Wilmington By Mike WilmingtonWilmington@moviecitynews.com
Wilmington on Movies: The Wind Rises
Miyazaki‘s The Wind Rises. A lovely name. A lovely film. A poem to flight, as soaring and lyrical as those of the sometimes heart-piercing French writer-artist-pilot Antoine de St. Exupery.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Winter’s Tale
Any time you see a movie based on a hugely popular, critically-hosannaed, densely-populated epic romance novel like Mark Helprin‘s Winter‘s Tale—a prestige movie about endless, undying love boasting such first-class actors as Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe, Jessica Brown Findlay, William Hurt and Eva Marie Saint—and the picture gets stolen by a flying horse, you know the show is in some kind of trouble.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Endless Love
ENDLESS LOVE (One and a Half Stars) U.S. Shana Feste, 2013 Endlessly, undyingly…No, we’ve already done that one. Still, if your appetite for a Valentine’s Weekend of unfettered romance and unashamed date movies hasn‘t been satiated by Winter‘s Tale or About Last Night, you can always dive in to the endless malarkey of another…
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Like Father, Like Son
Here is a beautiful film, whichever way you look at it.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: The Monuments Men
George Clooney’s The Monuments Men, which is pretty good, but not as good as it should have been, is based on a fascinating historical episode, unknown to me (and to many others, I’m sure), that makes for one of the most inspiring stories of World War II.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Labor Day
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Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: The Wolf of Wall Street
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (Four Stars) U.S.: Martin Scorsese, 2013 “An idea came to me. The thing to do was to skip the heroes and heroines, to write a movie containing only villains and bawds. I would not have to tell any lies then.” —Ben Hecht, describing the genesis of his…
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Ride Along
RIDE ALONG (Two Stars) U.S.: Tim Story (2014) Ride Along, which grossed over 40 million dollars in its opening week, is a big, glossy, ultra-predictable buddy cop movie in which costars Ice Cube (Boyz n the Hood) and Kevin Hart (Think Like a Man) and director Tim Story (Barbershop) pull a comedy variation,…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: A Christmas Carol (1951); It’s a Wonderful Life
It’s one of those movies that almost all moviegoers know, many love and a few (the unhappy few) pooh-pooh. But Capra‘s populist gem deserves its primal place in our Christmas memories. It‘s a stirring, exhilarating mix of Norman Rockwell and film noir.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Will Ferrell and Adam McKay created what became a classic movie character: the cheerfully narcissistic Ron Burgundy. a mirthfully-mustachioed would-be super-stud San Diego TV news anchor, whose ego and self-delusions were as immense as his (temporarily) high San Diego ratings (or, in Ron‘s slightly demented translation “Sawn Dee-ah-go“) and the erections he could never quite disguise.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
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Read the full article »Wimington on Movies — The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Books were my first love, movies my second. Yet, someday, I may get around to reading Suzanne Collins’ mega-selling young adult novel “Catching Fire,” for the moment the big-money blockbuster movie adapted from it—The Hunger Games: Catching Fire—will have to suffice.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Taken/Taken 2: We’re the Millers
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Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: AFI FEST 2013: Nebraska; August: Osage County; Pickpocket; The Selfish Giant
For any properly enthusiastic movie critic or movie lover, a great film festival is the Perk of Perks. It’s the grand cinematic banquet or smorgasbord on their schedule, and hopefully more of a Babette’s Feast than a Grand Bouffe. At its best, a first-rate filmfest makes the rest of the year, and most of the rest of the year’s movies, worth the trouble.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: The Counselor
Is The Counselor as bad as they say?
Read the full article »Wimington on DVDs: The Haunting, Eyes Without a Face, The Conjuring
Horror movies are usually often judged by how much they get under our skins: how much sheer emotional discomfort they generate. By that measure, and several others, the James Wan-directed scary show The Conjuring, failed to get to me.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: House of Wax (1953); After Earth; The Purge
The Purge may be well-named. The movie‘s eventually almost non-stop brutality and terror have a kind of emetic effect, which is what happens in most of these pictures.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Star Trek Into Darkness; The Hangover, Part III; The Hangover
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Read the full article »Wilmington on DVD: Iron Man Three
In Iron Man Three—capstone of the trilogy of films in which Robert Downey, Jr. plays brainy CEO Tony Stark a.k.a. the robo-suited super-hero Iron ManDowney spends far more time out of his Iron Man suit than in it. But that’s okay.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: World War Z; The Bling Ring
Pitt doesn’t usually take the Tom Cruise stud-hero route; he’s done a lot of interesting projects. And though he’s wearing a strange hairdo for this type of role, he makes for a likable hero, if not a plausibly written one.
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