L.A. Confidential
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L.A. Confidential (SAM)
The Labyrinth
A 17
year-old teenager was on the first transport to Auschwitz in 1940. His name was
Marian Kolodziej and he had asked his priest if it was a good idea to join the
Polish resistance. The priest said yes, but Marian was no match for the Nazi
machine. He was captured almost
immediately and the number ...
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The Labyrinth (SRR)
Ladder 49
Above average -- if overly sentimental -- action drama and paean to firefighters concerning a young fireman (Joaquin Phoenix) as he progresses over the years from rookie to seasoned professional, with the unusual feature of there being as much screen time devoted to his domestic life as to the "Towering Inferno"-like ...
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Ladder 49 (CNS)
Lady Chatterly
Literate, well-acted French-language adaptation of the second draft (there were three in all) of D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" concerning the young wife (Marina Hands) of a World War I paralytic mine owner (Hippolyte Girardot), and her furtive romance with the lower-class gamekeeper (Jean-Louis Coulloc'h) employed by her husband. Director and ...
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Lady Chatterly (CNS)
Lady in the Water
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Lady in the Water (SAM)
Lady in the Water, The
Atmospheric but unconvincing fairy tale about members of a suburban Philadelphia housing complex (Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Wright, Bill Irwin, Bob Balaban) who -- harking back to mythic times when humans and water creatures were friends -- attempt to return a nymph (Bryce Dallas Howard) to the sea, while pursued by wolf-like ...
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Lady in the Water, The (CNS)
Ladykillers, The
Uneven black comedy set in a sleepy Mississippi town about a charlatan professor (Tom Hanks) and his bumbling gang of accomplices (Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, Tzi Ma and Ryan Hurst) who plan a heist on a Mississippi riverboat casino, using the basement of a God-fearin' granny as their base of operations, ...
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Ladykillers, The (CNS)
Lake City
Atmospheric family drama in which a young man (Troy Garity) targeted by a criminal (Dave Matthews) escapes to his rural childhood home with his girlfriend's son (Colin Ford) and reconnects with his estranged mother (Sissy Spacek). Though their script contains considerable salty dialogue and deals with some gritty subjects, co-writers and ...
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Lake City (CNS)
Lake House, The
Intriguing if slow-moving time-warp romance, as a doctor (Sandra Bullock) commences correspondence with an architect (Keanu Reeves) who lived in the same Illinois lakeside house she herself once occupied, but they come to realize they are existing two years apart from each other. Alejandro Agresti's fantasy is intelligently adapted by Pulitzer ...
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Lake House, The (CNS)
Lakeview Terrace
Tensely absorbing racial drama about mixed-race newlyweds (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) who move into a Southern California house next to a slyly threatening Los Angeles police officer (Samuel L. Jackson in top form) who deeply resents their union and proceeds to menace them. Director Neil LaBute slowly builds the suspense, ...
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Lakeview Terrace (CNS)
Lamerica
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Lamerica (SAM)
Land of the Blind
Disappointing and sadly misguided political satire about jailed playwright turned terrorist (Donald Sutherland), who upon release from prison assassinates the petty tyrant (Tom Hollander) of the unnamed country, and then imposes a repressive regime of his own, turning on even the idealistic military man (Ralph Fiennes) who helped pull off the ...
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Land of the Blind (CNS)
Land of the Dead
Repulsively violent fourth (and let's hope final) chapter in director George A. Romero's pulp zombie saga set in an apocalyptic near-future where what is left of humanity is holed up in a in a class-divided, fortified city lorded over by a ruthless opportunist (Dennis Hopper) and besieged by an army of ...
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Land of the Dead (CNS)
Land of the Lost
The innocent, mildly cheesy Saturday morning TV show from the 1970s has morphed into an overblown, special-effects-laden, but plot-thin star vehicle for comedian Will Farrell, a washed-up scientist who claims that his invention, the "tachyon amplifier," is a time machine. With a beautiful academic (Anna Friel) and a sleazy sideshow operator ...
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Land of the Lost (CNS)
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
Entertaining action film about globetrotting archeologist and adventurer Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie), who must find Pandora's Box before a maniacal scientist (Ciaran Hinds) can unleash its power and destroy the world. Though Jolie shines, director Jan De Bont's roller-coaster sequel, while a marked upgrade from the 2001 original, deviates little from ...
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Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (CNS)
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
Witless and virtually unwatchable comedy about a redneck health inspector ("Blue Collar" comedian Larry the Cable Guy) who must crack a string of mysterious food poisonings at upscale eateries in the days leading up to a big culinary competition, zeroing in on the town's sleazy mayor (Joe Pantoliano) and a duplicitous ...
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Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector (CNS)
Larry Crowne
With "Larry Crowne" (Universal), director, co-writer and star Tom Hanks creates a timely—and generally genial—romantic comedy, one that projects a hopeful message about starting anew.
The low-key proceedings are somewhat problematic from a faith perspective, however, since the second chances on offer include not only midlife educational and vocational opportunities, but ...
