Maxim’s Movie Reviews and Opinions Blog

Gomorra (2008)

“Gomorra” (English title “Gomorrah”) is a Golden Globe-nominated contemporary drama about mafia in Naples. Directed by Matteo Garrone, written by Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni Di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso and Roberto Saviano based on the book by Roberto Saviano.
The plot: Five stories of people from Naples, Italy, living in the world of corruption [...]

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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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RocknRolla (2008)

This is the first installment of director Guy Ritchie’s trilogy, also written by him.
The plot: When Russian mobster sets up a real-estate scam in London, all the underworld characters appear to get their share of the multi-million euro deal up for grabs. Some of those characters are small-time crooks like One-Two (Gerard [...]

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Miracle at St. Anna (2008)

A.k.a. Miracolo a Sant’Anna is directed Spike Lee (Malcolm X (1992), The Original Kings of Comedy (2000), 25th Hour (2002)) based on James McBride’s novel who also wrote the screenplay for this movie.
The plot: Miracle at St. Anna is loosly based on actual massacre at Sant’Anna di Stazzema in August [...]

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Coffee And Cigarettes (2003)

Jim Jarmusch (Year of the Horse, Dead Man, Mystery Train) has shot this collage of short films over a  long period of time. The first episode, “Coffee and Cigarettes I”, came out in 1986.
In this full feature-length film he combined all the episodes he shot in Black and White over the years, [...]

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The Good German (2006)

Steven Soderbergh (Good Night, and Good Luck, A Scanner Darkly) directed this 2006 after-WWII drama starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Jerry Maguire based on Joseph Kanon’s novel.
The plot: July 1945. Stalin, Roosevelt and Chirchill are meeting to divide liberated Europe. Journalist Jake Geismer (George Clooney) arrives to cover the Potsdam conference. He [...]

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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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The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2006)

This award-winning picture was directed by Tommy Lee Jones, his first work as director, and based on the book by Guillermo Arriaga, an Oscar-nominated author and play-writer. Arriaga also wrote script for Universal/Focus feature film Amores Perros (2000) starring Benicio Del Torro, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, 21 Grams (2004) and [...]

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Road To Perdition (2002)

The plot: Mike Sullivan (Tom Hanks) works as a hit man and enforcer for crime boss John Rooney (Paul Newman), whom he views as a father figure. However after his son witnessed a killing he has done Rooney’s own sun (Daniel Craig) kills Mike’s wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and other son, [...]

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This is a musical set in the 1960s. The music is based on over 30 Beatles’ songs.
The plot: an dock worker comes to United States from England to find his estranged father. There he falls in love with a teenage girl Lucy. When her brother is drafted into Vietnam, the young couple become peace [...]

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Great film directed by George Clooney and starring himself and David Strathairn as CBS reporter Edward R. Morrow, who stood up to senator McCarthy, who was using fear to erode civil liberties, which makes it a very important movie of our time, when people who criticize the administration are accused of being unpatriotic and terrorist-huggers.

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