Movie Reviews Published by Chicago Reader - Page 181 of 360

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Review of Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997)

By Lisa Alspector (408) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 04 Mar 2011

With minimalist and universal fantasies as their points of departure, the superheroic deeds evolve only incrementally beyond the realistic…

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Review of Rango (2011)

By Andrea Gronvall (422) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 04 Mar 2011

This features the usual slapstick, double entendres, and riffs on classic films, but what elevates it above a cheeky romp is the skilled CGI…

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Review of The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

By J. R. Jones (1,337) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 03 Mar 2011

The premise is so mind-boggling and fraught with implications that it tends to obviate the action mechanics of the last couple reels…

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Review of Beastly (2011)

By Andrea Gronvall (422) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 03 Mar 2011

Loosely adapted from Alex Flinn's young-adult novel, this Beauty and the Beast update is a pallid, formulaic teen romance that might have benefited…

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Review of Take Me Home Tonight (2011)

By J.r. Jones (1,066) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 03 Mar 2011

As on their TV collaboration, That '70s Show, the time period never extends much farther than hairdos, costume design, and soundtrack hits…

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Review of The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

By J.r. Jones (1,066) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 03 Mar 2011

As in Christopher Nolan's Inception, the premise is so mind-boggling and fraught with implications that it tends to obviate the action mechanics…

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Review of Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

By Jonathan Rosenbaum (1,657) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 02 Mar 2011

A Disney musical with an undistinguished score (Alan Menken and Jack Feldman), fair to middling choreography (Kenny Ortega and Peggy Holmes),…

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Review of Mulan (1998)

By Matt Roth (2) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 01 Mar 2011

Disney's retelling of the popular Chinese folktale, may seem its gutsiest choice yet, but on closer examination it's obviously less a matter…

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Review of Northfork (2003)

By J.r. Jones (1,066) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 26 Feb 2011

Stark, mysterious, and often weirdly funny…

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Review of Drive Angry (2011)

By Ben Sachs (546) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 25 Feb 2011

A trio of stridently weird performances--from Nicolas Cage, William Fichtner, and David Morse--brighten this otherwise rote actioner…

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Review of Hall Pass (2011)

By J.r. Jones (1,066) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 24 Feb 2011

As in Breaking Upwards, the best joke here is that the wives (Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate) wind up getting more action during the marital…

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Review of Keeping Mum (2005)

By J.r. Jones (1,066) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 22 Feb 2011

Director Niall Johnson struggles to find the proper tone: the serial murders aren't horrible enough to be funny, and the characters don't respond…

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Review of Elizabethtown (2005)

By J.r. Jones (1,066) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 21 Feb 2011

An especially lame variation on Crowe's feel-good formula…

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Review of Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

By Jonathan Rosenbaum (1,657) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 20 Feb 2011

I wouldn't have minded even the Hollywood schlock lurking behind the studied weirdness if I'd believed in any of the characters on any level…

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Review of Fresh (1994)

By Jonathan Rosenbaum (1,657) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 19 Feb 2011

Poised somewhere between a movie-familiar (i.e., semiscurrilous) look at inner-city life as trench warfare and a farfetched Hollywood revenge…

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Review of Unknown (2011)

By Michael Wilmington (1,474) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 19 Feb 2011

The snow and haze that Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) keeps pumping into the street scenes seem to have drifted into the script as well…

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Review of Hide and Seek (2005)

By J.r. Jones (1,066) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 18 Feb 2011

De Niro gives a crafty performance, and director John Polson (Swimfan) maintains a pleasantly low-key suspense. But the ending is a disappointment…

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Review of The Strawberry Blonde (1941)

By Don Druker (117) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 18 Feb 2011

A delicious bit of Americana (1941) by Raoul Walsh, capturing superbly the 1890s ambience of Walsh’s own early years…

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Review of I Am Number Four (2011)

By Andrea Gronvall (422) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 17 Feb 2011

Producers Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg deploy an arsenal of noisy special effects to demonstrate the invaders' high-tech superiority, which…

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Review of Mr. Brooks (2007)

By Jonathan Rosenbaum (1,657) for Chicago Reader (7,190) on 16 Feb 2011

This is one of those slick, violent, ridiculous Hollywood jobs that make little sense as a story, a comment on life, or a depiction of characters,…

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