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Larry Crowne (CNS)
Larry Crowne
I wanted to like “Larry Crowne”, a new film directed by the
brilliant Oscar-winner Tom Hanks and co-written with Nia Vardalos, who gave us
the wonderful film “My Big Fat Greet Wedding” in 2002. Yes, I was looking
forward to seeing “Larry Crowne” but the best thing about it was seeing it
after “Transformers: Dark ...
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Larry Crowne (SRR)
Lars and the Real Girl
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Lars and the Real Girl (SAM)
Lars and the Real Girl
Poignant story of emotionally fragile delusional man (a brilliant Ryan Gosling) who -- unable to make human connection -- buys a life-size female doll whom he presents as his girlfriend, and how his brother and sister-in-law (Paul Schneider and Emily Mortimer), his office mates, fellow churchgoers and townspeople accept "her" ...
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Lars and the Real Girl (CNS)
Lassie
Handsome adaptation of Eric Knight's original novel, "Lassie Come Home," about an impoverished Yorkshire mining family (Samantha Morton, John Lynch and Jonathan Mason) in World War II that reluctantly sells its beloved dog to a rich nobleman (Peter O'Toole) who takes the dog to Scotland where the collie escapes and attempts ...
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Lassie (CNS)
The Last Airbender
"The Last Airbender" (Paramount) presents a potential dilemma for Catholic parents.
Though writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon cable TV channel's animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender" is refreshingly free of objectionable language or behavior—and therefore endorsable for all but easily frightened small fry—some aspects of its ...
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The Last Airbender (CNS)
Last Chance Harvey
Delicate romantic comedy about an isolated New York jingle composer (Dustin Hoffman) who travels to London for his estranged daughter's (Liane Balaban) wedding and falls for a lonely airport employee (Emma Thompson). While somewhat predictable, writer-director Joel Hopkins' skillfully wrought valentine to midlife romance—which also features Eileen Atkins as Thompson's mother—draws ...
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Last Chance Harvey (CNS)
Last Days, The
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Last Days, The (SAM)
The Last Exorcism
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." So says the haunted Prince of Denmark in the first act of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," and so the main character discovers in the middling fright fest "The Last Exorcism" (Lionsgate).
While the gore factor is kept ...
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The Last Exorcism (CNS)
Last Holiday
Touching if improbable tale of dowdy spinster (Queen Latifah), who upon learning she has only a few weeks to live takes her life savings and goes to Europe where she gets a makeover and learns to live life more fully, changing the lives of a corrupt businessman (Timothy Hutton) and less-than-altruistic ...
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Last Holiday (CNS)
Last Holiday
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Last Holiday (EDC)
The Last House on the Left
Glossy remake of horrormeister Wes Craven's influential, low-budget thriller from 1972 pits the parents (Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter) of a 17-year-old girl (Sara Paxton) against the fugitive sociopaths who, hours earlier, brutally attacked their daughter and her friend. Director Dennis Iliadis applies an arty sheen to the sadistic mayhem without ...
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The Last House on the Left (CNS)
Last King of Scotland, The
Morality tale set in the 1970s based on the novel by Giles Foden, about a young Scottish doctor (James McAvoy) who, in search of adventure, travels to Africa, where he becomes the personal physician and eventually the confidant of the charismatic but ruthless Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker). Initially blinded ...
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Last King of Scotland, The (CNS)
Last King of Scotland, The
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Last King of Scotland, The (SAM)
Last Kiss, The
Uneven drama set in Wisconsin about four friends, each at emotional crossroads as they near 30, focusing mostly on an architect (Zach Braff) with commitment jitters whose fling with a college student (Rachel Bilson) jeopardizes his relationship with his pregnant girlfriend (Jacinda Barrett), whose own parents' (Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson) ...
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Last Kiss, The (CNS)
Last Legion, The
Charming but ultimately dull sword and sandals adventure, based on the novel by Valero Manfredi, about the ancient Roman roots of King Arthur. Director Doug Lefler and screenwriters Jez Butterworth and Tom Butterworth spin a fictional epic about young Romulus Augustus, who fortunately finds the sword of Julius Caesar, named Excaliburum, ...
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Last Legion, The (CNS)
Last Mimzy, The
Mostly engaging science-fiction fantasy about a young brother and sister (Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) who find a mysterious box filled with strange objects (including the titular toy rabbit) sent from the future that gradually sets them on a path that will save humanity, while their parents (Joely Richardson and ...
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Last Mimzy, The (CNS)
The Last Mountain
This feature-length documentary is about a group of people
from Coal River Valley, W.Va. and their efforts to stop Massey Energy from
blasting Cold River Mountain, the last of five hundred Appalachian mountaintops
that had been blasted for coal.
Not only are local activists featured, but Robert Kennedy,
Jr., an environmental attorney and activist ...
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The Last Mountain (SRR)
Last Samurai, The
An embittered Civil War veteran (Tom Cruise), retained by the emperor of Japan to train a newly formed conscript army in the ways of modern warfare, finds himself torn between duty and honor when he befriends the man he has been hired to destroy, a Samurai general (Ken Watanabe) who is ...
