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THE RUM DIARY FINALLY GETS AROUND TO EXTOL EXPOSÉ JOURNALISM Dedicated in final titles to a fictional crusading New York journalist, The Rum Diary portrays a Paul Kemp (played by Johnny Depp) as an alcoholic unpublished novelist who arrives in Puerto Rico to work on a failing newspaper in 1960. Based on a semiautobiographical story […]

MARGIN CALL FINDS NEW VICTIMS IN THE 2008 ECONOMIC MELTDOWN, BUT ARE THEY REALLY? The 2008 economic downturn has many victims—foreclosed homeowners, students and credit card holders unable to make exorbitant interest payments, unemployed government and industrial workers. Margin Call, directed by J. C. Chandor, asks us to feel sorry for Wall Street underlings. When

BEWARETHE IDES OF MARCH The crucial Ohio presidential preferential primary has heated up for two candidates, presumably in 2004. Mike Morris (played by the film’s director, George Clooney) and Senator Pullman (played by Michael Mantell) are running neck and neck. While the candidates are making speeches, their campaign managers are trying to clinch the race

1911, A CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY FOR CHINA, IS A PROPAGANDA OPPORTUNITY With Jackie Chan as Huang Xing, a military commander of China’s nationalist revolution, and Joan Chen as the Dowager Empress in prominent roles, how could 1911 not receive accolades? Released in Hollywood three days before the “lucky day” of 10/10, there should be every reason

THERE’S NO ABDUCTION IN ABDUCTION UNLESS YOUR EYES & EARS ARE HIJACKED FOR AN HOUR OR SO Why Abduction? Easy: So Taylor Lautner, who plays Nathan, he can show off his body, good looks, and his martial arts skill to build a cult following. The film first establishes Nathan as a shy 18-year-old who has

WILL OBAMACARE SAVE US FROM MEDICAL SCIENCE FICTION MALPRACTICE? Have you had you flu shots lately? Well, you probably will after seeing Contagion, which was released while ads for flu shots have become omnipresent. The film begins with a caption “Day 2,” as Beth Emhoff (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) gets off a plane at the

Medical science fiction, however, can go seriously awry. That’s the theme of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, directed by Rupert Wyatt. Medical scientist Will Rodman (played by James Franco) is trying to develop a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease, which afflicts his father, Charles (played by John Lithgow). Before human trials, as usual, serums

WHO PAYS THE PRICE IN THE DEBT ? During the Allied occupation of Germany, arrest warrants were served on many Nazis, including Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele, both of whom fled the country in the chaos. In 1960, Israelis captured Eichmann in Argentina, and flew him to Israel for trial. They knew that Mengele, the

MOZART’S SISTER DEPICTS HER HARD LIFE, BUT FILMVIEWERS ALSO SUFFER DURING THE BIOPIC Although the biography of Nannerl Mozart is worthy of a film, the wooden acting and plodding screenplay are not even redeemed by magnificent musical refrains. All that remains of note is the costuming. The director, René Féret, dooms the production by writing

SARAH’S KEY OPENS MORE SECRETS THAT SHE EVER IMAGINED Some 17,000 French Jews were rounded up during mid-1942 and eventually sent to Auschwitz. Sarah Starcynski’s fictional Parisian family is among those never heard from again. But not Sarah (played by Mélusine Mayance), then 10 years of age. When the gendarme knocks on the front door