Cloud Atlas

☆☆☆1/2

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“Cloud Atlas” is the engaging, epic drama exploring how the actions of one’s lifetime affect future lifetimes.

All-star-cast (Halle Berry, Tom Hanks, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant) deliver fine performances as multiple characters.
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Confusing at times…difficult to tell how one person’s life was connected to and affecting their next life.

Subtitles would have helped at times.

Rated R
2 hr. 43 min.

Visit the website and watch the trailer.

Taken 2

☆☆1/2

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With a little action and a little suspense “Taken 2” reunites viewers with CIA agent Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), who invites his ex-wife and daughter to join him in Istanbul for a get-away that goes bad when the father of a man Mills killed (when saving his daughter in “Taken”) shows-up for revenge.
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It’s just too close to “Taken.”

Why would Mills take his daughter and his ex-wife to a Istanbul?
In the main chase scene…it was amazing how Mills’ daughter (who doesn’t even have her license) drove like a pro through the streets of this foreign county.

Rated PG-13
1 hr. 30 min.

Visit the website and watch the trailer.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

☆☆☆☆

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“Perks…Wallflower” is the funny…yet stirring story of Charlie (strong and nuanced performance by Logan Lerman), a fifteen-year-old anxious about starting high school.
His year ends-up being filled with unexpected events: friends, love, and some real fun, but at the end of the school year a disturbing family secret…that Charlie had repressed since he was a young child…is revealed.

Emma Watson proves that she can play more than Harry Potter’s friend Hermione.
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Needs stronger character development.
Some confusion here and there.

Rated PG-13
1 hr. 43 min.

Visit the website and see the trailer.

Argo

☆☆☆☆1/2

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Argo is a high-tension drama (with some much appreciated comedy relief) based on the covert operation concocted by Tony Mendez (strong performance by Ben Affleck) to rescue six Americans during the Iran hostage crisis by making a fake movie.

Based on true events that were declassified during the Clinton era.
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Limited Character Development
Some say attention and praise is because of subject matter.

Rated R
2 hr.

Visit the website and watch the trailer.