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Wanted (2008) Movie Review #2

Wanted (2008) Movie Review #2

Gopal June 29, 2008

At the rate that Hollywood is cranking through comic books to fill up its studios, film worthy comics may soon become as scarce as crude oil. The latest entry is “Wanted,” helmed by Russian...

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Kite Liberator (2008) Movie Review

Kite Liberator (2008) Movie Review

Gopal May 5, 2008

The original “Kite” was a controversial, yet fascinating exercise in style and mood. Thematically similar to Luc Besson’s near-classic “Le Femme Nikita,” which was, at its core, a remake of the classic tale ‘Pygmalion,’...

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Iron Man (2008) Movie Review

Iron Man (2008) Movie Review

Gopal May 3, 2008

Hollywood has been mining the comic book shelves for quite some time, but has been hitting it particularly heavily over the last decade. Everything from the classics to the new-age stuff has been tapped...

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Doomsday (2008) Movie Review

Doomsday (2008) Movie Review

Gopal March 16, 2008

The end of the world has been a popular topic in Science Fiction and Fantasy films for as long as we can remember. But while the topic is well worn, the subject has been...

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Rambo (2008) Movie Review

Rambo (2008) Movie Review

Gopal January 28, 2008

Sylvester Stallone’s latest attempt at career resuscitation comes to us in the form of “Rambo,” the fourth installment of the action series. The last time we saw John Rambo, he was busy helping the...

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Cloverfield (2008) Movie Review

Cloverfield (2008) Movie Review

Gopal January 20, 2008

Shrouded in secrecy and a pervasive viral marketing campaign, prolific television producer J.J. Abrams’ (‘Alias,’ ‘Lost’) latest film, “Cloverfield,” lands in US theaters at a rather curious time. Mid-January is typically when movie studios...

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No Country for Old Men (2007) Movie Review

No Country for Old Men (2007) Movie Review

Gopal November 18, 2007

They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. In the case of Anton Chigurh, those windows open upon nothingness. In fact, his faded blue eyes seem to suck the very souls...

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Elite Squad (aka Tropa de Elite, 2007) Movie Review

Elite Squad (aka Tropa de Elite, 2007) Movie Review

Gopal October 29, 2007

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has long been known as a city precariously balanced on the edge of chaos. A city of vibrant culture and life, it is also one of the most dangerous cities...

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Karas: The Revelation (2007) Movie Review

Karas: The Revelation (2007) Movie Review

Gopal October 27, 2007

When I previously reviewed “Karas: The Prophecy,” I noted that it was a visually spectacular film that suffered from a criminally underdeveloped plot and slap-dash execution. There were so many good parts to what...

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30 Days of Night (2007) Movie Review

30 Days of Night (2007) Movie Review

Gopal October 21, 2007

“30 Days of Night” has been billed as a new take on the Vampire movie. After watching it, the only ‘new’ element I can identify is that the vampires are full-on bad guys this...

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The Kingdom (2007) Movie Review

The Kingdom (2007) Movie Review

Gopal September 30, 2007

In my review of “Syriana” last year, I noted that many viewers who were apparently befuddled by that film were probably expecting an action movie since there was an explosion in the film’s trailer....

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Eastern Promises (2007) Movie Review

Eastern Promises (2007) Movie Review

Gopal September 16, 2007

Given that “Eastern Promises” is a David Cronenberg film, one shouldn’t be entirely surprised that it opens with a vicious throat slashing and a fourteen year old girl hemorrhaging in a drug store. The...

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3:10 to Yuma (2007) Movie Review

3:10 to Yuma (2007) Movie Review

Gopal September 16, 2007

From the outset, director James Mangold’s (“Walk the Line”) latest film, “3:10 to Yuma,” has two strikes against it: it is a Western, a genre that has been dying a slow death over the...

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Live Free or Die Hard (2007) Movie Review

Live Free or Die Hard (2007) Movie Review

Gopal July 1, 2007

The original “Die Hard” was a blast of superheated fresh air when it descended upon unprepared moviegoers in the summer of 1988. That film introduced us to wisecracking, gun-toting southpaw NYPD Detective John McClane,...

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The Night of the Sunflowers (2006) Movie Review

The Night of the Sunflowers (2006) Movie Review

Gopal July 1, 2007

One of the residents of a declining little village in northern Spain comes across an ancient cave in the nearby hills. Hoping to revitalize the town through the potential touristic possibilities of a prehistoric...

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Grindhouse (2007) Movie Review

Grindhouse (2007) Movie Review

Gopal April 6, 2007

The Grindhouse was a sub-genre of exploitation films that were generally deemed too extreme and cheap for the mainstream, and there wasn’t much genre segregation with regards to what got heaped into this pile....

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300 (2007) Movie Review

300 (2007) Movie Review

Gopal March 10, 2007

In a blurb I wrote in my ‘Best of 2005′ list, I declared “A Bittersweet Life” to be “one of the slickest pieces of stone-cold machismo to slide across the silver screen since ‘Scarface.”‘...

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Black Snake Moan (2006) Movie Review

Black Snake Moan (2006) Movie Review

Gopal March 2, 2007

“God put you in my path, and I aim to cure you of your wickedness.” There are only a handful of actors who can utter that phrase and make us believe it, and Samuel...

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Gopal’s Top 10 Movies of 2006

Gopal’s Top 10 Movies of 2006

Gopal January 6, 2007

After several outstanding films rolled out of 2005, 2006 has been a bit of a downer. With a few notable exceptions, I didn’t come across any films that really stood out as exceptional. There...

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