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ADMIRAL || Rutger Hauer and Charles Dance (“Game Of Thrones”) star is the navel period piece that sees the Netherlands being attacked by England, France and Germany, all while being on the verge of a civil war. The graphics are up to snuff, but the acting seems hollow and the story relies completely on historical narrative rather than putting any real emotion or passion into it.
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PASS
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THE AUTOMATIC HATE || Finding out there’s a side of your family that you never knew existed is probably enough to base a film on, but then add in some strange, taboo attraction between the cousins and the reasoning behind the longstanding family grudge and there’s enough to make this intriguing. Adelaide Clemens is also a bright young actress worth checking out.
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BACKGAMMON || A weekend away with friends turns into a sexual thriller. After his girlfriend leaves, Lucian is faced with an artist named Gerald and his girlfriend, Miranda. But after Gerald flies off the handle, Lucian and Miranda are left to explore their sexual tension alone. But with their surroundings being altered, it’s apparent that Gerald might not have left. I feel like there’s probably a bigger twist than that, but this all feels too thin from the get-go.
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BARNEY THOMSON || Robert Carlyle directs and stars lead in this offbeat dark comedy about a barber that accidentally kills his co-worker and then tries to cover up the death with his mother, played by Emma Thompson. Ray Winstone is left to sniff out exactly who killed the barber. Even with all this talent, it still feels like nothing I haven’t seen before, with “Bernie” being the first thing that comes to mind.
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BOOM BUST BOOM || Exploring economics and the housing crisis, but with puppets mixed in. I’m not sure how any of that relates, but this is yet another documentary that attempts to bring answers to our current economical woes.
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PASS
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CREATIVE CONTROL || Exploring virtual reality and what could be ahead of us for the future, the characters in this film use glasses not that far off from Google Glass. The obvious place to go with this is relationships in virtual reality and this at least shows a slight story-line involving real relationships versus virtual ones. I enjoy some of Nora Zehetner’s work, but not enough to see this film.
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EYE IN THE SKY || Drone movies are becoming all the rage, probably because drones are taking over where feet on the ground used to be. So it’s easy to suppose that for every “Saving Private Ryan” or “The Hurt Locker” that were made in the past, we will get just as good drone war films. “Eye In The Sky” aims for that, especially with a cast of Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, and the late Alan Rickman, but it doesn’t quite reach any of those levels. You might recognize Phoebe Fox from “The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death.”
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THE HAUNTING IN CAWDOR || Even on the scales of low budget horror films, this one is bad. Cary Elwes plays a counselor of sorts, putting delinquent teens through a small-town production of Macbeth until some paranormal activity begins taking place.
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HYENA ROAD || On the front-line, soldiers are asked to do all kinds of questionable things I am sure, but when these men are asked to protect an FBI informant that is clearly working both sides, they simply cannot take the order, especially when there is child smuggling for the Taliban involved. Disobeying orders, they step in to help. Not that I completely agree with either sides. Anyway, the production quality on this one is low.
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LOLO || Julie Delpy returns to the directing chair (“2 Days In Paris” & “2 Days In New York”) with “Lolo,” a story about a middle aged woman trying to date all while her grown up son who lives with her isn’t doing her any favors. There’s no real jokes here and it’s painfully clear this is Julie Delpy in the directors chair, the writing room, and starring lead, which leaves no real room for any other tone or idea than what she can bring.
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MARGUERITE || An opera singer that can’t sing and yet everyone wants to see. The trailer does not do a good job of telling the audience why this works exactly. If it’s not like “The King’s Speech,” where the president must learn to control his stutter to command the respect of those listening to him, then I’m not sure where it’s going, as the title character almost embraces the fact that she’s tone deaf.
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PASS
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ME HIM HER || Max Landis’ latest feature starts off as an interesting LGBT film, as a famous actor comes out of the closet to his friend and asks him to come out to L.A., but sadly deteriorates into your run-of-the-mill, straight romantic comedy that not even the pretty and talented Emily Meade can save.
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PASS
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RISE OF THE LEGEND || Martial arts films all feel the same to me. Not to say that they are not works of art, especially when it comes to choreography of the fight scenes. But they all closely resemble one another and each story feels slightly derivative of the last. The only differences here are spelt out in the copy, describing the master that came before Bruce Lee and Ip Man.
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PASS
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