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Last Samurai, The (CNS)
Last Samurai, The
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Last Samurai, The (SAM)
Last Shot, The
An FBI agent (Alec Baldwin) poses as a film producer in Providence, R.I., to uncover mob corruption in the Teamsters union, but gets caught up in the thrill of making a movie, as he hires a frustrated would-be director (Matthew Broderick) to fulfill his lifelong dream of filming a long-gestating script ...
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Last Shot, The (CNS)
Last Sin Eater, The
Engaging if rather colorless adaptation of Francine Rivers' novel set in 19th-century Appalachia about a guilt-ridden girl (Liana Liberato) who, blaming herself for her younger sister's death, seeks out a mysterious mountain man (Peter Wingfield) alleged to be able to take upon himself the sins of others. Learning that Jesus is ...
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Last Sin Eater, The (CNS)
Last Sin Eater, The
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Last Sin Eater, The (SAM)
The Last Song
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The Last Song (CNS)
The Last Stand
A souped-up Corvette gets more screen time than star Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Last Stand" (Lionsgate), a formulaic shoot-'em-up action flick that marks Schwarzenegger's return to leading-man roles.
Guns go a-blazin' when Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega), the leader of a Mexican drug cartel, escapes custody just as he's being sent to ...
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The Last Stand (CNS)
L'Auberge Espagnole
Patchwork comedy about a French exchange student (Romain Duris) who travels to Spain and learns about life and love, while sharing an apartment with seven European students. While the Benetton-poster faces and kinetic style chosen by director Cedric Klapisch are fresh, the film's acceptance of casual sex and promotion of personal ...
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L'Auberge Espagnole (CNS)
Laurel Canyon
Repellent drama about an uptight Harvard med school grad (Christian Bale) who takes his straitlaced fiancee (Kate Beckinsale) home to Los Angeles, where his hip, hedonistic mom (Frances McDormand) initiates her into the epicurean joys of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Despite competent performances, writer-director Lisa Cholodenko's suggestion that self-indulgence ...
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Laurel Canyon (CNS)
Law Abiding Citizen
NEW YORK (CNS)—"Vengeance is mine" has been a popular film theme
through the years, almost always leaving out the crucial last three
words of that quotation from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans: "says the
Lord."
So in "Law Abiding Citizen" (Overture), when Gerard Butler's
Clyde Shelton announces, while on a murderous rampage, "It's ...
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Law Abiding Citizen (CNS)
Lawless
"Lawless" (Weinstein) is a morally tangled drama pervaded by a misguided sense of nostalgia. Director John Hillcoat's period piece, adapted from Matt Bondurant's 2008 fact-based novel about the exploits of his paternal grandfather and two great-uncles, "The Wettest County in the World," looks back with more than a little fondness on ...
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Lawless (CNS)
Lawless Heart
Offbeat comic drama set in an English seaside town chronicles the romantic mishaps of a restless married man (Bill Nighy), a gay man (Nick Hollander) whose partner has just drowned, and the deceased's childhood pal (Douglas Henshall) who returns for the funeral after an absence of eight years. Although writer-directors Neil ...
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Lawless Heart (CNS)
Laws of Attraction
Underwhelming romantic comedy in which two rival divorce lawyers (Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore) wake up married after a drunken evening and must continue as opposing attorneys on a bitter court case while carrying on a spousal charade. Director Peter Howitt's attractive cast and sumptuous production design can only compensate so ...
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Laws of Attraction (CNS)
Laws of Attraction
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Laws of Attraction (SAM)
Layer Cake
Technically proficient but unpleasantly seamy story of a cocaine dealer in London (Daniel Craig) who prides himself on the efficiency of his methods, only to be caught up in the machinations of honcho Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) and Price's high-powered cohort, Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon), and a stolen shipment of Ecstasy ...
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Layer Cake (CNS)
Le Divorce
Superficial drama in which a young American woman (Kate Hudson) travels to Paris to be with her pregnant sister (Naomi Watts), who is going through a divorce, where she begins an affair with a much older man (Thierry Lhermitte). As directed by James Ivory, the disappointingly shallow and surprisingly dark story ...
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Le Divorce (CNS)
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The
Lavish action film about an elite team of Victorian superheroes, led by Sean Connery, secretly recruited by the British crown to stop a madman from triggering a world war. Despite an intriguing premise and imaginative effects, Stephen Norrington's comic book-inspired film is weighed down by tedious over-the-top action sequences that dissipate ...
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League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The (CNS)
Leap Year
With its action set mostly in Ireland, the likable romantic comedy "Leap Year" (Universal/Spyglass) features background details of life on the Emerald Isle more akin to 1952's "The Quiet Man" than to the post-Celtic Tiger contemporary reality. But the film's central, opposites-attract relationship is old-fashioned in the best sense, with physical ...
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Leap Year (CNS)
Leatherheads
Diverting romantic comedy, set in 1925, about a veteran professional football player (George Clooney) who hires a celebrated college star (John Krasinski) to revive his team's fortunes, only to find himself in a rivalry for the affections of a sassy, sophisticated newspaper reporter (Renee Zellweger) who's out to debunk his new ...
