“One Day” seems to have an easy premise.
Based on a novel by David Nicholls, the film depicts a 20-year friendship/relationship between Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dex (Jim Sturgess), visiting them on only one July day, each year.
Except that the couple doesn’t actually meet on that day every year. And then it gets even more complex.
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When Spain ceded the Philippines to the U.S. in 1899, American troops came up against the Filipinos’ refusal to accept annexation, an armed independence movement, and the declaration of a republic. From the full-scale Battle of Manila, a guerrilla war continued for three years until a peace treaty, but fighting went on in the islands for a decade more.
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The casting of “Fright Night,” Craig Gillespie’s mostly faithful 3-D take on the 1985 cult favorite, is so spot-on that it’s almost enough to justify the movie’s existence. Yet once again we find ourselves frustrated by the shortcomings of second-hand goods, in the too-familiar form of a remake that never needed to be made.
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Presented as an epic-scale Hollywood romance centering on a big, bumpy, beautiful relationship, “One Day” is far from a disaster, but it fails to deliver the emotion, wisdom and true verve that its rushed-along story demands.
Cliches counter the bright spots, and the mismatched leads supply little electricity in this adaptation of the British bestseller.
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San Francisco might be Jason Momoa’s favorite city, but don’t ask if he’s running for governor. The tall, bronze-skinned Honolulu native, who stars in Marcus Nispel’s new “Conan the Barbarian,” due Friday, is well aware that comparisons to the screen’s most famous conquering Cimmerian, Arnold Schwarzenegger, are inevitable. And, thank you, he’s heard all the jokes.Could he care less? Apparently not. He never sought Arnold’s blessing, nor does he seem concerned whether Schwarzenegger enjoys the movie. If he does, great. If not, Momoa won’t be quitting the business.
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Every “Final Destination” follows a simple, durable formula. We start with The Premonition, in which the Cassandra of the doomed (here Nicholas D’Agosto of TV’s “Heroes”) foresees a gruesome tragedy.
He alerts anyone who will listen, though his warnings are usually dismissed as lunatic ravings. Disaster strikes, and a small group of survivors is left bewildered by their unlikely salvation.
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The comedic drama “The Help” dips into the momentously changing times of Civil Rights Movement-era Mississippi, with due spotlight cast on the experiences of African-American maids.
Adapted by filmmaker Tate Taylor from Kathryn Stockett’s bestseller, this is a frustrating movie — at times an affecting story of liberation, but too often a contrived Hollywood soap opera. Phony minidramas yank on your tear-jerk and laughter mechanisms when you want its splendid cast to stir you deep down.
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It’s always interesting to see how an actor follows up an Oscar nomination. After his acclaimed portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network,” Jesse Eisenberg is appearing in the summer popcorn action-comedy “30 Minutes or Less,” opening Friday.
It’s decidedly more lowbrow, but greatly entertaining.
He plays Nick, a pizza delivery guy in Grand Rapids, Mich. A couple of thugs, played by Danny McBride and Nick Swardson, catch him, strap a bomb to his chest and force him to rob a bank. He calls on his best friend Chet, played by stand-up comic Aziz Ansari, for help.
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We hate it when our friends become successful, so the saying goes, but try telling that to Tate Taylor, whose adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel “The Help” arrives in theaters Wednesday.
Who is Taylor? You’re hardly alone in asking. The 41-year-old actor, screenwriter and director, for whom “The Help” is his first studio production, grew up with Stockett in Jackson, Miss.
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“Ten years from now, it will be the 1968 version that people are still renting.”
So predicted Roger Ebert after Tim Burton’s scattershot “Planet of the Apes” remake, released a decade ago, did more to discredit primates than Charlton Heston.
Whether the odor of that effort still lingers could determine the future of a once-vital franchise, confidently revived this week in Rupert Wyatt’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”
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