| Critic |
Review |
Quote |
Analysis |
This Week's Verdict |
Manohla Dargis,
The New York Times |
Elizabeth: The Golden Age |
"A kitsch extravaganza aquiver with trembling bosoms, booming guns and wild energy, Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells, if more often shouts, the story of the bastard monarch who ruled England with an iron grip and two tightly closed legs.
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Trembling bosoms and booming guns. . . Oh my. Other choice quotes: "favorite smoldering slab of man meat," and "she found sweet relief by violently bringing the Spanish Empire to its knees." Is it getting hot in here?
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Stephanie Zacharek,
Salon.com |
Elizabeth: The Golden Age |
"She giggles and titters with her favorite lady-in-waiting, Bess (played by the luminous Abby Cornish) — the two have a relationship that's semi-erotic and semiotic, a language of signals and half-smiles that's largely, though not wholly, innocent." |
A relationship that's semi-erotic and semiotic? Sounds like freshman year to me.
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JArmond White,
New York Press |
Elizabeth: The Golden Age |
"The Golden Age is another unwarranted film, adding to the atrocious 1998 Elizabeth where Cate Blanchett played the Plantagenet royal in ludicrously modern style. Blanchett has become the reigning character assassin of contemporary movies. She's an Aussie pretender to the throne of British acting and only gullible Anglophiles will accept her affectations." |
When it isn't hipster filmmakers or insipid sequels it's Aussie pretenders. What isn't wrong with filmmaking today?
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Michelle Orange,
The Village Voice |
The Heartbreak Kid |
"Leaving the Jew/Shiksa conundrum of the original behind, here Stiller's Eddie Cantor marries the marquee goddess after a brief courtship, only to find she's a bit of a mess in the fine print. On their disastrous Mexican honeymoon, he meets salt-of-the-earth southerner Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), clearly a superior option because — like Diaz in Mary — she likes sports, cracks jokes, and presumably lacks his wife's unseemly sex drive." |
In one paragraph: A comprehensive yet subtle analysis of what's wrong with most Ben Stiller movies.
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Chris Lee,
L.A. Times |
Across the Universe |
"After three weeks in theaters, the PG-13 movie finally penetrated the top ten by connecting with a zealous core constituency: teenage girls, who, anecdotal evidence suggests, are going to see the movie in packs, bonding with one another (and the film) through repeated viewings and popularizing it with their school chums via word-of-mouth." |
A day late and a dollar short. But yes; if Across The Universe has any relevance that's it. Teenage girls. God. What is wrong with teenage girls? Wasn't there a time when Courtney Love was a role model?
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