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Leatherheads (CNS)
Leatherheads
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Leatherheads (SAM)
Legally Blonde
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Legally Blonde (SAM)
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde
Cotton-candy comedy about dizzy material girl and Harvard Law grad Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon), heading off to Washington as an animal rights activist in order to pass legislation that will free her pampered pooch's mother from a cosmetics research lab. Director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld's predictable fish-out-of-water sequel rehashes many of the same ...
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Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (CNS)
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde
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Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde (SAM)
Legend of Baggar Vance, The
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Legend of Baggar Vance, The (SAM)
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
The visually engaging 3D animated adventure "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" (Warner Bros.) offers family audiences a sound, if not overly original, narrative of downtrodden right versus overweening might. But intense scenes of animal combat preclude endorsement for the very youngest of this otherwise unobjectionable tale.
Director ...
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Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (CNS)
Legend of Johnny Lingo, The
Enchanting Polynesian fable about a boy orphaned by the sea, who leaves his adopted island home an outcast, is rescued by a mysterious trader and returns to the island a king. Set against the tropical beauty of South Sea islands at the turn of the 19th century and without the bells ...
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Legend of Johnny Lingo, The (CNS)
Legend of Zorro, The
Rip-roaring action-adventure sequel to 1998's "The Mask of Zorro." It picks up the story 10 years later as the masked swordsman (played as before by Antonio Banderas) finds himself torn between family responsibilities to his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and young son, and his destiny as defender of the poor and oppressed ...
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Legend of Zorro, The (CNS)
Legion
"Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord."
This verse from the King James Version's translation of Psalm 34 opens—and is intended to set the tone for—the theologically skewed apocalyptic horror outing "Legion" (Screen Gems). But, as the next hour-and-a-half of screen time ...
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Legion (CNS)
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Delightfully macabre tale of three Baudelaire orphans -- one an infant -- navigating their perilous way through various guardians into whose dubious care they've been entrusted after the death of their parents in a mysterious fire: evil Count Olaf (Jim Carrey) who has an eye on their fortune; kindly but dimwitted ...
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Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (CNS)
Les Miserables
If your Christmas wish list includes a lavish, big-budget musical crafted in the classic Hollywood manner, then "Les Miserables" (Universal) is just the ticket.
This rousing entertainment offers something for everyone: soaring anthems, tear-jerking romance, thrilling drama—and a positive portrayal of the Catholic faith.
In fact, this faithful adaptation of the ...
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Les Miserables (CNS)
Let Me In
Given its serious treatment of themes such as isolation and the psychological roots of violence, writer-director Matt Reeves' macabre yet strangely moving twist on vampire lore, "Let Me In" (Overture), is not a work to be easily dismissed.
But this screen version of Swedish novelist John Ajvide Lindqvist's best-seller "Let The ...
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Let Me In (CNS)
Letters from Iwo Jima
Director Clint Eastwood's emotionally compelling companion to "Flags of Our Fathers," which dealt with the Battle of Iwo Jima through the eyes of American GIs, now from the Japanese perspective, illustrating our shared humanity and showing ignorance as a root of international conflict. The drama focuses on Japanese soldiers entrenched on ...
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Letters from Iwo Jima (CNS)
Letters to God
Though its underlying theology is evangelical, Catholic viewers—and Christian believers of every stripe—will welcome the inspirational and touching drama "Letters to God" (Vivendi). That's because director David Nixon's family-friendly tale of courage and conversion celebrates the power of Gospel values to transform lives in a way that transcends denominational divides.
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Letters to God (CNS)
Letters to Juliet
"Letters to Juliet" (Summit) is a good-humored, old-fashioned, multigenerational romantic comedy—set against the backdrop of a picturesque Italian travelogue—that will have daughters, mothers, and grandmothers pondering the same question: "Does true love have an expiration date?"
Our heroine is Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a fact-checker for The New Yorker magazine and ...
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Letters to Juliet (CNS)
Levity
Somber drama in which a newly released convict (Billy Bob Thornton) who judges himself irredeemable seeks out the needy sister (Holly Hunter) of the youth he impulsively killed 23 years earlier and is taken in by a mysterious self-styled pastor (Morgan Freeman) who pushes him to help those around him. Writer-director ...
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Levity (CNS)
Levity
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Levity (SAM)
Liar Liar
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Liar Liar (SAM)
Libertine, The
Dank and dark 17th-century tale of provocative real-life poet John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester (Johnny Depp), who has a love-hate relationship with King Charles II (John Malkovich), falling in and out of his favor, and whose womanizing ways are finally tempered by his admiration for an ambitious actress (Samantha ...
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Libertine, The (CNS)
License to Wed
Woefully unfunny tale about an engaged couple (chemistry-free Mandy Moore and John Krasinski) who undertake an arduous marriage preparation course run by their local Protestant minister (Robin Williams in subpar form) before he'll agree to marry them. Director Ken Kwapis' putative comedy plays like a B-level TV sitcom, but even in ...
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License to Wed (CNS)
Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The
Offbeat tragicomedy about a washed up Jacques Cousteau-like oceanographer (played in delightful deadpan by Bill Murray) who, along with his oddball crew, sets out on an open sea adventure -- which he chronicles on film as part of his latest documentary -- to hunt down the shark that ate his partner, ...
