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Jack Reacher: Never Go Back improves on the 2012 origin movie by locating its story within the military world from which Reacher sprang and by limiting the ultra violence.1 That said, Tom Cruise and his supporting cast are somewhat less impressive this time out, nor is the dialog as snap-crac…
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Ageless Action Star
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Clint Eastwood’s terrorist-on-a-train film unspools like a cinéma vérité home movie. Three yokels from Sacramento – California’s middle-American capital city – get the chance to be heroes and don’t blow it. Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos & Anthony Sadler famously play themselves as the three du…
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Ellen interviews 3 American heroes.
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Stephen Spielberg’s War Horse is an instant classic in several categories:
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Bringing Swords to a Gun Fight
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Finally, a USA friendly Iraq War movie, the novelty of which shows how far Hollywood has drifted from objective reality and obvious movie subjects. Wonder of wonders, a show of fellow Americans resolutely and professionally pursuing their liberation mission offers a tremendous adrenaline rush, a…
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SFC James: More gung ho than sane.
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Judith features Gentile moviestars playing Jewish freedom fighters during Israel’s War of Independence. It’s amazing how glamorous a story centered on early kibbutz life at the end of the British Mandate can be. To that end, Judith is a fabulous Sophia Loren movie. The great Loren stars a…
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Kibbutznick Extraordinaire
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The heart of a battle-tank turns into a heart of darkness for four soldiers – softies – thrust into the horror of war. The obvious comparison to Das Boot captures Lebanon’s ironclad claustrophobia and blinkered view. Yet, Apocalypse Now seems more fitting an antecedent given how these unw…
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Caught in the crosshairs: Major Hardb...
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The Last of the Mohicans was a benchmark in ’92. It still packs an action wallop, delivers a romantic jolt and provides a lens into the development of the American character, notwithstanding its historical liberties. This cinematically big movie features a perfect man who engages in a perfe…
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Last Mohican: Russell Means' Chingach...
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Who’da thunk the best Beatles movie wouldn’t star the Beatles? OK, not the best Beatles movie, but as great a Beatles movie as one could hope for not starring the Beatles, which is pretty damn great. Really. Across the Universe is arguably the best movie about the Sixties, unarguably set t…
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Sapphic "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"
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Essential though Patton may be – as war movie, as American history, as biopic – it’s not the epochal statement the Academy thought they were canonizing with seven Oscars in 1971, including Best Picture. Back then Frances Ford Coppola’s script seemed subversive, undermining American militarism …
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If I had my way, I'd meet Rommel F2F.
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This great martial arts movie follows the beats and tropes of fictional king fu movies while burnishing the legend of Ip Man, a real life Grandmaster of Wing Chun kung fu and Bruce Lee’s teacher. The scene of an unarmed Master Ip facing down an armed Police Captain is a classic of the form. *I…
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Ip Man amid the Japanese occupation
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