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Latest Movie, TV, DVD Reviews from Sun News

There are many reasons to experience “An Education,” but first and foremost is its young star, Carey Mulligan. The British-born actress is as beguiling as she is beautiful, playing an intelligent but impressionable London girl, maturing in the still-innocent early 1960s. Mulligan, only 22 when filming, is thoroughly believable as the 16-year-old Jenny, enduring her final year at an... Full story »

HOLLYWOOD — The magic’s in the music of “This Is It,” featuring a spry and light-footed Michael Jackson, now sadly late but still very great. Credit tour and movie director Kenny Ortega for pulling together four months of rehearsal footage designed for the King of Pop’s sold-out, live-in-London shows which, if the often eye-popping stuff in the resulting movie... Full story »

Audrey Tautou, so memorable as “Amelie” now unbelievably almost a decade ago, is the reason to see “Coco Before Chanel,” this time as the titled couture queen-to-be. The cute and wide-eyed waif, an orphan who literally sings for her supper, turns into a determined woman of skill with no regard for convention or rules of the day. That, of... Full story »

FAIRFIELD, N.J — One star is immediately obvious in Airbound Aviation’s Hangar 5 here at Essex County Airport: the silver Lockheed L-10 Electra, built in the mid-1930s for military and corporate use. At its introduction, it was the fastest aircraft in the world. Soon after, another honest-to-goodness star arrives: Hilary Swank, the two-time Academy Award-winning Best Actress. The connection... Full story »

The slight failing of “Amelia” is akin to the sexual barriers the fabled aviatrix faced in growing up at the turn of the 20th century. The skies were anything but friendly for hopeful female pilots. Somehow, though, this screenplay — based on two biographies and shared in credit by Oscar winner Ron Bass (“Rain Man”) and Anna Hamilton Phelan... Full story »

If you’re in the market for a scary movie, you can’t get much better than “Paranormal Activity,” a low-budget nail-biter delivered by first-time feature director Oren Peli. Shot with one camera shifted between hand-held and tripod-mounted, such “Activity” obviously has touched a nerve. Produced by Peli in 2007 for a meager $15,000 and then purchased by Paramount for $300,000,... Full story »

There’s some solemn hilarity in “A Serious Man,” an ironic title for a movie that instigates so many laughs. No surprise, really, that it’s the latest from Oscar-winning brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, who never ever have steered away from black humor. (Just look at both their “Fargo” and “No Country for Old Men,” if you happen to disagree).... Full story »

Those old enough to remember the “Astro Boy” series, created by comic-book legend Osamu Tezuka and imported to this country as one of the first examples of anime in the mid-1960s, will want to take the grandchildren to see the updated “Astro Boy,” crafted in story and direction by David Bowers (“Flushed Away”). It’s not that this vision simply... Full story »

Who knew that poet Maya Angelou, a dandy stylist amusingly billed as a kind-of white Jackie Robinson, someone called “the Dali Lama of Relaxer,” and even a Hindu temple would find their rightful places in “Good Hair,” a surprisingly accessible film about the way African-Americans deal with their locks? Chris Rock, tripling as producer, writer and guide through this... Full story »

Be patient through the early going of “Lorna’s Silence,” watching and wondering as the titled Lorna (the brilliant Arta Dobroshi) responds coolly to husband Claudy (Jeremie Renier), a drug addict in the critical stages of withdrawal. Her lack of attachment is puzzling until entrance of Fabio (Fabrizio Rongione), a small-time hood. He’s brokering the aforementioned marriage, enabling Lorna to... Full story »

Celebrated young director Spike Jonze is successful in capturing the distinctive look of Maurice Sendak’s revered children’s book in his long-awaited adaptation of “Where the Wild Things Are.” The vivid Jonze imagination, blended with the expertise of the Jim Henson Company’s Creature Shop, fashions majestic Wild Things that somehow translate as genuinely human. Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini) is... Full story »

Even during its most preposterous circumstances, "Law Abiding Citizen" keeps us intrigued with a creepy vibe. That the latter is so easily provided by the "good guy," as portrayed by the usually affable Gerard Butler, something’s gotta give in the viewer’s mind, if not in the film’s mixed messages and incredibly violent images. The whole shebang begins with Butler’s... Full story »

Based on the memoir of journalist Simon Carr, “The Boys Are Back” is insightful and poignant, harsh and observant — going, boldly, in its own way, where one man hasn’t gone before. That would be Australian sportswriter Joe Warr, father to two boys by two women and yet parent to none. Joe’s second wife has too quickly succumbed to... Full story »

Considering his writing resume includes “21 Grams,” “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” and “Babel,” you’d expect Guillermo Arriaga to deliver better with “The Burning Plain.” Instead, his first feature directorial effort has heat in its look, but not enough to fire up the story. Not that the brilliant Charlize Theron isn’t in there trying. Theron’s Sylvia is a... Full story »