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: [...]

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Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Slumdog Millionaire is drama co-directed by brilliant directors Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, The Beach, 28 Days Later and more) and Loveleen Tandan (Vanity Fair, Monsoon Wedding etc.) based on Vikas Swarup’s novel with the same title. I had no idea what the movie [...]

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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 [...]

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Quantum of Solace (2008)

This new James Bond’s adventure is directed by Marc Forster, famous for Monster’s Ball (but also directed such notable movies as Finding Neverland, Stranger Then Fiction and last year’s The Kite Runner). It is written by Paul Haggis, an award-winning [...]

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Taxi To The Dark Side (2007)

Director Alex Gibney’s “Taxi To The Dark Side” won 2008 Oscar for Best Documentary.
The plot: “Taxi To The Dark Side” focuses on the story of an innocent Afghani taxi driver who was tortured to death by U.S. forces [...]

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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 [...]

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From the animation and the music theme of the opening credits sequence you know you are watching a witty comedy that won director Frank Oz (famous for directing movies like Little Shop of Horrors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Stepford Wives and giving his voice [...]

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Another wonderful movie based on the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri directed and produced by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding (2001), Vanity Fair (2004)) starring Irfan Khan and Kal Penn.
The plot: In the late 60s-early 70s Ashoke Ganguli (Irfan Khan) was traveling on the train [...]

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Snakes On The Plane (2006)

The plot: An FBI agent (Samuel L. Jackson) brings a murder witness on an airplane. During the flight, snakes come out out of everywhere. The good: ehm… nothing.
The bad: you can tell you are going to see a bad [...]

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The plot: Four high-school boys who inherited superpowers from their parents uncover that there’s a fifth powerful person who was thought to be long dead. Their powers come a the cost: each time they are used, the body of the warlock ages and [...]

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The plot: After her husband (David Duchovny) died in a tragic accident, Audrey, his wife (Halle Berry) is trying to piece her life together and take care of her two kids. The house is falling apart without a man in it, and she [...]

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The plot: Narrator (Omar Sharif) talks about a legend about a blue-eyes child. It’s a girl who was discovered by tribal hunters in the mountains clinched to the body of her dead mother. Her mother and their clan were killed or enslaved by [...]

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“There Will Be Blood” based on the novel “Oil!” by Upton Sinclair and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Cigarettes & Coffee, Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia, and of course several episodes of Saturday Night Live) who also wrote the script. It was in theatres [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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A clone of “Clear and Present Danger” set in Saudi Arabia in present days. Not very deep, but the action and suspense of the second half of the film is quite good. The film makes the point is there’s more to the price of oil then Dollar amount, but it’s more of a background, a set up for another Hollywood movie.

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