MOVIE REVIEW: John Carter

The infinitely detailed world that Burroughs created 100 years ago in 1912 when it originally debuted as a magazine serial was transcendent, wildly inventive, and one of the major influences for George Lucas in creating Star Wars, James Cameron's Avatar world, and the science-fictional novelists that followed such as Ray Bradbury and Carl Sagan.  To those gentleman, John Carter was their childhood "light bulb" discovery and fantasy, and it came in novel form, not a cartoon or a movie. 

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EDITORIAL: Romantic movie escapes for every state

With a bit of research (thanks, IMDB), I have put together a fifty state tour of the United States of America through romantic movies.  Every state is known for something (as the map above jokes) and their movies can be part of that.   Listed below are some classic, favorite, unique, and sometimes odd romantic comedies and/or dramas that are either filmed in or set in each of the great states of our Union.  

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MOVIE REVIEW: The Grey

To me, Liam Neeson is channeling a darker and fiercer resolve than the other silver-haired tough guys like Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, and Steve McQueen that came before him.  He's more rugged than Bronson, channels more rage than Eastwood, and is more stoic than McQueen's coolness.  At this kind of game, he's better than any one of those guys would be if they were in roles like The Grey or Taken.  

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MOVIE REVIEW: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, wrongfully on many levels, uses 9/11's tragedy to push a fictional story with fictional emotions to purposefully tug our heartstrings tied to a very real event.  Blame the 2005 source novel by Jonathan Safran Foer first, but the 2011 film's exploitative use of such a recent tragedy is a cold ploy and a mean trick.

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