Anthony Chiarella

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Prisoners
Anthony Chiarella  |  Jun 04, 2014  |  1 comments
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When six-year-old Anna Dover and her neighbor disappear, father Keller (Hugh Jackman) tramples the law to find her. While Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) methodically investigates, the impatient Keller kidnaps his daughter’s alleged kidnapper and attempts to extract a confession through torture. Prisoners is a perfectly paced psycho-drama that engrosses and rewards its audience.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Ricki and the Flash
Anthony Chiarella  |  Apr 29, 2016  |  0 comments
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Ricki Randazzo’s dreams of rock stardom are shrinking in the rearview mirror. While her group, The Flash, is the house band at a dive bar, Ricki (Meryl Streep) struggles as a cashier at an upscale supermarket. It’s there that she receives a call from her ex-husband (Kevin Kline) asking her to come home to Indianapolis as her estranged daughter has attempted suicide. Ricki returns not only to an unstable daughter but also to one son fresh out of the closet and another about to be married… with no intention of inviting her to the wedding.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Rock the Kasbah
Anthony Chiarella  |  Jun 02, 2016  |  0 comments
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Richie Lanz (Bill Murray) is a rock ’n’ roll casualty, a down-and-out band promoter who leaps at the chance to join a USO tour to Afghanistan. Before the first show, however, Richie’s client, assistant, and possible paramour Ronnie Smiler (Zooey Deschanel) flees the country, leaving him broke, stranded, and $1,000 in debt to a trigger-happy mercenary (Bruce Willis). To the rescue come two hapless arms dealers who hire Richie to deliver munitions to a remote village.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Room
Anthony Chiarella  |  Jul 22, 2016  |  1 comments
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Jack’s (Jacob Tremblay) fifth birthday is typical: He says good morning to the various objects in his home, brushes his teeth, then exercises with Ma (Brie Larson). Gradually, however, we realize that Ma was kidnapped seven years earlier by a sexual predator, and her son’s knowledge of the world extends no further than the inner walls of the tiny, locked shed he calls “room.”
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Sabotage
Anthony Chiarella  |  Nov 04, 2014  |  0 comments
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Legendary DEA agent John “Breacher” Wharton (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his task force infiltrate a drug cartel and confiscate $10 million, which immediately disappears. Caught between suspicious Feds and vengeful drug lords, members of Arnold’s team start turning up dead…but who’s killing them? Schwarzenegger excels as both hero and anti-hero in one of the most complex and demanding roles of his career. David Ayer’s directorial style—war correspondent realism with a Michael Mann vibe—is highly flattering to both stars and subject matter.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Selma
Anthony Chiarella  |  Jul 31, 2015  |  0 comments
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Among the most anticipated and admired films of 2014, Selma depicts the epochal series of marches by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (David Oyelowo) in Selma, Alabama, which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Brought to the screen with power and sensitivity by director Ava DuVernay, this Oscar-nominated docudrama features a host of inspired and often intimate acting and noteworthy musical selections, which include the Oscar-winning song “Glory.”
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Sex Tape
Anthony Chiarella  |  Feb 04, 2015  |  0 comments
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Jay (Jason Segel) and Annie (Cameron Diaz) have lost the spark. The couple’s college sexcapades are a distant memory, as marriage and children have snuffed their sex drive… until, fueled by tequila shots, they decide to make a three-hour porno wherein they attempt every position in the classic handbook, The Joy of Sex. When Jay saves their video to his iPad, however, he mistakenly sends it to friends and family, then spends the remainder of the film trying to reverse his mistake. Jake Kasdan, who directed Diaz and Segel in Bad Teacher, completes the Power Trio here.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Spotlight
Anthony Chiarella  |  Jul 15, 2016  |  0 comments
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A team of four Boston Globe journalists headed by Walter Robinson (Michael Keaton) is searching for their next exposé when their editor-in-chief (Liev Schreiber) suggests they investigate pedophile priest John Geoghan: a controversial assignment for a newspaper with a 53 percent Catholic subscriber base. Six-hundred articles later, Boston’s Cardinal Law had resigned, and the church was forced to confront an international pedophilia crisis.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Texas Rising
Anthony Chiarella  |  Dec 11, 2015  |  1 comments
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A lofty undertaking of the History Channel, Texas Rising chronicles the one-time republic’s struggle for independence from Mexico. Lavishly produced, this miniseries features an all-star cast anchored by Emmy-winner Bill Paxton. Fleeting cameos by marquis actors exemplify the meticulous detail and massive budget that attended this production. Unfortunately, this great American saga and the men who empowered it are poorly served here. The acting is stiff and fails to evoke empathy or interest, due largely to scripting choices and mundane dialogue.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Gunman
Anthony Chiarella  |  Oct 29, 2015  |  0 comments
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After assassinating Congo’s Minister of Mining in 2006, Jim Terrier (Sean Penn) must flee the country, leaving the woman he loves (Jasmine Trinca) to his friend Felix (Javier Bardem). Eight years later, Terrier returns, only to discover that he has become a target. Searching for answers as he struggles to stay alive, Terrier manages to either murder or precipitate the death of everyone he meets, including his closest friends. In the end, with the help of a clever Interpol agent (Idris Elba), Terrier learns that his former employer is trying to eradicate all evidence of the crime—including him.
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