CNS)
El Bola
Wrenching story of a 12-year-old Spanish boy (Juan Jose Ballesta) who is regularly beaten by his abusive father (Manuel Moron) until his new school pal (Pablo Galan) tells his own loving parents about the boy's welts and they intervene to get the child help. Director Achero Manas contrasts caring and violent ...
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El Bola (CNS)
El Cantante
Lively but sordid life of Puerto Rican salsa star Hector Lavoe (Marc Anthony), who died at 46 of drug-related AIDS in 1993, and his tumultuous relationship with wife Puchi (Jennifer Lopez, exhibiting unaccustomed range), who relates their story in flashback. The stars are good, and co-writer and director Leon Ichaso re-creates ...
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El Cantante (CNS)
Election
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Election (SAM)
Elegy
Somber but absorbing and impressively acted adaptation of a Philip Roth novel about a womanizing professor (Ben Kingsley), the graduate student with whom he falls in love (Penelope Cruz), his poet friend (Dennis Hopper), longtime mistress (Patricia Clarkson) and estranged son (Peter Sarsgaard). Director Isabel Coixet sensitively captures the story's themes ...
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Elegy (CNS)
Elektra
Low-wattage action movie based on the titular Marvel Comics character (played by a buff Jennifer Garner in hellcat mode), a blade-wielding femme fatale who runs afoul of a super-powered crime syndicate when she decides to turn from her assassin ways and protect the two targets -- a young girl (newcomer Kirsten ...
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Elektra (CNS)
Elf
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Elf (SAM)
Elf
Warmhearted yuletide comedy about a foundling (Will Ferrell) raised by elves in Santa's workshop who travels from the North Pole to New York City in order to reconnect with his long-lost father (James Caan), a workaholic scrooge bereft of Christmas cheer. Full of goofy candy-cane humor, director Jon Favreau's holiday film ...
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Elf (CNS)
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth (SAM)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Sweeping, but historically slipshod biography in which England's "Virgin Queen" (Cate Blanchett), with the help of a wise counselor (Geoffrey Rush), prepares to fend off the Armada, sent against her by King Philip of Spain (Jordi Molla), and defeat the intrigues of the captive Mary, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton), while ...
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Elizabeth: The Golden Age (CNS)
Elizabethtown
Sentimental, if not completely satisfying, romantic comedy drama about a disgraced sneaker designer (Orlando Bloom) who, after nearly sinking his employer's footwear empire and contemplating suicide, is dispatched by his mom (Susan Sarandon) to retrieve the remains of his father -- who died unexpectedly -- in rural Kentucky. There he reconnects ...
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Elizabethtown (CNS)
Elizabethtown
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Elizabethtown (SAM)
Ella Enchanted
Comic romantic fantasy about a plucky peasant (Anne Hathaway) who, in trying to rid herself of a curse to obey every order she hears, winds up falling in love with a handsome prince (Hugh Dancy) and saving the kingdom from his crown-coveting uncle (Cary Elwes). Based on the popular children's book, ...
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Ella Enchanted (CNS)
Elsa & Fred
Gentle, restrained song-at-twilight love story in which a buttoned-up Madrid widower (Manuel Alexandre) finds his horizons widened when he falls for his elegant but unconventional new neighbor (China Zorrilla). Though its central dynamic of attracted opposites is familiar, director and co-writer Marcos Carnevale's "carpe diem" comedy, which also features Blanca Portillo ...
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Elsa & Fred (CNS)
Emperor's Club, The
Thoughtful tale set at a mid-1970s boys' academy where an idealistic classics teacher (Kevin Kline) compromises his standards while trying to mold the character of a troubled student (Emile Hirsch). Despite a somewhat pat ending, director Michael Hoffman's ethics-centered drama sensitively explores the crucial importance of personal and professional integrity and ...
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Emperor's Club, The (CNS)
Emperor's New Clothes, The
Pleasing historical comedy that has Napoleon Bonaparte (Ian Holm), exiled on St. Helena, sneak off, leaving a double (Holm again) in his place to reclaim the throne of France, but upon his arrival in Paris he discovers the sentiments for the emperor have changed and ends up falling in love with ...
