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divorce

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Friday, November 23rd, 2007
★★★★★

I know that tone. I’m just not used to hearing it from someone with . . . hair.

It’s been a good couple of years for restarting movie franchises. 2005 gave us Batman Begins and 2006 begat Casino Royale. It also gave us Superman Returns, so no trend is bulletproof. However, it did continue in 2007 with a fourth installment in the Die Hard series, which was easily the most consistently entertaining of the sequels. The original is, of course, still miles ahead, even from this one, but that’s to be expected.

Live Free or Die Hard

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Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)

Friday, November 23rd, 2007
★★★★★

You mean to tell me that I’m caught up in all this shit because some white cop threw some white asshole’s brother off a roof?

It’s almost axiomatic that the third iteration of a movie franchise is when the sucking starts to begin, assuming that the first sequel didn’t already bring the suck to the table. The good news is that the third Die Hard movie, with John McTiernan back at the helm, manages to avoid this “curse of the third movie.” The bad news is that it doesn’t miss the mark by all that much. This is a Die Hard movie done mostly by the numbers and it’s only because of the sheer professionalism of the enterprise that they bring it off at all.

Die Hard: With a Vengeance

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The Abyss (1989 & 1993)

Wednesday, April 4th, 2007

Theatrical Cut: ★★★★★
Special Edition: ★★★★★

It’s not easy being a cast-iron bitch. It takes discipline, years of training… A lot of people don’t appreciate that.

James Cameron’s deep sea science fiction tale is one of those rare instances of a director revisiting a finished work and genuinely improving the film. The 1989 theatrical release was marred by an abrupt, confusing ending that was the product of Cameron removing almost an entire storyline to bring the film down to a more commercial 146 minute running time. This drastic surgery earned it some lukewarm reviews when it first hit theaters.

The Abyss

Four years later, Cameron re-released a 171 minute cut to theaters and then home video. (more…)

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Prime (2005)

Friday, May 5th, 2006
★★★★★

I have t-shirts older than you.

Prime illustrates that sharp writing and good casting can overcome a story that strains credibility to the breaking point. The main plot point of this film depends on a series of coincidences akin to getting struck by lightning on the same day you win the Powerball lottery. Fortunately, the actors and the characters they inhabit hold our empathy enough that we almost don’t notice.

Prime

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Saraband (2003)

Thursday, January 19th, 2006
★★★★★

Sometimes you act like a forgotten character from some stupid old film.

Saraband, probably the last film from the legendary Ingmar Bergman, re-unites us with Johan and Marianne, whose divorce we watched unfold 30 years ago in 1973‘s Scenes from a Marriage. The film plays out in the form of ten extended two-handed dialogues. Bergman is able to wring an amazing amount of drama out of this deceptively simple structure.

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Scenes from a Marriage (1973)

Thursday, January 19th, 2006
★★★★★

I love you in my selfish way. And I think you love me in your fussy, pestering way.

If I may grossly over-simplify the Ingmar Bergman worldview: we’re born, we die and in between, we treat each other like shit. The legendary Swedish filmmaker is a sheer master at pointing a camera at people and wringing buckets of genuine, truthful misery from them.

Scenes from a Marriage

Scenes from a Marriage is a three-hour distillation of a six-part mini-series he did for Swedish television. Despite its significant length and the fact that most of the film is comprised of extended dialogues between two people, the film holds your attention in an iron grip.

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