Maxim’s Movie Reviews and Opinions Blog

Opening in theatres (wide release):

The Eye (2008) PG-13 1h 37min

In this remake of 2002 Hong Kong movie “Jian Gui”, a woman-violinist who’s been blind since childhood receives an eye transplant that happens to let her see into supernatural world. Terified by what she now sees, she tryies to find out to whom her eyes used [...]

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The Lookout (2007)

This movie passed relatively unnoticed at the theatres: it wasn’t aggressively promoted, and other, bigger movies were also showing.
The plot: Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was once a great high-school hockey player, but after a car accident that kill two of his friends and Chris had a head injury that caused the short term [...]

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Rambo (2008)

20 years since Rambo III Sylvester Stallone has revived Rambo. He wrote and directed this new action flick. I went to the theater with very low expectations because Rambo in Afghanistan was a major disappointment.
The plot: John Rambo lives peacefully in a jungle in Thailand. When Christian aid-workers disappear amidst war in Burma, [...]

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Tonight has been the night for detective stories. USA was showing new episodes of Monk and Psych, but before that I also watched a couple of Agatha Christie’s mysteries, some from Netflix’s collection. I loved Miss Marple series since I was a kid. Agatha Christie is brilliant. No wonder she made more money selling [...]

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Opening in wide release in theatres:

Meet The Spartans (2008) PG-13

Yet another spoof making a parody of everything from “300″ to “You Got Served” to Britney Spears. This movie was created by the same guys who made “Epic Movie”, which was complete garbage.

Comedy.

Rambo (2008)  R

(a.k.a. Rambo IV, a.k.a. Rambo IV: Blood Ties, a.k.a. Rambo IV: [...]

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I live in LA, and I remember a recent “episode” that was all over local news when a security camera noticed the ambulance pull over in Skid Row and dump a lady with head trauma with almost no clothes on the street. The lady was disoriented, didn’t know where she was and had bandages [...]

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The Reduced Shakespeare Company – The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (2000)

A.k.a. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).
I heard an interview with Adam Long on NPR a few years back, and immediately added the film to my Netflix queue, but only now it arrived in mail. Damn, I have a long [...]

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Opening in wide release:

Cloverfield (2008) PG-13 84minA going-away party in Manhattan is interrupted when a mysterious, giant-sized monster launches an attack on New York City. With camcorder in hand, a small group of friends make their way out into the chaotic streets, scrambling to stay alive. Mike Vogel, Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, Michael Stahl-David, [...]

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It’s interesting that Steven Spielberg was the executive producer of this movie. I didn’t read the book, but I interviewed some people who did and they said that the movie is mostly faithful to the 1997 best-selling novel, with just a few scenes dropped from the book for the sake of making film short [...]

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Toshiba slashed prices to its HD-DVD players again this week. Now the entry-level Toshiba HD A3 player has suggested retail price of just $150 – very close to what regular DVD players sell for, while medium and top players, HD A30 and HD A35 with 1080p output now have MSRP of $200 and $300 [...]

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The plot: two terminally ill old men (Morgan Freeman and Jack Nickolson) in the cancer ward of the hospital owned by Jack Nickolson character decide to write a list of all the things they’d like to do before they die. Then they escape the the hospital to actually go on the road trip to [...]

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After Warner Bros. decided to commit to Blu-Ray and stop releasing their movies on HD-DVD in May 2008, the HD-DVD camp has been reduced to just Universal Studio and Paramount as far as Hollywood studios go. The latter has an “escape” clause in their contract to switch to Blu-Ray should Warner Bros. switch too (WB [...]

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Opening in theatres:

The Bucket List (2007) | PG-13 | 97 min

Two terminally-ill old men escape from the cancer ward and go on the road trip with a to-do list of things to do and places to visit before they die.Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman star. Director Justin Zackham. Comedy/Drama/Adventure. Warner Bros.

First Sunday (2008) | PG-13 | 96 min

Durell (Ice Cube) [...]

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I wanted to watch this movie again after seeing Hot Fuzz for the second time and I wanted to see the work of same team of actors and director Edgar Wright again.
The plot: Thirty-something slacker electronics salesman Shaun (Simon Pegg) has no clue what to do with his life or with his relationship with [...]

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Wow! What a movie! This is Tim Burton at his best. I could not think of a better director to make this screen adaptation of the Broadway musical.
The plot: After had been convicted for a crime he was innocent of and spending 15 years in exile doing hard labour before he escaped, Benjamin Barker [...]

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Toshiba marketing executive Jodi Sally told the audience at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) HD DVD remained the best technology, but acknowledged the Warner Bros announcement on Friday took her by surprise.

“It’s difficult for me to believe when all the pundits declare that HD DVD is dead,” Sally said. “Clearly, the events of the last [...]

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Christopher Hampton based his screenplay on the novel by Ian McEwan, and Joe Wright directed.
Joe Wright is a very talented director. In 2007 Joe became youngest director presenting at Venice Film Festival. At 34 years old he was already famous as director of Pride & Prejudice (2005), in which he directed Keira Knightley in [...]

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Pick up to 10 top movies of the year in the poll below. If you see an error or to nominate another movie to the list, leave me a comment.
Also, check out the reader’s choices for best movies of 2008.

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The director of “Batman Begins” Christopher Nolan directed this film written by him and Jonathan Nolan based on the novel by Christopher Priest. Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and David Bowie star.
The plot: End of 19th century London. Three friends, Robert, his wife Julia and Alfred, are assistants of a magician. [...]

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Netflix has been offering its customers to watch movies instantly on their laptops or media center PCs for quite some time. Users can install a small ActiveX plugin in their Internet browser and watch many of Netflix’s 90,000 titles in the proprietary viewer. The movies could not be downloaded and saved as a file [...]

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