Maxim’s Movie Reviews and Opinions Blog

Opening in theatres:

Awake (2007) R - In United States, more then 60,000 people every year experience what’s called “anesthetical awareness”, a condition when anesthesia fails during surgery, so the patient can feel the pain, but because he/she is paralyzed, cannot do anything about it. This is a story of one of the “victims”. Drama/Thriller.
Badland (2007) [...]

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This film comes from a great French director Luc Besson, who is the king of French action movies. Here in the U.S. of A. we know him for creating “The Fifth Element“, which he conceived when he was a teenager, for [briefly] being married to Milla Jovovich, and producing such action flicks as Leon [...]

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Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, this is the best chase movie ever!
The plot: a hunter named Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) walks on the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad in the middle of the desert somewhere in Texas and discovers suitcase with two million dollars. He tries to disappear with [...]

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August Rush (2007) PG 100min – a talented, but charismatic young Irish guitarist and a cellist-girl have a magical encounter one night above New York’s Washingon Square, but at her father’s insistence are torn apart, leaving behind a child, August Rush, who becomes an orphan by circumstance. Now he’s cared for by mysterious stranger, and [...]

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Hitman (2007)

The plot: The Hitman, Agent 47, the “creation” of the secret organization called “The Agency”, was sent to assassinate the [fictional] Russian president (Ulrich Thomsen – ehm, Danish actor) who was involved in trade of drugs, prostitution, arms trades etc. Instead, hitman kills the president’s double. Realizing he was set up he threatens his “organization” to [...]

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This powerful Oscar-nominated documentary from director James Longley is a depiction of stories of modern-day Iraqis as they try to cope with the war, with life without Saddam, without law and order, occupation, violence and division of country into sectarian regions. Finally a documentary that talks about Iraqis and their suffering, unlike many documentaries [...]

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Anime/Animation

Death Note (2006) NR – 2-disk series about a boy who found a notebook with magical properties: a person who’s name is written in it would die. The boy turns it into a crime fighting tool.
Garfield Gets Real (2007) NR – Garfield jumps our of his comic strip and attempts to live in the “real [...]

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Tonight for the first time I tried to make pictures of the moon through my new telescope, Meade ETX-125AT.
Around 10:30pm I went outside, setup tripod and the telescope on it. Attached 26mm eyepiece to the eyepiece port. Attached Meade #64 T-adapter with T-ring for my Canon EOS 20D to the accessory port.
The pictures are [...]

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Beowulf (2007)

Just came out of the theatre. Saw it in both regular and 3D. This movie should only be seen in 3D! Completely different experience.
The plot is based on the only known surviving Anglo-Saxon poetry manuscript about a warrior Beowulf, hero of Geats (a.k.a. Goths, Swedes)  in 6th century A.D. who defeated three antagonists: [...]

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CIA: Exiled (2007) R – An ex-CIA operative consulate security guy and his buddy go after South-African spies.
Ocean’s Thirteen (2007) PG-13 – Third installment of Ocean’s Eleven. Better then the second but worse then the third. Ocean (Clooney) and the crew are back in Vegas with a vengeance for another mega-hit on a casino.
Duck Tales [...]

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Opening everywhere:

Beowulf (2007) – yet another Robert Zemeckis’s motion capture fantasy tale about warrior Beowulf who must defeat the demon Grendel… and his mother. Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Angelina Jolie at al gave the characters their voices and some likeness.
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (2007) – as holiday season approaches, Natalie Portman is [...]

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I was driving home from work and listening to NPR and they were just interviewing Brian De Palma about this movie. When I got home and turned TV on – there it was – the movie I just heard about.
Brian De Palma is writer and director famous for such films as Scarface, Wise Guys, [...]

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This all-star cast movie is based on Augusten Burroughs’s best-selling novel memoir.
The plot: Augusten Burroughs (Jack Kaeding -> Joseph Cross) was growing up in a dysfunctional family, with alcoholic father (Alec Baldwin) and mentally unstable mother (Annette Bening) with her delusions of grandeur. As a boy he was handed over to his mother’s therapist, Dr. Finch (Brian [...]

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Lovely and funny animated feature for the whole family about a bee who discovers that humans steal honey from bees and decides to sure the Humanity.

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Documentary written and directed by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld about the part of life of John Lennon when he was more and more separating himself from Beatles and becoming a political peace activist. Yoko Ono also is interviewed in this movie. Lots of archive footage from the Vietnam War era, including footage and [...]

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Déjà Vu was directed by Tony Scott, producer and director of such films as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Tristan and Isolde, In Her Shoes, Man on Fire, Big Time, Spy Game, Enemy of the State, True Romance, Top Gun and many many more including TV series NUMB3RS. Produced by [...]

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Since this movie was most expected movie of the week, considering all the marketing, I was surprised to see that the movie theater on the opening night was half empty.
Lions For Lambs is directed by Robert Redford. It’s a movie with three parallel contemporary stories happening at the same time in the span of [...]

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It’s the time of year for two kinds of movies now: Christmas-themed movies and ones that wish they won an Oscar nomination.

Lions for Lambs. A widely advertised political thriller directed by Robert Redford and starring himself, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Michael Pena about how lives of different people (congressman, journalist, an idealistic professor who tries to [...]

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Michael Moore’s next documentary is comparing highly profitable healthcare industry to other countries’, and HMO horror stories told in a humorous and satiric way, pretty much Michael Moore’s trademark style he used in previous movies such as Fahrenheit 911. George W. Bush, John Graham, Richard Nixon, William Maher and others star as themselves.If you [...]

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Shrek The Third comes out on DVD and HD-DVD on Nov. 13th

The 3rd installment of Shrek’s story directed by Chris Miller and Roman Hui is about Shrek becoming a hair to the land of Far, Far Away. He doesn’t feel like giving up his swamp, so he recruits Donkey and Puss in Boots to install Artie [...]

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