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A fantasy, even a comic fantasy, needs above all to be lean and uncluttered. Only reality is untidy. The classic fantasy structure involves the hero, the quest, the prize and what stands in the way. It is not a good sign that almost the most entertaining element of “Stardust” is
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A fantasy, even a comic fantasy, needs above all to be lean and uncluttered. Only reality is untidy. The classic fantasy structure involves the hero, the quest, the prize and what stands in the way. It is not a good sign that almost the most entertaining element of “Stardust” is
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Becoming Jane Fictionalized speculation about a great romance in Jane Austen’s 20th year. The would-be author (Anne Hathaway) meets a handsome lawyer (James McAvoy) and wonders, if he loses his allowance from his spiteful uncle, could she support them by her writing (mostly still unwritten)? Engaging love story in charming Britlit
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Becoming Jane Fictionalized speculation about a great romance in Jane Austen’s 20th year. The would-be author (Anne Hathaway) meets a handsome lawyer (James McAvoy) and wonders, if he loses his allowance from his spiteful uncle, could she support them by her writing (mostly still unwritten)? Engaging love story in charming Britlit
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Run, Jason, Run. The Bourne films have taken chases beyond a storytelling technique and made them into the story. Jason Bourne’s search for the secret of his identity doesn’t involve me in pulsating empathy for his dilemma, but as a MacGuffin, it’s a doozy. Some guy finds himself with a
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Run, Jason, Run. The Bourne films have taken chases beyond a storytelling technique and made them into the story. Jason Bourne’s search for the secret of his identity doesn’t involve me in pulsating empathy for his dilemma, but as a MacGuffin, it’s a doozy. Some guy finds himself with a
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Rod Kimble, the hero of “Hot Rod,” is Evel Knievel on a moped. He leads a life resembling an episode of “Jackass.” Not a day passes without him attempting a harebrained stunt, and failure doesn’t discourage him because he knows in his heart that he is destined to become world
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Rod Kimble, the hero of “Hot Rod,” is Evel Knievel on a moped. He leads a life resembling an episode of “Jackass.” Not a day passes without him attempting a harebrained stunt, and failure doesn’t discourage him because he knows in his heart that he is destined to become world
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When he was a child during World War II, Dieter Dengler had an attic room on a German hillside overlooking a valley. One day an American fighter plane roared past “only feet away,” he recalled. The plane’s canopy was down, he made eye contact with the pilot for a moment,
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When he was a child during World War II, Dieter Dengler had an attic room on a German hillside overlooking a valley. One day an American fighter plane roared past “only feet away,” he recalled. The plane’s canopy was down, he made eye contact with the pilot for a moment,
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The Simpsons are fairly surprised to find themselves in a movie; they can’t believe “anyone would pay to see what we did on TV for free.” But I suspect a lot of people will. Here is a feature-length version of what Time magazine, no less, called “the 20th century’s best
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The Simpsons are fairly surprised to find themselves in a movie; they can’t believe “anyone would pay to see what we did on TV for free.” But I suspect a lot of people will. Here is a feature-length version of what Time magazine, no less, called “the 20th century’s best
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“Hairspray” is just plain fun. Or maybe not so plain. There’s a lot of craft and slyness lurking beneath the circa-1960 goofiness. The movie seems guileless and rambunctious, but it looks just right (like a Pat Boone musical) and sounds just right (like a golden oldies disc) and feels just
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“Hairspray” is just plain fun. Or maybe not so plain. There’s a lot of craft and slyness lurking beneath the circa-1960 goofiness. The movie seems guileless and rambunctious, but it looks just right (like a Pat Boone musical) and sounds just right (like a golden oldies disc) and feels just
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Whatever happened to the delight and, if you’ll excuse the term, magic in the Harry Potter series? As the characters grow up, the stories grow, too, leaving the innocence behind and confusing us with plots so labyrinthine that it takes a Ph.D. from Hogwarts to figure them out. “Harry Potter
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Whatever happened to the delight and, if you’ll excuse the term, magic in the Harry Potter series? As the characters grow up, the stories grow, too, leaving the innocence behind and confusing us with plots so labyrinthine that it takes a Ph.D. from Hogwarts to figure them out. “Harry Potter
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The story of Petey Greene was a movie waiting to be made. Greene came out of prison to become, literally overnight, a popular and influential DJ. He was on WOL, a Washington, D.C., station that was looking for a morning man to connect with its African-American audience and got more
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The story of Petey Greene was a movie waiting to be made. Greene came out of prison to become, literally overnight, a popular and influential DJ. He was on WOL, a Washington, D.C., station that was looking for a morning man to connect with its African-American audience and got more
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“Now I have fans who say, ‘We are so sorry, Michael Bay, you still suck, but we love you.’” That’s what the director of “Transformers” told Simon Ang during an interview in Seoul. He could have been speaking for me. I think Michael Bay sometimes sucks (“Pearl Harbor,” “Armageddon”), but I
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“Now I have fans who say, ‘We are so sorry, Michael Bay, you still suck, but we love you.’” That’s what the director of “Transformers” told Simon Ang during an interview in Seoul. He could have been speaking for me. I think Michael Bay sometimes sucks (“Pearl Harbor,” “Armageddon”), but I
