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'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' Movie Reviews

By Allyssa Lee (Subscribe to Allyssa Lee's posts), Posted May 27th 2010 4:00PM
Filed under: Reviews
A bronzed Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Prince Dastan in 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,' the latest feature film adapted from a popular video game.

This Jerry Bruckheimer-produced swashbuckling adventure, written by Boaz Yakin and Doug Miro & Carlo Bernard and directed by 'Four Weddings and a Funeral's Mike Newell, revolves around noble and scrappy Dastan, feisty Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) and a coveted magic dagger that has the power to reverse time when filled with special sand. Acting support is provided by Ben Kingsley (in guyliner) as Dastan's dastardly uncle Nazim, and Alfred Molina as a cunning sheik who runs ostrich races.

Does 'Prince' have the goods to put up a worthy fight against the 'Sex and the City' girls this weekend, or is it game over for this sixth-century Persian epic? Read what the critics had to say.
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'MacGruber' Movie Reviews

By Allyssa Lee (Subscribe to Allyssa Lee's posts), Posted May 21st 2010 12:00PM
Filed under: Reviews
Making lifesaving inventions out of household materials ... 'MacGruber!'

The throwback parody of the TV series 'MacGyver' is the latest 'SNL' skit to get blown up into a full-length feature film. Not Ready for Primetime player Will Forte puts on the vest and the flannel as the the titular mullet-sporting DIY hero whose superior ability to save the day with a gum wrapper and a pen cap are hampered by his even more superior incompetence.

And true to MacGruber form, this film, helmed by 'SNL' vet and first-time feature director Jorma Taccone, finds the decorated soldier of fortune getting in and out of sticky situations. More specifically, MacGruber is called back from retirement and teams up with Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) and Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) in order to track down a nuclear warhead stolen by his sworn enemy, Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer).

According to the reviews, the crass stains don't stop with the names in this rated R action comedy. But will the latest 'SNL' skit to get the big-screen treatment go more in the way of 'Wayne's World' or 'A Night at the Roxbury'? Here's what the critics had to say.
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'Pirates of the Caribbean 4' to Be Shot in 3-D

By Allyssa Lee (Subscribe to Allyssa Lee's posts), Posted May 18th 2010 12:30PM
Filed under: Movie News
Pirates of the CaribbeanCapt. Jack Sparrow and co. are adding a new dimension to their adventures. According to Deadline.com, Disney studios chairman Rick Ross has just made the decision to shoot the fourth installment of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' in Disney Digital 3-D. The film is still set to be released on May 20, 2011.

Set to start filming this summer, 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' will again star Johnny Deep in dreadlocks and eyeliner as Capt. Sparrow. As Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom will not be reprising their roles as Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner this time around, Depp (and Geoffrey Rush, who also returns in this next film) will instead be joined by Ian McShane (as Blackbeard), Penelope Cruz and French actress Astrid Berges-Frisby (as an alluring young mermaid). The movie will be helmed by 'Chicago' director Rob Marshall.
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'Pictures at a Revolution' Documentary in the Works

By Allyssa Lee (Subscribe to Allyssa Lee's posts), Posted May 17th 2010 11:14AM
Filed under: Movie News
Pictures at a RevolutionThe 'Revolution' will be televised documented. Oscilloscope Laboratories and Specialty Films are teaming up to develop and produce a feature-length documentary based on Mark Harris' 'Pictures at a Revolution,' it was announced yesterday.

The critically-acclaimed 2008 book, subtitled 'Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood,' chronicles the production and release of the five very different 1967 Best Picture Oscar nominees: 'The Graduate,' 'Doctor Doolittle,' 'Bonnie and Clyde,' 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' and 'In the Heat of the Night.' Harris, a film writer and columnist for Entertainment Weekly magazine, uses these films' disparate stories to vividly capture a time that ultimately gave way to the a golden age of American filmmaking the following decade.
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Famous Movie Locations: The 'Sideways' Tour (Santa Ynez Valley, CA)

By Allyssa Lee (Subscribe to Allyssa Lee's posts), Posted May 14th 2010 3:15PM
Filed under: On the Scene
Los Olivos Cafe and Wine Merchant

Based on the novel of the same name by Rex Pickett, 2004's 'Sideways' tells the story of two old friends taking a getaway: Miles (Paul Giamatti) is a frustrated unpublished novelist with a broken marriage under his belt, who both masks and drowns his feelings of inadequacy in his love of wine. And then there's Jack (Thomas Haden Church), a struggling actor and reprobate intent on having one more bender before giving up his "freedom" and settling down with just one woman. Both are weighed with the disappointments of wasted youth and missed potential, and are on one last huzzah of a road trip through the vineyards of the central California coast before returning to reality for good.
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'Letters to Juliet' Movie Reviews

By Allyssa Lee (Subscribe to Allyssa Lee's posts), Posted May 13th 2010 7:00PM
Filed under: Reviews
A classic Shakespeare story and a vibrant sun-kissed Italian countryside provide a picturesque backdrop to the sweet romantic confection 'Letters to Juliet.'

The movie stars the ubiquitous Amanda Seyfried as Sophie, a fact-checker at the New Yorker who yearns for something greater in life. While on an Italian getaway in Verona with her fiancé (Gael García Bernal), Sophie stumbles upon a 50-year-old letter of unrequited love addressed to Shakespeare's titular star-crossed heroine. The letter is one of thousands asking advice, which are answered by "the secretaries of Juliet." This misplaced missive prompts Sophie to get in touch with the writer, Claire, now a widow (Vanessa Redgrave). Sophie, Claire and Claire's irritating yet irresistible grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) embark on a sun-kissed adventure under the Tuscan sun to reunite Claire with her long-lost Italian amore.

Directed by Gary Winick from a script by Jose Rivera and Tim Sullivan, a major selling point of the movie's cross-generational appeal fall firmly on the shoulders of Oscar-winning actress Redgrave and those gorgeous Italian vistas.

But did the critics find 'Letters to Juliet' bello, or brutto? Read what they had to say:
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'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' Sequel to Bow Next March

By Allyssa Lee (Subscribe to Allyssa Lee's posts), Posted May 12th 2010 11:15AM
Filed under: Movie News
Will the wimps inherit the earth? Fox 2000 sure hopes so, as it has set a date for the second chapter in its 'Wimpy Kid' franchise.

The studio has announced that 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules' will be released March 25, 2011, according to a Variety report.
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