Review: Blackthorn (2011)
Posted On 07 Oct 2011 By Bartleby. Under 2011, 3 Stars (Fantastic), Action, Action-Adventure, By Genre, Drama, Reviews, Western.
Mobster's Rating: Telling the speculative story of what ‘really happened’ to legendary outlaw Butch Cassidy after that fateful shootout in the boarding house in Bolivia, Blackthorn delivers a decidedly classic Western with an undeniably iconic turn by Sam Sheppard. The result is a film that marches laconically to its own ... Read More
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Review: Real Steel (2011)
Posted On 07 Oct 2011 By Bartleby. Under 2011, 3 Stars (Fantastic), Action, Action-Adventure, Family/Kids, Reviews, Science Fiction, Sport.
Mobster's Rating: Jean Luc Godard once said that the best way to criticize a movie is to make another movie. This thought popped into my head while watching Shawn Levy’s Real Steel, Touchstone/DreamWorks' newest giant robot adventure. I have no idea if Levy set out to craft an indictment of Michael ... Read More
3 Comments
Review: 50/50 (2011)
Posted On 30 Sep 2011 By Bartleby. Under 2011, 3 Stars (Fantastic), Action, By Genre, Comedy, Drama, Reviews.
Mobster’s Rating: ‘It’s cancer.’ Those words are a devastating diagnosis, whether delivered in the real world or up on a movie screen. For films, it’s usually a death sentence of saccharine melodrama and repetitious, somber goodbyes tearfully delivered by self-serious actors. Has there ever been a truly funny movie about ... Read More
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Throwback Tuesday: The Burbs (1989)
Posted On 27 Sep 2011 By Bartleby. Under 1989, 3 Stars (Fantastic), Comedy, Reviews, Suspense/Thriller, Throwback Tuesday.
It's been years since I've seen Joe Dante’s The 'Burbs. As a kid I adored it—watching it so many times that the entire thing feels branded onto my cerebral cortex. Just the other day my wife and I were discussing the issue of lunatic neighbors, and the film came up. It ... Read More
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Review: Moneyball (2011)
Posted On 23 Sep 2011 By Bartleby. Under 2011, 3 Stars (Fantastic), By Star Rating, Drama, Reviews, Sport.
Mobster's Rating: Moneyball is a baseball movie aimed at people who many not necessarily even be a fan of the game. It chronicles the 2002 season of the Oakland Athletics, a Major League ball team that managed to set the league’s record for a winning streak after a wobbly start ... Read More
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Foreign Matter: King of Devil’s Island (2011)
Posted On 18 Sep 2011 By Bartleby. Under 2011, 3 Stars (Fantastic), Action, Action-Adventure, By Genre, By Star Rating, Drama, Foreign, Reviews.
MOBSTERS RATING: I walked into King of Devil's Island expecting either supernatural warriors or maybe a giant monkey or dinosaur. But Marius Holst’s new Norwegian drama is something more mundane and altogether different. What's more, it's better for it. Based on a real revolt at a youth correctional facility on the ... Read More
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Movie Review: Drive (2011)
Mobsters Rating: Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive plots an unconventional course through action thriller territory. Take that big chase for example. Ryan Gosling driving a getaway car for a pair of thieves while most of the Los Angeles police department pursue him by car and helicopter. All of it captured in such ... Read More
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Review: Another Earth (2011)
Posted On 12 Sep 2011 By Bartleby. Under 2011, 3 Stars (Fantastic), By Genre, Fantasy, Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction.
Mike Cahill's Another Earth proposes what would happen if we were confronted with another world, another life, another version of ourselves. A smart science fiction drama with equally smart characters.
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Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
Posted On 08 Aug 2011 By Bartleby. Under 2011, 3 Stars (Fantastic), Action-Adventure, Fantasy, Reviews, Science Fiction.
MOBSTERS RATING: Although it’s being marketed and pitched as a prequel to the 1968 Charlton Heston classic, Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes is actually a remake of sorts. Mirroring some of the events and characters of the fourth sequel in the franchise, Conquest of the Planet ... Read More
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Review: Super 8 (2011)
Posted On 10 Jun 2011 By Bartleby. Under 2011, 3 Stars (Fantastic), Action, Action-Adventure, By Genre, Family/Kids, Fantasy, Reviews, Science Fiction, Suspense/Thriller.
I am a proud child of the 80s; a once flannel-wearing, Goonies-watching, Zebra-gum chewing, Q-bert playing brat who recalls a time when there were new episodes of The Snorks, Small Wonder and Manimal airing on fuzzy network television. I present this context because JJ Abrams Super 8 has been specifically ... Read More
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Review: Thor (2011)
Posted On 06 May 2011 By Bartleby. Under 2010, 2011, 3 Stars (Fantastic), Action, Action-Adventure, By Genre, By Star Rating, By The Year, Fantasy, Reviews, Science Fiction.
MOBSTER’S RATING: Kenneth Branagh's 'Thor' is the kind of big, fun silly summer movie that looks more simplistic than it actually is. When you are adapting a comic book character that's part of a big commercial tie-in with a franchise like The Avengers, this quality is a welcome one. On the heels of ... Read More
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