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BRETT MICHEL

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Review: Just Wright

Bench this fairy tale
As glossy as you might expect, the film double-dribbles with its familiar story of the ugly duckling who wins the swan.

By: BRETT MICHEL | May 12, 2010

Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street

Unnecessary remake a nightmare, indeed
The last of the ’80s horror icons to be murdered by producer Michael Bay’s “re-imaginings,” Freddy Krueger was the one least in need of a makeover.

By: BRETT MICHEL | May 04, 2010

Alas, weirdness had to wait
Just imagine, after viewing Nobuhiko Obayashi’s bona fide genre find, how a generation of moviegoers’ tastes might have deviated in wonderfully odd directions had they sampled the Japanese visionary’s comic-horror hybrid back in 1977.

By: BRETT MICHEL | April 28, 2010

Review: Cairo Time

Gaza Strip tease
Patricia Clarkson projects great warmth as Juliette, a Canadian journalist who travels to Cairo to join her husband, a UN aid worker stationed in Egypt, for a scenic holiday among the Pyramids.

By: BRETT MICHEL | April 21, 2010

Review: Death at a Funeral

Farce in the age of Obama
Once the enfant terrible of misogynistic movies (see 1997’s In the Company of Men ), Neil LaBute has moved on to remakes. His take on a 1973 horror classic ( The Wicker Man ) is either classically horrible or classically brilliant.

By: BRETT MICHEL | April 21, 2010

Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Banksy makes his directorial debut. Or does he?
The art of underground prankster Banksy is hard to pin down.

By: BRETT MICHEL | February 24, 2011

Interview: Dakota Fanning

Runaway talent
Dakota Fanning may be just 16 years old, but already she’s built a body of work that shames some starlets twice her age.

By: BRETT MICHEL | April 13, 2010

Review: The Jonses

The Stepfords, these ain’t.
Keeping up with the Joneses is tough.

By: BRETT MICHEL | April 14, 2010

Review: The Warlords

Band of blood brothers
Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro, stars of Zhang Yimou’s superlative House of Flying Daggers , reunite, joined by Jet Li (from Zhang’s Hero ), in Peter Chan’s handsomely mounted historical epic.

By: BRETT MICHEL | April 06, 2010

Review: The Bounty Hunter

Dreadful, handcuffed to derivative
A bounty hunter chasing down Uncle Sam on the Fourth of July?

By: BRETT MICHEL | March 23, 2010

Review: How To Train Your Dragon

Also better than Avatar
Animation directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders have fashioned a family entertainment that functions as a copy of James Cameron’s most successful film of all time.

By: BRETT MICHEL | February 24, 2011

Review: She’s Out Of My League

Earns a zero for originality
Can TSA employees really be as bad at screening travelers as the ones in Jim Field Smith's comedy?

By: BRETT MICHEL | March 17, 2010

Review: Neil Young Trunk Show

Traveling down no "No Hidden Path"
If a Neil Young neophyte can find himself rocking in a cinema seat to the spirited, soulful music performed in this second of a rumored triptych of Demme-directed, Young-starring concert documentaries, long-time fans are bound to break their armrests.

By: BRETT MICHEL | March 17, 2010

Review: A Matter Of Size

One big charmer
Director duo Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor have fashioned a look at a group of blue-collar Israeli men and how they came to accept who they are.

By: BRETT MICHEL | March 25, 2010

Review: Remember Me

Robert Pattinson trades his fangs for James Dean's cool
Director Allen Coulter bites off more than he can chew in this rote romantic drama.

By: BRETT MICHEL | March 10, 2010

Review: The Yellow Handkerchief

William Hurt and his killer ex-con ’stache give you something to brood about
Like Tony Orlando & Dawn's 1973 #1 single, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree," Udayan Prasad's Southern-fried sudser descends from a 1971 column Pete Hamill penned for the New York Post .

By: BRETT MICHEL | March 10, 2010