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Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The (CNS)
Life as a House
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Life as a House (SAM)
Life As We Know It
"Life As We Know It" (Warner Bros.) boasts a somewhat sharper-witted script—penned by feature-length first-timers Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson—than the average romantic comedy.
But director Greg Berlanti's thoroughly predictable yarn of opposites attracting and animosity gradually yielding to a very different emotion also showcases a variety of lifestyle ...
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Life As We Know It (CNS)
Life Is Beautiful
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Life Is Beautiful (SAM)
Life of David Gale, The
Deeply cynical, politically charged thriller about an outspoken college professor and adamant capital punishment abolitionist (Kevin Spacey) who faces imminent execution for the brutal murder of a fellow activist while a brash young journalist (Kate Winslet) pursues the truth behind the accusations. Directed by Alan Parker, the film's stance against capital ...
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Life of David Gale, The (CNS)
Life of David Gale, The
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Life of David Gale, The (SAM)
Lilo & Stitch
Sassy animated comedy in which a lonely orphaned Hawaiian girl (voiced by Daveigh Chase) who lives with her older sister and guardian (voiced by Tia Carrere) adopts what she thinks is a dog (voiced by Christopher Michael Sanders), but turns out to be an alien genetic experiment gone wrong whose only ...
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Lilo & Stitch (CNS)
Limbo
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Limbo (SAM)
Limey, The
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Limey, The (SAM)
Limitless
If we could all use 100 percent of our brains, we'd be rich, ruthless and get away with cold-blooded murder. That's the bluntly cynical message of "Limitless" (Relativity), a labyrinthine thriller about a mysterious pill that produces precisely such a hypomanic edge.
More benignly, this adaptation of Alan Glynn's 2001 novel ...
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Limitless (CNS)
The Lincoln Lawyer
A generally engaging central character, convincingly brought to life by Matthew McConaughey, lends verve to "The Lincoln Lawyer" (Lionsgate). Yet, though vibrant, this thriller is also frequently seamy and includes numerous moral and visual elements that narrowly circumscribe its appropriate audience.
McConaughey plays the titular Los Angeles attorney, Michael "Mick" ...
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The Lincoln Lawyer (CNS)
Lions for Lambs
Well-intentioned but static plea for noncomplacency as a slick senator (Tom Cruise) plants an exclusive story about a new U.S. initiative in Afghanistan with a critical TV reporter (Meryl Streep); the idealistic students (Derek Luke and Michael Pena) of a university political science professor (Robert Redford) decide to join the struggle ...
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Lions for Lambs (CNS)
Little Black Book
Leaden romantic comedy about an aspiring TV journalist (Brittany Murphy) who decides to snoop into her live-in boyfriend's (Ron Livingston) past love life, only to discover that the embers of some of his former flames are still burning. As directed by Nick Hurran, the lackluster film waffles between being a relationship ...
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Little Black Book (CNS)
Little Children
Sharply observed suburban story of an unhappy wife (Kate Winslet, in peak form) and a stay-at-home dad (Patrick Wilson) who gradually fall in love and commence an adulterous affair after meeting at the local playground against the backdrop of a community all aflutter because a convicted sex offender (Jackie Earle Haley) ...
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Little Children (CNS)
Little Man
Imbecilic comedy about a diminutive jewel thief (Marlon Wayans) who poses as an abandoned baby and is taken in by a childless couple (Shawn Wayans and Kerry Washington), playing on their kindness to retrieve a stolen diamond which wound up in the wife's handbag during a botched heist getaway. What could ...
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Little Man (CNS)
Little Manhattan
Warm and wonderful romantic comedy set in New York City about a 10-year-old (Josh Hutcherson) who thinks that girls are "gross" until he falls for an apple-cheeked cutie (Charlie Ray) and finds himself adrift in a befuddling sea of newfound emotions. Tenderly directed by Mark Levin, with endearing performances by its ...
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Little Manhattan (CNS)
Little Miss Sunshine
Immensely likable film about an Albuquerque, N.M., couple -- gung-ho motivational speaker (Greg Kinnear) and his wife (Toni Collette) -- who, with their alienated son (Paul Dano), the wife's gay brother (Steve Carell) who's recovering from a suicide attempt, and the husband's crusty, drug-addicted father (Alan Arkin) in tow, trek to ...
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Little Miss Sunshine (CNS)
Little Secrets
Tender comedy about a 14-year-old girl (Evan Rachel Wood) who is the neighborhood's secret-keeper and consequently learns a valuable lesson about honesty and trust. Director Blair Treu's principled but somewhat tedious story is skewed toward impressionable adolescents and younger children who might be tempted to keep secrets instead of telling the ...
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Little Secrets (CNS)
Live Free or Die Hard
Action-packed Washington-based thriller as detective John McClane (Bruce Willis in good, sardonic form) teams with a computer geek (Justin Long) to outwit a dastardly hacker (Timothy Olyphant) and deadly femme fatale cohort (Maggie Q) who intend to cripple the nation with a catastrophic computer breach. The fourth installment in the durable ...