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Emperor's New Clothes, The (CNS)
Empire
Leaden tale of a cocky South Bronx drug dealer (John Leguizamo) who partners with an ambitious investment banker, naively thinking he and his pregnant girlfriend can walk away from the violent drug scene without any repercussions. Atrociously written by Franc. Reyes who also directed, it's a thoroughly predictable affair that despite ...
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Empire (CNS)
Employee of the Month
Lightweight comedy about a slacker stock clerk (Dane Cook) at a Costco-style superstore where he tries to dethrone a cocky rival co-worker (Dax Shepard) -- who's nabbed "employee of the month" honors for 17 months straight -- in order to win the affections of a pretty new cashier (Jessica Simpson), sparking ...
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Employee of the Month (CNS)
Enchanted
Delightful musical romance follows a maiden (the sparkling Amy Adams) from the world of animated fairy tales into contemporary, live-action Manhattan where she falls in love with a lawyer (Patrick Dempsey), despite the entreaties of her princely suitor (James Marsden) and the meddling of an evil queen (Susan Sarandon). With affection ...
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Enchanted (CNS)
End of the Affair, The
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End of the Affair, The (SAM)
End of the Spear
Inspiring true story about a group of American missionaries in the Amazon and the native tribe with whom they are trying to make contact, whose lives are changed by tragedy when tribal warriors kill five of the foreigners in 1956, told through the eyes of the son of one of the ...
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End of the Spear (CNS)
End of the Spear
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End of the Spear (SAM)
Enduring Love
Superbly acted and crafted but ultimately disappointing story about a university professor increasingly racked by guilt that he might have saved a man involved in a freak accident, while another participant in the failed rescue attempt stalks him and seems to offer to provide the key to what really happened. Roger ...
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Enduring Love (CNS)
Enemy at the Gates
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Enemy at the Gates (SAM)
English Patient, The
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English Patient, The (SAM)
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Absorbing documentary chronicling the rise and fall of the now-infamous energy giant, Enron, analyzing the Darwinian mind-set that dominated its upper echelons and created a moral vacuum which precipitated one of the greatest corporate corruption scandals in U.S. history. Directed by Alex Gibney and based on the best-selling expose of the ...
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Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (CNS)
Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story
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Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story (SAM)
Entrapment
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Entrapment (SAM)
Envy
Relentlessly unfunny comedy about a pragmatic working stiff (Ben Stiller) who, after passing up the opportunity to invest in the harebrained invention which nets his best buddy (Jack Black) a fortune, becomes consumed with envy, costing him his job and perhaps his friendship, not to mention his sanity. Though one would ...
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Envy (CNS)
Epic Movie
Tired spinoff of the "Scary Movie" franchise which here spoofs blockbusters such as "The Chronicles of Narnia," "X-Men," "The Da Vinci Code" and "Pirates of the Caribbean," while it follows four orphans (Kal Penn, Adam Campbell, Jayma Mays and Faune A. Chambers) battling to free a Narnia-like realm from an evil ...
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Epic Movie (CNS)
Equilibrium
Derivative sci-fi tale set in a dictatorial future where anyone showing human emotion is summarily executed, but the leading law enforcer (Christian Bale) who is charged with infiltrating the underground resistance movement begins to come around to their way of thinking. Writer-director Kurt Wimmer copies elements of numerous better movies in ...
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Equilibrium (CNS)
Eragon
Reasonably diverting, if predictable, fantasy adventure for youngsters about a farm boy (Ed Speleers) who, after the death of his uncle, learns it's his destiny to become a dragon rider battling an evil king (John Malkovich) and his henchman (Robert Carlyle) in a mythical kingdom, all the while assisted by a ...
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Eragon (CNS)
Erin Brockovich
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Erin Brockovich (EDC)
Erin Brockovich
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Erin Brockovich (SAM)
Eternal
Stylish but salacious thriller about a Montreal vice detective (Conrad Pla) whose investigation into the disappearance of his wife leads him to an alluring mystery woman (Caroline Neron) who may be Erszebet Bathory, a real-life 16th-century Hungarian countess responsible for slaughtering hundreds of virgins and bathing in their blood to quench ...
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Eternal (CNS)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Cleverly conceived and executed love story about an introverted loner (Jim Carrey) who has all his memories of his former girlfriend (Kate Winslet) erased from his brain after learning that she had recently undergone the same procedure, only to discover midway through the operation that he still loves her and ends ...
