Author:   Ken Hanke

Showing 1282-1302 of 5225 results
Starring: Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Maria Simon, Chulpan Khamativa, Florian Lukas

Good Bye, Lenin!

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Wolfgang Becker's 2004 film remains a beguiling comedy-drama about a young man (Daniel Brühl) charged with the seemingly impossible task of keeping his ailing mother from discovering that communism has fallen, and that East and West Germany have been reunified. He believes the discovery of this change will bring on a fatal heart…
Starring: Brie Larson, John Gallagher, Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, Stephanie Beatriz, Rami Malek, Keith Stanfield

Short Term 12

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A look into the lives of some young social workers and their charges in a foster care center. The Lowdown: Disarming in its honesty and simplicity, Short Term 12 arrives on the local film scene with little fanfare, which is too bad because it's a little gem of a movie.
Starring: Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Torin Thatcher, Angela Clarke

Houdini

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Colorful, almost entirely fictional Harry Houdini biopic that was mostly an excuse to team newlyweds Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh in a movie. It's harmless and reasonably entertaining — in a very 1950s way — but if you approach it as any kind of historical (or even perceptive) look at Houdini, you're watching…
Starring: William Powell, Margaret Lindsay, Ruth Donnelly / Edna May Oliver, James Gleason, Robert Armstrong

Private Detective 62 / Penguin Pool Murder

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Here we have a double feature consisting of two tight pre-Code mysteries (each barely over 60 minutes). First up is William Powell in Michael Curtiz' stylish Private Detective 62 (1933), a typical snappy Warner Bros. melodrama that finds gumshoe Powell coming to the aid of society dame Margaret Lindsay — after first being…
Starring: Mathieu Carrière, Marian Seidowsky, Bern Tischer, Fred Dietz, Barbara Steele

Young Törless

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Volker Schlöndorff's first film, Young Törless (1966), wears the director's training with French New Wave filmmakers on its sleeve, though not in a bad way, and with a decidedly German slant. It also marks the significant change in tone in German cinema wherein filmmakers shifted from ignoring the country's past to addressing it.…
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman Leonor Varela, Norman Reedus

Blade II

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Guillermo del Toro's stylish Blade II (2002) looks better today than it did on its release. The plot is solid and the acting moreso. The story follows daywalking vampire and vampire hunter Blade (Wesley Snipes), who is recruited by the vampire nation to help fight a force that threatens both them and the…
Starring: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette, Tracey Fairaway, Tavi Gevinson

Enough Said

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A woman finds her romance with a seemingly compatible man undermined when it turns out that he's the ex-husband of a new friend of hers. The Lowdown: Unfailingly pleasant but awkwardly plotted film that ultimately wins out on the strength of James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano, Viola Davis, Terrence Howard, Maria Bello, Melissa Leo

Prisoners

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: When his daughter and her friend are kidnapped, a man takes matters into his own hands. The Lowdown: This is really a first-rate lurid thriller that harms itself by trying too hard to be more significant than it is. Still, the mystery and thriller aspects offer sufficient compensation to make it worth a…
Starring: Tom Carroll, Ross Clark-Jones, Ben Matson, Toni Collette (narration)

Storm Surfers 3D

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A 3-D documentary about surfing. The Lowdown: The success of this is almost certainly related to the audience's level of enthusiasm for surfing. Yes, the surfing footage is impressive, but 90 minutes of it is a bit much if the topic doesn't interest you.
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, Wentworth Miller

The Human Stain

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Critically reviled at the time of its release — especially for something that was clearly Oscar-bait — Robert Benton's The Human Stain (2003) isn't so much a bad movie as it's an underwhelming one. It's a film that never takes off due to Benton's decidedly old-fashioned filmmaking and its overbearing attempt to be…
Starring: Keri Russell, JJ Feild, Jennifer Coolidge, Bret McKenzie, Georgia King, James Callis, Jane Seymour

Austenland

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A woman obsessed with Jane Austen's world — especially as concerns Mr. Darcy — blows her life savings on a trip to Austenland in England, which promises the real Austen experience. The Lowdown: A frequently charming little romantic comedy that wants to poke fun at the genre, while appealing to fans. You probably…
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye, Barbara Hershey, Steve Coulter, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson

Insidious: Chapter 2

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A continuation of 2010's Insidious — with the focus changed to the father. The Lowdown: One of the most beautifully connected sequels I've ever seen, Insidious: Chapter 2 is everything I hoped for and more. Easily as creepy as the first film and quite possibly a better movie in the bargain.
Starring: Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Richard Arlen, El Brendel, Roscoe Karns, Gary Cooper

Wings

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: William A. Wellman's Wings (1927) won the very first Oscar for best picture — and unlike many Oscar winners since then, it was a deserved honor. It's also one of those rare Oscar winners that holds up to this day. First of all, it's truly an epic, but it's an epic grounded in…
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Gad, Alecia Moore (Pink), Patrick Fugit

Thanks for Sharing

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A look into the lives of three characters attempting to deal with sex addiction. The Lowdown: Solid performances overcome most of the problems in this frequently absorbing drama — with comedy overtones — that clearly wants to be more than it can quite pull off.
Starring: George C. Scott, Brad Dourif, Ed Flanders, Jason Miller, Scott Wilson, Nicol Williamson

The Exorcist III

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Exorcist author William Peter Blatty brought his own Exorcist sequel novel Legion to the screen in 1990 as The Exorcist III. (Since its story follows an entirely different tangent, it doesn't have to consider Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) in its plotting.) For my money, the result is the scariest, best-acted and certainly…
Starring: Josef Köstlinger, Irma Urrila, Håkan Hagegård, Elisabeth Erikson

The Magic Flute

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Ingmar Bergman's 1975 film of Mozart's The Magic Flute is a marvelously theatrical — but not stagey — incarnation of the opera. Your fondness for it will depend in large part on how well you like Mozart and this opera in particular.
Starring: Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Amara Karan, Wallace Wolodarsky, Waris Ahluwalia, Anjelica Huston

The Darjeeling Limited

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited (2007) is one of the filmmaker's best works — and a film that flirts with the term "perfect." Complaints that it doesn't "go anywhere" and that it is "twee" (a favorite term of Anderson detractors) seem to miss the point. The film — or the characters (who pretty…
Starring: Ryan W. Martin, Nathanial Perz, Danna Kennelly, Marty Danekind

Bad Ideas

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: There's really no glossing it over — Ryan W. Martin's Bad Ideas is aptly named. It comes under the vague heading of experimental cinema, which in this case is a mind-numbing two hours of navel gazing. According to the movie description, "A Stranger has awoken in an unknown world, the Astral Field; the…