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Live Free or Die Hard (CNS)
Lives for Sale
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Lives for Sale (SAM)
Lives of Others, The (Das Leben der Anderen)
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Lives of Others, The (Das Leben der Anderen) (SAM)
Lizzie McGuire Movie, The
A perky teen's (Hilary Duff) trip to Rome leads to a case of mistaken identity and a romance with a handsome Italian pop idol. Directed by Jim Fall and based on the popular "Lizzie McGuire" TV series, the harmless fluff unfortunately feels like an episode of the show stretched thin in ...
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Lizzie McGuire Movie, The (CNS)
Lockout
His story may be set in the late 21st century, but Snow (Guy Pearce), the tough-guy CIA agent at the center of the dreary action exercise "Lockout" (Open Road), displays some thoroughly retrograde attitudes.
Foremost among them, his view of women: As he's quick to make clear, he likes his to ...
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Lockout (CNS)
London
Mostly repugnant story from first-time writer-director Hunter Richards involving a dissolute twentysomething New Yorker (Chris Evans) who crashes his ex-girlfriend's (Jessica Biel) bon voyage party, but takes refuge in the bathroom to avoid facing her, all the while snorting cocaine and engaging in mostly foul-mouthed discussions with an Englishman (Jason Statham) ...
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London (CNS)
Lone Star
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Lone Star (SAM)
Lonesome Jim
Depressed young man (Casey Affleck) goes back to his Indiana home to live with his overly doting mother (Mary Kay Place), distant father (Seymour Cassel) and confused brother (Kevin Corrigan), falls for a single mother (Liv Tyler) with a small son (Jack Rovello), and ultimately comes to a better understanding of ...
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Lonesome Jim (CNS)
Longest Yard, The
Revved-up remake of the 1974 sports comedy about a former pro quarterback (Adam Sandler in the Burt Reynolds role) whose recklessness lands him in a Texas state prison where the gridiron-obsessed warden (James Cromwell) blackmails him into organizing an all-inmate team to take on his semipro squad of sadistic prison guards. ...
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Longest Yard, The (CNS)
Longshots, The
Fact-based sports drama in which an unemployed former high school football star (Ice Cube) living in a depressed factory town is hired by his hardworking sister-in-law (Tasha Smith) to mind his shy, bookish niece (Keke Palmer) and, discovering that the girl shares his gift for the game, becomes her trainer and ...
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Longshots, The (CNS)
Look at Me
Finely acted French film about Etienne (Jean-Pierre Bacri), a self-centered, celebrated writer and publisher; his unhappy overweight daughter, Lolita (Marilou Berry), an aspiring classical singer attracted more to the ex-boyfriend who cares little for her than the new one who does; and Sylvia (Agnes Jaoui), the girl's singing teacher, who takes ...
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Look at Me (CNS)
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
Amiable but low-key comedy about comedian Albert Brooks sent to India on a government peace mission to determine what makes Muslims laugh, causing a contretemps with Pakistan in the process. Brooks' brand of laid-back and understated humor and the exoticism of the Delhi, India, settings make for pleasant viewing, along with ...
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Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (CNS)
Lookout, The
Unlikely crime thriller is a compelling character study about a Midwestern town's golden-boy athlete (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), brain-damaged after a car accident and guilt-wracked over the death and injury of his friends, persuaded to serve as lookout for a bank heist, with first-rate performances by Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode and Isla Fisher. ...
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Lookout, The (CNS)
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Screwball adventure in which Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck help a Hollywood stuntman (Brendan Fraser) and studio executive (Jenna Elfman) recover a mysterious gem before it falls into the evil clutches of a madman (Steve Martin) bent on turning all human life into monkeys. With more falling anvils than plot twists, ...
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Looney Tunes: Back in Action (CNS)
The Lorax
“Unless someone like you cares
a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not”
says the Lorax (voice of Danny De Vito;
for other voices see the Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1482459/)
to the Once-ler who has moved into the forest to make a life for himself.
He chops down ...
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The Lorax (SRR)
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Click title to see this St. Anthony Messenger movie review.
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Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (SAM)
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Lavish final chapter of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy set in the mythic realm of Middle-earth. The third film brings to completion the quest of a humble hobbit (Elijah Wood) to destroy the Ring of Power coveted by the dark lord Sauron, while his comrades (including Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen) ...
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Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (CNS)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The
Visually spectacular second installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy about the struggle between the forces of good and evil, set in the mythical realm of Middle-earth. Director Peter Jackson seamlessly blends breathtaking locations with cutting-edge effects to tell the timeless tale of Frodo (Elijah Wood), the humble hobbit and unlikely ...
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Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (CNS)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The
Click title to see this St. Anthony Messenger movie review.
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Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (SAM)
Lord of War
Thought-provoking, if at times contrived, morality play about an opportunistic and morally bankrupt Ukrainian emigre (Nicolas Cage) who rises from small-time gunrunner to international arms dealer, while living a double life as a respectable family man, all the while staying one step ahead of his rivals, his ruthless clients and the ...
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Lord of War (CNS)
Lord of War
Click title to see this St. Anthony Messenger movie review.