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (CNS)
Eulogy
Uneven comedy about feuding family members (including Ray Romano, Debra Winger, Hank Azaria and Kelly Preston) brought together to mourn the death of their patriarch (Rip Torn), who must survive the days leading up to the funeral without killing each other. First-time director Michael Clancy has assembled a solid cast and ...
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Eulogy (CNS)
Eurotrip
Sleazy teen comedy about a high school senior (Scott Mechlowicz), who travels to Europe with three classmates to track down his cyber-pen pal with whom he has severed ties, thinking it was a guy coming on to him, only to discover that she is, in fact, a gorgeous German girl (Jessica ...
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Eurotrip (CNS)
Evan Almighty
Delightful contemporary spin on the Noah story, as a TV anchorman turned congressman (Steve Carell) is instructed by God (Morgan Freeman) to build an ark in light of an impending flood, much to the skeptical consternation of his colleagues on Capitol Hill (John Michael Higgins, Wanda Sykes and John Goodman), his ...
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Evan Almighty (CNS)
Evan Almighty
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Evan Almighty (SAM)
Evelyn
Heartfelt and fact-based tale about the 1950s' legal fight an impoverished Irish father (Pierce Brosnan) wages after his wife runs off and his three young children are placed in different Catholic orphanages against his will. Director Bruce Beresford captures the human story behind the legal battle as well as the faith ...
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Evelyn (CNS)
Even Money
The smart money will steer clear of this trite ensemble drama about various troubled and indebted souls -- including characters played by Kim Basinger, Forest Whitaker and Danny DeVito -- seeking redemption from the sins of gambling. Armed with mushy dialogue masquerading as hard-boiled jargon, veteran director Mark Rydell establishes an ...
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Even Money (CNS)
Evening
Artful but studied story of a dying woman (Vanessa Redgrave) recalling the Newport wedding of her best friend (Mamie Gummer) years before, where, as a maid of honor (now played by Claire Danes) she had a romance with a young doctor (Patrick Wilson), an encounter with unexpectedly tragic consequences. Director Lajos ...
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Evening (CNS)
Ever After: A Cinderella Story
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Ever After: A Cinderella Story (SAM)
Every One Says I Love You
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Every One Says I Love You (SAM)
Everyone's Hero
Charming Depression-era animated tale about a young boy (voiced by Jake T. Austin) who sets out -- with the help of a magical talking baseball (Rob Reiner) -- to recover the stolen lucky bat (Whoopi Goldberg) of his idol Babe Ruth (Brian Dennehy) during the 1932 World Series. Directors Daniel St. ...
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Everyone's Hero (CNS)
Everything Is Illuminated
Reflective road movie about a young Jewish-American (Elijah Wood) who travels to Ukraine where -- guided by a colorful local (Eugene Hutz) and his crusty grandpa (Boris Leskin) -- he searches for the woman who saved his own grandfather from the Nazis. Lyrically directed by Liev Schreiber, the intimately scaled adaptation ...
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Everything Is Illuminated (CNS)
Everything Must Go
Nick Halsey (Will Farrell) loses his job in sales, his wife,
and his home on the same day. He is a recovering alcoholic but lapses into a
haze of beer-induced drunkenness, laying in his easy chair in the front lawn.
Nick has no idea what to do about his situation. When the cops inform ...
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Everything Must Go (SRR)
Evita
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Evita (SAM)
Ex, The
Sour and simple-minded comedy about a husband (Zach Braff) who feels his manliness threatened by one of his wife's (Amanda Peet) old lovers (Jason Bateman), a paraplegic known for his sexual prowess. Director Jesse Peretz and two first-time screenwriters are neither clever nor satiric enough to transcend formula, and their film ...
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Ex, The (CNS)
Executive Decision
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Executive Decision (SAM)
Exorcism of Emily Rose, The
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Exorcism of Emily Rose, The (SAM)
Exorcism of Emily Rose, The
Sober, theologically oriented thriller based, in part, on true events surrounding a Catholic priest (Tom Wilkinson) on trial for negligent homicide in connection with an exorcism he performed on a young woman (Jennifer Carpenter) believed to be possessed that resulted in her death. Thoughtfully directed by Scott Derrickson and with a ...
