All posts by Gopal »
Wanted (2008) Movie Review #2
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
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
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
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
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...
Read More »Cloverfield (2008) Movie Review
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...
Read More »No Country for Old Men (2007) Movie Review
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
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
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” 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...
Read More »The Kingdom (2007) Movie Review
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....
Read More »Eastern Promises (2007) Movie Review
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...
Read More »3:10 to Yuma (2007) Movie Review
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...
Read More »Live Free or Die Hard (2007) Movie Review
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
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
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
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.”‘...
Read More »Black Snake Moan (2006) Movie Review
“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
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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