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Lord of War (SAM)
Lords of Dogtown
Fictionalized drama detailing the genesis of the 1970s' skateboarding counterculture in Southern California, focusing on three teenage friends -- timid Stacy Peralta (John Robinson), cocky Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk) and self-destructive Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch) -- who, through a combination of street moxie and surfer mentality, revolutionized the sport and were ...
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Lords of Dogtown (CNS)
The Losers
Though the slick, slam-bam action comedy "The Losers" (Warner Bros.) holds itself in higher regard than its deprecatory title and flippant tone would suggest, its appearance is a sure sign that Hollywood wouldn't mind extending the summer movie season to include every week on the calendar.
As disposable as any flick ...
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The Losers (CNS)
Lost City, The
Wistful and deeply personal drama set in 1950s' Cuba on the eve of Castro's communist revolution about three brothers (Andy Garcia, who also directs, Enrique Murciano and Nestor Carbonell) caught in the political unrest that ultimately tears them and their island home apart. While the sprawling story needs tightening, Garcia's well-acted ...
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Lost City, The (CNS)
Lost in Translation
Likable comedy about an actor and midlife-crisis candidate (Bill Murray) who befriends a lonely young American newlywed (Scarlett Johansson) while filming a liquor commercial in Japan. Wisely keeping the May-December romance chaste, director Sofia Coppola elicits nuanced performances in this well-crafted and ruminative meditation on loneliness and the emotional balm of ...
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Lost in Translation (CNS)
Lost World, The
Click title to see this St. Anthony Messenger movie review.
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Lost World, The (SAM)
A Lot Like Love
Occasionally appealing but mostly forgettable romantic comedy about a button-down Internet entrepreneur (Ashton Kutcher) and an impulsive free spirit (Amanda Peet) who, after an anonymous sexual tryst on a cross-country flight, continue to wander in and out of each other's life as they search for love, only to be drawn closer ...
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A Lot Like Love (CNS)
Lottery Ticket
Click title to see full movie review.
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Lottery Ticket (CNS)
Love & Other Drugs
With a satire of the drug industry in the background and an excess of bare flesh to the fore, "Love & Other Drugs" (Fox)—a potentially touching romance about the ennobling effects of heartfelt ardor—goes thoroughly awry due to misguided values.
In adapting—and fictionalizing—Jamie Reidy's 2005 memoir "Hard Sell: The Evolution ...
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Love & Other Drugs (CNS)
Love Actually
Romantic comedy set in London which interweaves 10 stories of love including a newly elected prime minister (Hugh Grant) who falls for his curvaceous secretary (Martine McCutcheon); a recently widowed father (Liam Neeson) left to care for his young stepson; and a comfortably married woman (Emma Thompson) who fears her husband ...
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Love Actually (CNS)
Love Don't Cost a Thing
Slack comedy in which a virginal high school senior (Nick Cannon) helps out the school's most popular senior (Christina Milian) in exchange for her pretending to date him so he will look cool. Although co-writer-director Troy Beyer's script moves in the positive direction of resisting peer pressure, it presents teen promiscuity ...
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Love Don't Cost a Thing (CNS)
Love Forbidden
Leaden, gay-themed thriller about an emotionally fragile French filmmaker (Rodolphe Marconi) in Rome who becomes obsessed with a bisexual Italian intern (Andrea Necci) and has a fling with him, only to be dumped when the intern spurns him for an alluring American tart writing about serial killers. Also directed by Marconi ...
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Love Forbidden (CNS)
Love Guru, The
Flat comedy, only fitfully enlivened by some clever gags, about a guru (Mike Myers) enlisted by the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team (Jessica Alba) to reunite their star player (Romany Malco) with his wife (Meagan Good) who has left him for his rival (an unrecognizably hirsute Justin Timberlake), ...
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Love Guru, The (CNS)
Love Happens
Serious but overly slick, "Love Happens" (Universal)
is a study of personal loss and recovery within a strictly secular
context. Despite a complex performance from its star, Aaron Eckhart,
and the admirably mature relationship at the heart of the plot, this
romantic drama ultimately proves too timid, and too circumscribed by
Hollywood conventions, for its own ...
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Love Happens (CNS)
Love the Hard Way
Depressing drama about a promising young medical student (Charlotte Ayanna) who falls for a petty crook (Adrien Brody) and is dragged under by his self-destructive lifestyle. While exploring complex emotional issues, director Peter Sehr's bleak take on relationships is weighed down by a repugnant view of sexual intimacy and a near-toxic ...
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Love the Hard Way (CNS)
Love in the Time of Cholera
Overlong, uneven adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez's acclaimed 1985 epic in which a telegraph clerk (Javier Bardem) in late 19th-century Colombia at the time of a cholera epidemic continues an over-the-decades obsession with the woman (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) he courted as a young man, even though she's now married to ...
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Love in the Time of Cholera (CNS)
Love Liza
Sorrowful tale of a Web designer (Philip Seymour Hoffman) reeling from his young wife's suicide who begins to sniff gasoline fumes as an escape while he builds up the courage to read his wife's suicide note. Although Hoffman offers an affecting portrait of grief, the shapeless drama is underwritten by Hoffman's ...
