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Mad Money opens tomorrow, and it’s yet another heist flick, which are almost always fun — and this one is unusual in that it’s the girls getting to have all the felonious fun this time around. And so I figured I’d put together a little retrospective of great heist movies. Which I started, as I … more…

See it: • 3:10 to Yuma [buy it]. From my review: Mangold makes you feel like you’ve never seen a Western before. The stagecoach ambush and robbery that opens the movie features some pretty clichéd moments — thundering horses, good guys and bad shootin’ at one another, etc. — but Mangold finds fresh angles on … more…

See it: • Shoot ’Em Up [buy it]. From my review: When I wrote this review last week, Shoot ’Em Up was “not yet rated” by the MPAA. Possibly that august organization couldn’t decide if this gloriously deranged orgy of Bugs Bunny-style action and nonstop gunplay warranted an NC-17 — cuz honestly, no one of … more…

See it: • Eastern Promises [buy it]. From my review: Movies about gangsters: You expect a lot of noise. Shouting and screaming. Barrages of gunfire. Not here. Here we have somber reflection, the lurking gray peril of an urban underbelly, shifting shifty glances and unspoken threats. Eastern Promises is almost silent — even its title … more…

See it: • Stardust [buy it]. From my review: I wish I could be more enthusiastic about Stardust. I like it just fine: it’s sweet and amusing and nicely diverting. And it’s colorful enough and clever enough and jam-packed enough with all sorts of pretty to wonder at that if this is your kinda thing, … more…

It’s a week till Christmas Eve. You still need something cool for someone special… or maybe you’re just looking to reward yourself with some holiday cheer. Well, never fear: your Auntie Flick Chick is here to help. Sure, you may pay a little more for express shipping, or you may have to actually haul ass … more…

See it: • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [buy it]. From my review: Oh, there is magic here, but there’s nothing sweet or luminous about it. This is magic as power, as an expression of recognizable human impulses both noble and terrible… Yates… is an artist who makes television dramas about the … more…

It’s that time of the year: critics like me are starting to put together our final best-of lists for the year. And the sad truth of the matter is that the content of those lists will consist mostly of movies released in the last month or two. (And some of those movies are ones we … more…

If you’re not all that familiar with the story of The Golden Compass, you may not know that the character Nicole Kidman plays, Mrs. Coulter, is the villain of the piece. Female bad guys — alas that “bad girls” does not have the same connotation of treachery and vileness — are few and far between, … more…

See it: • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End [buy it]. From my review: So the supposed bad guys — the pirates — have become the good guys, fighting for their right to exist, for their sovereignty from corporate piracy that cloaks itself in respectability; and the supposed good guys — the fine corporations … more…