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Pure Luck
: :This weak, 1991 remake of the French comedy La Chèvre stars Danny Glover as a detective who is sent to Mexico to find a businessman's daughter (Sheila Kelley) and who gets stuck with a hapless assistant (Martin Short). The film wears out its welcome very quickly, despite some passable physical comedy from Short. Both actors have made much better movies; don't be surprised if you can't make it through to the end of this one. --Tom Keogh
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The Competition
: :When you are in the mood for a pleasant little romance, this should fit the bill. Amy Irving and Richard Dreyfuss are young pianists vying for the same prize. Surprise, surprise, they fall in love. We then must wait, with (nearly) breathless anticipation, to see if she will throw the contest to ensure his love. It is all a bit starry-eyed, but not overly gooey. The concert footage is handled with class, and there are some fine supporting performances from Sam Wanamaker and Lee Remick. It ...
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Baby Boom
: :The writing-directing team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers (Father of the Bride) made this sweet satire about a high-powered yuppie executive (Diane Keaton) who unexpectedly becomes a mom and finds she can't successfully integrate the role into her busy life. Typical of the Shyer-Meyers films prior to Myers taking the director's reins on the wonderful Parent Trap, Baby Boom is a little wooden and more sentimental than genuine. But there are entertaining moments, for sure, and Keaton is a delight. --Tom Keogh
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Irreconcilable Differences
: :The writing-directing team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers (Father of the Bride) made this sweet satire about a high-powered yuppie executive (Diane Keaton) who unexpectedly becomes a mom and finds she can't successfully integrate the role into her busy life. Typical of the Shyer-Meyers films prior to Myers taking the director's reins on the wonderful Parent Trap, Baby Boom is a little wooden and more sentimental than genuine. But there are entertaining moments, for sure, and Keaton is a delight. --Tom Keogh
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Holocaust (The Mini-Series) (SP mode)
: :Originally a made-for-TV miniseries (that won a slew of Emmy Awards), this film follows parallel stories: those of a Jewish family in Germany from 1935 to 1945 and a German (Michael Moriarty) who rises in the Nazi ranks until he is overseeing the death camps. Genuinely haunting and truly sorrowful, this series was many people's first introduction to the impact that Hitler's Final Solution had on everyday Germans. Of course, it helps that director Marvin Chomsky had a cast that included Fritz Weaver, James Woods, Meryl ...
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Shell Seekers
: :Originally a made-for-TV miniseries (that won a slew of Emmy Awards), this film follows parallel stories: those of a Jewish family in Germany from 1935 to 1945 and a German (Michael Moriarty) who rises in the Nazi ranks until he is overseeing the death camps. Genuinely haunting and truly sorrowful, this series was many people's first introduction to the impact that Hitler's Final Solution had on everyday Germans. Of course, it helps that director Marvin Chomsky had a cast that included Fritz Weaver, James Woods, Meryl ...
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Taras Bulba
: :'I will kiss the devil before my son wears a Polish collar!' declares Cossack warrior Taras Bulba, thus laying down the fundamental conflict of this epic film, based on the classic book by Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol. After the Polish army and the Cossacks defeat the Turks, the Poles betray their fierce collaborators in order to claim the Cossacks' ancestral home, the Steppes. Scattered, the Cossacks bide their time, and Bulba (Yul Brynner) sends his son Andrei (Tony Curtis) to a Polish college to learn the ...
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Running Against Time
: :'I will kiss the devil before my son wears a Polish collar!' declares Cossack warrior Taras Bulba, thus laying down the fundamental conflict of this epic film, based on the classic book by Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol. After the Polish army and the Cossacks defeat the Turks, the Poles betray their fierce collaborators in order to claim the Cossacks' ancestral home, the Steppes. Scattered, the Cossacks bide their time, and Bulba (Yul Brynner) sends his son Andrei (Tony Curtis) to a Polish college to learn the ...
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Irreconcilable Differences
: :'I will kiss the devil before my son wears a Polish collar!' declares Cossack warrior Taras Bulba, thus laying down the fundamental conflict of this epic film, based on the classic book by Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol. After the Polish army and the Cossacks defeat the Turks, the Poles betray their fierce collaborators in order to claim the Cossacks' ancestral home, the Steppes. Scattered, the Cossacks bide their time, and Bulba (Yul Brynner) sends his son Andrei (Tony Curtis) to a Polish college to learn the ...
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The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
: :John le Carre's classic spy yarn gets a suitably brisk, unromanticized telling in this quintessential Cold War movie. A British agent (Richard Burton) sets up an elaborate cover story for being lured into defecting to the Communists, but he hardly needs to manufacture his disgust and cynicism over spying. The grim business of point-counterpoint espionage has rarely been depicted with less glamour; Burton's great climactic speech on the subject is the definitive take on sinking to the level of the enemy. Claire Bloom is an offbeat ...
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