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Exorcism of Emily Rose, The (CNS)
Exorcist, The
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Exorcist, The (SAM)
Exorcist: The Beginning
Underwhelming prequel to the 1973 horror classic set in 1949 Africa where the eponymous priest (Stellan Skarsgard), having lost his faith after witnessing Nazi atrocities, battles satanic forces released by the discovery of a mysterious Byzantine Christian church unearthed after centuries. While not without some cheap chills, director Renny Harlin has ...
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Exorcist: The Beginning (CNS)
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
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Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (SAM)
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Provocative documentary intended to show that academics and research scientists are penalized for merely suggesting that there might be flaws in the prevailing theory of Neo-Darwinian evolution and that purported scientific evidence for the alternate theory of intelligent design is being systematically ignored. Director Nathan Frankowski's unabashedly partisan film -- using ...
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Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (CNS)
The Expendables
The only thing higher than the body count is the testosterone level in "The Expendables" (Lionsgate/Millennium), a brutally violent action movie that teams, for the first time, some of Hollywood's biggest tough guys with an assortment of professional sports stars.
The result is "The Dirty Dozen" on steroids, with much ...
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The Expendables (CNS)
Express, The
Inspiring fact-based sports drama, set against the background of the civil rights movement of the late 1950s and early '60s, in which a hard-driving Syracuse University coach (Dennis Quaid) hones the skills of a gifted African-American football player (Rob Brown) while he, in turn, challenges the coach's conservative reaction to changing ...
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Express, The (CNS)
Extract
"Extract"
(Miramax), writer-director Mike Judge's comic portrait of a personally and
professionally beleaguered entrepreneur, boasts some undeniably clever
dialogue, and its story line moves toward a generally moral wrap-up. But the
antic proceedings also showcase skewed marital values, with adultery treated as
fodder for laughs.
Successful
self-made businessman Joel (Jason Bateman), whose company produces flavor
extract ...
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Extract (CNS)
Extraordinary Measures
John and Aileen Crowley (Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell) are the parents of three children: John, Jr. (Sam M. Hall), Megan (Meredith Droeger) and Patrick (Diego Velazquez). But Megan, eight, and Patrick, six, have a congenital condition called Pompe disease—similar to muscular dystrophy—where the body lacks a certain enzyme that breaks ...
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Extraordinary Measures (SAM)
Extreme Measures
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Extreme Measures (SAM)
Extreme Ops
Feeble action flick showcasing daredevil antics of a team of extreme athletes filming a sports-themed TV commercial in the Austrian Alps. A few energetic stunt sequences briefly enliven director Christian Duguay's film, but the wheezing terrorist subplot hasn't the stamina for the 100-minute running time, and the protagonists' bohemian boorishness mars ...
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Extreme Ops (CNS)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Few events in recent history have exerted as deeply personal an impact on the lives of millions of Americans, and of people across the globe, as the attacks of 9/11.
So it's odd and a little baffling that a film based on our national tragedy of a decade ago should register—for ...
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Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (CNS)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Oskar (Thomas Horn) lives comfortably with his mother Linda
Schell (Sandra Bullock) and dad, Thomas (Tom Hanks), in a upper Manhattan
apartment. His grandmother (Zoe Caldwell) lives in the building next door, but
Oskar and she can see one another.
Oskar is sent home from school on September 11, 2001 but
doesn’t know why. ...
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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (SRR)
Eye, The
Well-crafted supernatural thriller about a blind woman (Lee Sin-Je) who becomes tormented by visions of dead people after undergoing a corneal transplant operation to restore her sight. Wisely forgoing cheap special-effects in favor of muted chills, Thai filmmakers Oxide and Danny Pang offer audiences an intelligent ghost tale with a distinct ...
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Eye, The (CNS)
Eye, The
Reasonably effective suspense yarn about a blind concert violinist (a believable Jessica Alba) who, after receiving corneal transplants, begins to envision harrowing scenes of devastation and spectral spirits for reasons she connects with her anonymous eye donor, while she tries to convince her doctor (Alessandro Nivola), sister (Parker Posey) and conductor ...
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Eye, The (CNS)
Eyes Wide Shut
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Eyes Wide Shut (SAM)
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