Maxim’s Movie Reviews and Opinions Blog

A.k.a. National Treasure 2, this is a sequel to Disney’s treasure hunting flick from 3 years ago.
The plot: Treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) believes that his grand-grand father was Civil War hero and a patriot who paid with his life to prevent the Confederates from getting the map to the huge treasure [...]

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This movie may become the legend of the box office success: it’s been in theaters for two weeks now and it’s still selling out.
The plot: Brilliant scientist Robert Neville (Will Smith) may be the only survivor of the human-engineered virus that wiped out almost entire population of the Earth. 99% of people dies from [...]

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Onkyo TX-SR705 home theater receiver will set you up for the next 5 years or more. It has everything the modern home theater needs: the power, loads of inputs, 7.1 audio, up-conversion of SD-video via HDMI to up to 1080p/24p.
What I was looking for: a home theater receiver with many HDMI inputs, HDMI pass-through, [...]

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Children Of Men (2006)

The plot: in the alternate near future women stopped getting pregnant and giving birth – on the entire planet. Societies are collapsing, and only Britain has maintained some sort of order by introducing strict military control everywhere. Illegal immigrants are escaping from their countries trying to find relative piece in England, [...]

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Alien vs Predator: Requiem (2007) R 1h 26min – Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi/Sequel. (a.k.a. Alien vs Predator 2). The monsters from the two famous sci-fi action films slaughter each other in an unsuspecting Colorado town, while a humans band together to survive in this sequel.

The Orhpanage (2007) R 1h 45min- Art/Foreign(Spain)/Suspence/Horror/Thriller. Laura spent the happiest years of [...]

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Hot Fuzz (2007)

This is a surprisingly very funny cop-buddy comedy from creators of Shaun of the Dead (2004), director Edgar Wright who co-wrote thr script with Simon Pegg, who starred as main character in both movies. There are no big special effects, but all movies look better in HD. Probably for that reason this [...]

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Toshiba HD-A35 HD DVD player

As I promised when I wrote “Who is winning the format war: Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD“, I am reviewing Toshiba HD-A35 HD DVD player.
Why HD DVD and not Blu-Ray? Despite a seeming stalemate between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD in the war for the eyeballs, I did not want to buy a proprietary [...]

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Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

Pretty good!
The plot: Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is a congressman from Texas. He’s been known for being a womanizer and alcoholic. In 1979 the policy of US regarding Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was to stay out of the conflict. While the government officially morally supported the Afghans, they were not helping [...]

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From Judd Apatow, the guy who brought you Knocked Up and Superbad – a new comedy starring John C. Reilly!
The plot: America loves larger-than-life musician and songwriter Dewey Cox (a composite character in whom you can recognize Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Johnny Cash and others). But behind the music is the up-and-down-and-up-again story of [...]

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This is going to be a great week for movie goers: with a long weekend ahead, there’s a great movie for each day of the week!

Opening in theatres nationwide:

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) R 97min – Comedy/ Drama/ Adaptation/ Biographical. Based on the true story of how Texas congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), known for being an [...]

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This weekend I tried to photograph Mars. This is a perfect time to make pictures because Mars is in the opposition and closest to Earth as it’s ever been in the past 130 years or so. Around midnight it’s roughly overhead and the Moon sets by that time – it’s light won’t interfere and [...]

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*** WARNING: This review contains spoilers. ***
This is a funny, witty and sweet comedy from director of Thank you for smoking Jason Reitman and 29-year-old writer Diablo Cody.
The plot: Juno McGuff (Ellen Page) is a Mid-Western girl in high-school. One day she decided to have sex with her boyfriend Polly Bleeker (Michael Cera or [...]

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Opening in theatres (wide release):

Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) – Comedy/Kids/Family - Three chipmunk brothers, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore are adopted by a man named Dave.

I Am Legend (2007) – Action/Drama/Horror/Sci-Fi – A brilliant scientist (Will Smith) may be the only survivor of the virus in the city of New York and may be the entire [...]

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Shrek The Third (2007)

The plot: when the frog-king ‘croaks’, Shrek (Mike Myers) is looked at as the next successor to the throne of the Far, Far Away. Shrek, however, believes he is not the right candidate for wearing the crown, and dreams of returning to his Swamp to live with Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) [...]

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In the middle of holiday season, electronics seem to be one of the gifts of choice. HD TVs are almost half cheaper then a year before. Cable and Satellite compete for HD content viewers. Rental companies offer movies in high definition. When DVD became media of choice 7-10 years ago and replaced VHS, DVD players [...]

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A major disappointment.
The script by Chris Weitz (”About a Boy“) is based on first story of Philip Pullman’s 1995 bestselling (in UK) trilogy novel, His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass.
The plot: The story is set in an alternative world where people’s souls manifest themselves as animals (a.k.a. “daemons”), a 12-year old orphan girl Lyra [...]

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Opening in theatres:

The Golden Compass (2007) – Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, and Ian McShane star in a movie based on Philip Pullman’s novel, an exciting fantasy adventure set in an alternate world where people’s souls manifest themselves as animals. An organization known as Gobblers kidnapped a child, and 12-year-old girl Lyra (Dakota [...]

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A Good Year (2006)

Oscar-winning director Ridley Scott (American Gangster, Numb3rs, Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Company, Tristan and Isolde, Orpheus, Kingdom of Heaven, Matchstick Men, Hostage, Black Hawk Down, Hannibal, Gladiator and many many more) directs this adaptation of Peter Mayle’s best-selling novel (screenplay by Marc Klein), following the [...]

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Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007)

The plot: Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) wins a trip to France in his church’s ruffle. On the way from Paris to Cannes he manages to miss his train, separate Russian boy Stepan (Max Baldry) from his father, film director Emil Dachevsky (Karel Roden) who was also heading to Cannes, get a [...]

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This movie from the first seconds seemed to be a hospital drama ala “ER”. It began with a message: “Every year 3,000,000 anesthesias are performed. One in 700 people ends up awake during the surgery – a condition known as “anesthetic awareness” when patient is paralyzed but is still awake”. So it appeared that [...]

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