Maxim’s Movie Reviews and Opinions Blog

The Hangover (2009)

Director Todd Phillips continues along the lines of his previous comedies, “The Old School” (2003) and “Road Trip” (2000).
The plot: The movie opens with one of the groom’s friends calling the bride and telling her the Doug is not going to make it. Because they lost him. In Las Vegas. [...]

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

A prequel to X-Men (2000), X-Men 2: X-Men United (2003) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), directed by Gavin Hood (directed famous award-winning Tsotsi), written by David Benioff  and Skip Woods.
The plot: A brief history of James Logan (Hugh Jackman) begins with his childhood in 1845 in Northern Territory. When his brother Victor kills their [...]

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The International

The plot: An Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) are trying to bring to justice a bank that had become an institution of choice for international organized crime and involved in international arms trade. They are unable to get any potential witnesses to talk [...]

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Revolutionary Road (2008)

“Revolutionary Road” is a drama set in 1950s based on Robert Yates’s novel and directed by Sam Mendes (Jarhead, Road to Perdition, American Beauty) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Kathy Bates.
The plot: A young couple living in mid-1950s in a Connecticut suburb is going through mid-life crisis while trying to raise [...]

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The Invisible (2007)

The plot: A talented high-school student is beaten and left for dead by his criminal classmate. He becomes a ghost, helplessly trying to figure out why he was killed and hopefully get his life back – the cops should find his body in time before he’s completely dead.
The good: Quite interesting characters: [...]

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Transsiberian (2008)

The plot: An American couple, Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer) take a 7-day train ride from China, where they completed  a church humanitarian mission, to Moscow on Trans-Siberian railroad. On the train they meet another young couple, a Spaniard Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and his girlfriend Abby (Kate Mara). Carlos may be running [...]

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Apocalypto (2006)

Apocalypto, 3-Oscar-nominated drama is written and directed by Mel Gibson and produced by his company, ICON Productions and distributed by Touchstone Pictures.
The plot: Before conquistadors arrived in America, the Mayan culture was already in decline. The priests convinced people that the solution to their problem is in building more temples and performing more [...]

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Persepolis (2007)

Persepolis is a political film describing life in Iran over the past 40 years in the form of… animated story.
The plot: Marjane Satrapi, director and writer of the movie, uses the comic and now the cartoon to tell the story of her life (with some artistic liberties). She was born in 1969 in [...]

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Death Race (2008)

The Death Race is an action movie based on 1975 film Death Race 2000 and written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Both movies were produced by Roger Corman. The original movie was starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone. The new movie has Jason Statham in the main role.
The plot: In the [...]

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Pineapple Express (2008)

After Seth Rogen and his buddy Evan Goldberg wrote the script for Superbad when they were 15 years old, they also were itching to write a script for an action movie, but with a twist. Nobody has done this before: if an action movie married a stoner comedy and they had a child, and [...]

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Wanted (2008)

Russian director Timur Bekmambetov is already known to American audience by his films Night Watch: Nochnoy Dozor and Day Watch: Dnevnoy Dozor and the next part, Twilight Watch: Sumerechniy Dozor based on Sergei Lukyanenko’s bestselling book. That movie went out in limited release. Those who are old enough remember two dramatic movies he made about Soviet [...]

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The Black Dahlia (2006) DVD

A sophisticated film noir from the director of Scarface, The Untouchables, Casualties Of War, Mission: Impossible, Snake Eyes, Mission To Mars and Redacted – Brian De Palma. It’s based on James Ellroy’s Novel “The Black Dahlia” inspired by the real murder of Elizabeth Short.
The plot: 1946. Hollywood. Two cops-partners, former [...]

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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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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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