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Love Liza (CNS)
A Love Song for Bobby Long
Lazily paced triangular drama set in New Orleans about a wayward teenager (Scarlett Johansson) who moves into the house left her by her late, estranged mother, only to find it occupied by two of her mother's friends: a former literature professor turned drunkard (John Travolta) haunted by past sins, and his ...
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A Love Song for Bobby Long (CNS)
Love Songs
Melancholy semi-musical (with 13 songs by Alex Beaupain) about a young man (Louis Garrel) grieving after the sudden death of his longtime girlfriend (Ludivine Sagnier) from cardiac arrest, who turns for comfort to the girl's loving family including her sister (Chiara Mastroanni), his coworker and sometime lover (Clotilde Hesme) and a ...
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Love Songs (CNS)
Lovely and Amazing
Glib comedy-drama which follows the lives of a divorced mother (Brenda Blethyn) and her three daughters -- a struggling artist (Catherine Keener) stuck in a faithless marriage, an aspiring actress (Emily Mortimer), and an adopted African-American 8-year-old (Ravin Goodwin) -- as they try to make sense of their lives and come ...
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Lovely and Amazing (CNS)
The Lovely Bones
Although intriguing for a number of reasons, not least its affirmation of an afterlife, the screen version of Alice Sebold's best-selling 2002 novel "The Lovely Bones" (Paramount)—primarily a somber drama centering on the murder of a child in suburban Pennsylvania in the early 1970s—eventually becomes scattershot as it attempts to blend ...
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The Lovely Bones (CNS)
Loverboy
Well-acted if bleak story of a psychotic woman (Kyra Sedgwick) -- emotionally scarred in childhood -- who sets out to get herself pregnant and who later becomes an overly protective mother to her young son (8-year-old Dominic Scott Kay). Actor Kevin Bacon's big-screen directorial debut shows skill, and performances are fine ...
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Loverboy (CNS)
Love's Abiding Joy
Fourth installment in the "Love Comes Softly" series where pioneer rancher couple (Erin Cottrell and Logan Bartholomew), circa 1885, cope with financial hardships and the sudden loss of their child. The villainous mayor (John Laughlin) makes the husband the sheriff but only to manipulate him for his dastardly purposes, while thwarting ...
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Love's Abiding Joy (CNS)
La Strada
Click title to see this St. Anthony Messenger movie review.
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La Strada (SAM)
Lucky Number Slevin
Stylish but grim thriller about a remarkably easygoing young man named Slevin (Josh Hartnett) caught between two rival crime kingpins -- the Boss (Morgan Freeman) and the Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) -- each of whom claims Slevin owes thousands of dollars. Despite some suspenseful sequences, a few surprising twists, and good performances ...
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Lucky Number Slevin (CNS)
The Lucky One
Ah, how time flies. Wasn't it only yesterday that we were watching Zac Efron sing and dance his way through high school? And here he is in "The Lucky One" (Warner Bros.), all grown up and a Marine veteran of the Iraq War to boot (no Parris-Island pun intended).
This being ...
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The Lucky One (CNS)
The Lucky One
U.S. Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault (Zac Ephron) survives
several bombings and ambushes while deployed in Iraq. This is his third tour. In some rubble along
the road he sees a photograph of a beautiful young woman with a message written
on the back: “Stay safe” and is signed “Beth”. While holding the photo another
bomb ...
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The Lucky One (SRR)
Lucky Ones, The
Stranded at a stateside airport, three wounded Iraq War veterans (Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins and Michael Pena) take an unplanned cross-country road trip during which they help each other work through the physical, emotional and financial problems caused by the military conflict. Director and co-writer Neil Burger's listless, sometimes implausible comic ...
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Lucky Ones, The (CNS)
Lucky You
Mellow love story set in Las Vegas about an ace poker player (an especially good Eric Bana) who puts his randy ways behind him when he meets a decent young woman (Drew Barrymore) who gently encourages him to come to terms with his estranged father (Robert Duvall), also a poker champ. ...
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Lucky You (CNS)
Lust, Caution
Superbly crafted romantic tale of a young woman (Tang Wei in an extraordinary feature film debut) who becomes a spy for the resistance during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in the 1930s and '40s, who must seduce a married collaborator (Tony Leung) in order to lure him to his death. Director ...
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Lust, Caution (CNS)
Luther
Sweeping but flawed historical drama about the life of Martin Luther (Joseph Fiennes), the 16th-century German monk instrumental in triggering the Protestant Reformation. Though making the issues and personalities accessible to modern viewers, Eric Till's biopic veers from historical accuracy, oversimplifying complex religious and political issues, glossing over Luther's shortcomings with ...
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Luther (CNS)
La Vie En Rose
Superb panoramic biography of great French singer Edith Piaf, covering her life from birth to death, and hitting all the high points, including her impoverished childhood, miraculous restoration of her sight (which she credited to St. Therese of Lisieux), her early years as a street singer, her molding as an artist, ...
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La Vie En Rose (CNS)
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