| Critic |
Review |
Quote |
Analysis |
This Week's Verdict |
Manohla Dargis,
The New York Times |
Live Free or Die Hard |
"The world has changed too, of course, and with it the action-flick coordinates: for one, Arnold Schwarzenegger runs California, while the sober, nonwisecracking likes of Matt Damon's Bourne rules the bad-boy roost.
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Changed since the days when Ronald Reagan was president and Arnold Schwarzenegger ruled the bad-boy roost? The real question is: Who will be the next governor of California?
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Stephanie Zacharek,
Salon.com |
Live Free or Die Hard |
"To watch Bruce Willis in Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth Die Hard movie since the franchise began, in 1988, is to feel, with an 'ouch,' the creeping certainty of our own mortality. Willis, now nearing his mid-50s, is what we might politely call an aging actor, although that's a misnomer anyway, since who among us, other than maybe Catherine Deneuve, is getting any younger?." |
To read this is to feel an "ouch." This is pretty much as depressing as movie reviews get. It's bound to inspire at least a little bit of age-related panic in anyone who remembers Bruce Willis as young, studly and still married to Demi Moore, before Ashton Kutcher moved in. Heck, not even Ashton is that young anymore, come to think of it.
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Rob Nelson,
The Village Voice |
Live Free or Die Hard |
"So as the bad guys (including a Demi-esque Maggie Q) plot a nationwide blackout by computer, the digitally challenged McClane mans the old reliables — pistol, CB radio, various motor vehicles, and what's left of his wit(s) — while the kid (Apple pitchman Justin Long) remains exclusively in charge of code-breaking, which means he's often seen at a keyboard flipping his bangs and typing really fast. Would you believe these two don't get along at first?" |
Thank God, finally a review that mentions that Justin Long is the Mac guy. Speaking of, could John Hodgman's spot as the PC be threatened? Methinks Willis would make quite a decent replacement.
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Armond White,
New York Press |
One to Another |
"Pity is, One to Another's fraudulence is fashionable — the same sick twist as the masochistic Argentinian film, Two Drifters. It also recalls Larry Clark's pedophilia in Kids. But consider that co-director Barr has acted in at least six Lars von Trier films — too many for his own good. One to Another is exactly the sort of deliberately false, morally confused nonsense-narrative that von Trier practices. Although one image of detectives patrolling the spot where Pierre's body was found hauntingly resembles a cruising park at peak hour, most of the murder-mystery cliches become risible." |
There is a little too much going on here. This review does go to show that — occasionally — Armond White's barbs are apt and well-directed. Still, they somehow fail to come together as a whole.
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Dana Stevens,
Slate.com |
Ratatouille |
"I choked up a little bit. Not for the usual reasons you'd cry in a movie: because the story was moving (though it was) or because I identified with the protagonist's triumph (though I did). No, Ratatouille moved me to tears because it was just so well-done. [...] And the animation, oh, the animation." |
Seemingly out of left field, an animated Pixar movie is so well-made it makes critics cry. Take that A Mighty Heart and Evening!
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