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 | | 2. American Gangster (HD & DVD Combo) | | | Starring: Denzel Washington Russell Crowe Director: Ridley Scott | | Format: High Definition DVD Release Date: 2/19/2008 | | Video Reviews Available: 1 |  | American Gangster - DVD Review By: Chris Barsanti - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 2/8/2008 5:27 PM | |
There's something dead in Denzel Washington's eyes nearly all of the way through Ridley Scott's American Gangster, which takes what should have been a mesmerizing slice of urban historical grit and grinds it into roughly two hours of standard issue cinema. Washington is playing Frank Lucas, a real-life crime boss who for a period lasting from the late 1960s into the following decade, ran Manhattan "from 110th to 155th, river to river." A real slick character who doesn't need to strut his worth on the street, Lucas hates flash like a junkie hates rehab: It reminds him of all he truly is but doesn't want to be. read the full review | |
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 | | 3. State of Play | | | Starring: Ben Affleck Russell Crowe Director: Kevin MacDonald | | Format: DVD Release Date: 1/3/2010 | | Video Reviews Available: 1 | | State of Play - DVD Review By: Bill Gibron - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 8/21/2009 2:42 PM | |
Big government getting in bed with corrupt private conglomerates. The fresh-faced Congressman hell-bent on bringing said scandal to light. The uncovered infidelity which threatens his power base, and the crumpled investigative journalist who must resolve his personal interest in the story with the legitimate needs of the press and his own corporate bosses. This should be the basis for a crackerjack thriller -- and it actually was when BBC scribe Paul Abbott crafted the six-episode series State of Play back in 2003. As with most successful foreign exports, Hollywood came calling, and now we have the big screen version starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, and Helen Mirren. read the full review | |
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 | | 7. Gladiator | | | Starring: Joaquin Phoenix Russell Crowe Director: Ridley Scott | | Format: DVD Release Date: 1/17/2006 | | Gladiator - DVD Review By: Christopher Null - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 8/21/2009 2:42 PM | |
The awe-inspiring trailers for Gladiator may have you dreaming of Spartacus and Ben-Hur, but you may be surprised to find this film in reality a less palatable mlange of Braveheart and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. This isn't altogether a bad thing, but those expecting a new Roman epic that will stand the test of time (like Spartacus and Ben-Hur) are in for some surprises. The currently hot Russell Crowe stars as Maximus, "the general who became a slave" who begins the film as a commander so high in the echelons of the Roman army that the aging Caesar Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) hand-picks him to become the next Caesar. read the full review | |
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 | | 9. American Gangster (2 Disc-Unrated Extended Edition) | | | Starring: Denzel Washington Russell Crowe Director: Ridley Scott | | Format: DVD Release Date: 4/14/2009 | User Rating: 5 | | Video Reviews Available: 1 | | American Gangster - DVD Review By: Chris Barsanti - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 2/8/2008 5:27 PM | |
There's something dead in Denzel Washington's eyes nearly all of the way through Ridley Scott's American Gangster, which takes what should have been a mesmerizing slice of urban historical grit and grinds it into roughly two hours of standard issue cinema. Washington is playing Frank Lucas, a real-life crime boss who for a period lasting from the late 1960s into the following decade, ran Manhattan "from 110th to 155th, river to river." A real slick character who doesn't need to strut his worth on the street, Lucas hates flash like a junkie hates rehab: It reminds him of all he truly is but doesn't want to be. read the full review | |
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 | | 18. Cinderella Man (Widescreen) | | | Starring: Renée Zellweger Russell Crowe Director: Ron Howard | | Format: DVD Release Date: 1/22/2008 | User Rating: 4 | | Cinderella Man - DVD Review By: Sean O'Connell - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 6/2/2009 5:39 AM | |
Tickets to Ron Howard’s period boxing drama Cinderella Man should come with bootstraps. That way we literally could join the film’s heavyweight hero, dutifully played by Russell Crowe, as he sifts through the wreckage left by bill collectors and broken bones to climb his way out of Dickens-level poverty and see the light at the end of his personal tunnel of despair. American audiences adore underdog stories, particularly those tied to sports. From Rocky to Seabiscuit, we devour worthy longshots given a chance to reclaim such precious commodities as pride, significance, or the undying love of family. That, and anything with Darth Vader in it. read the full review | |
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 | | 20. State of Play (Blu-ray) | | | Starring: Ben Affleck Russell Crowe Director: Kevin MacDonald | | Format: Blu-Ray DVD Release Date: 1/3/2010 | | Video Reviews Available: 1 | | State of Play - Blu-Ray DVD Review By: Josh Lasser - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 8/28/2009 7:28 AM | | Anyone who watches the news on even a semi-regular basis sees certainly things highlighted repeatedly – corrupt politicians, corrupt corporations, sex scandals, and the plight of newspaper among these. Russell Crowe's latest Blu-ray release, State of Play, combines all of these laments into a single conspiracy theory-laden political-social-economic thriller. The film, directed by Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland) and based on a British TV series does its best to be everything to everyone and thereby only succeeds marginally with what could have been a great movie. read the full review | |
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 | | 21. Good Year (Fullscreen) | | | Starring: Marion Cotillard Russell Crowe Director: Ridley Scott | | Format: DVD Release Date: 2/27/2007 | | A Good Year - DVD By: Sean O'Connell - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 2/15/2007 9:15 PM | |
Proper casting can make or break a film. A savvy producer knows not to hire Sylvester Stallone for a Shakespearean tragedy. Successful studio heads understand that the charismatic Will Smith is the wrong choice to play a nebbish wallflower incapable of getting the girl. So someone should have objected to the casting of the versatile but intense Russell Crowe in the lively country lark A Good Year. read the full review | |
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 | | 23. 3:10 To Yuma (Widescreen) | | | Starring: Russell Crowe Christian Bale Director: James Mangold | | Format: DVD Release Date: 9/9/2008 | | 3:10 to Yuma - DVD Review By: Brian Holcomb - Cinema Blend DVD Reviews Published on: 1/11/2008 11:24 PM | | The western has been buried and revived so many times in recent years that it's beginning to resemble one of George Romero's stale zombies, stumbling about with only a trace memory of it's former self. The trouble lies in the very idea of a "revival". As director James Mangold mentions himself on the DVD commentary, this inspires contemporary filmmakers to make westerns that are about other westerns and the genre itself rather than simply telling their own story. read the full review | |
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 | | 24. L.A. Confidential (Blu-ray) coming soon! | | | Starring: Guy Pearce Kevin Spacey Director: Curtis Hanson | | Format: Blu-Ray DVD Release Date: 12/8/2009 | | L.A. Confidential - Blu-Ray DVD Review By: Michael Prince - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 12/8/2008 9:21 PM | | L.A. Confidential is perhaps one of the finest film noir movies of the modern era. Perhaps not up to the standards of The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep and Neo-Noir Chinatown, but a great example of the genre. It has been upgraded in its HD debut on Blu-ray, does the format bring the movie to the next generation, or does it show its age? Read on to find out. read the full review | |
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 | | 30. Body of Lies (Blu-ray) new! | | | Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio Russell Crowe Director: Ridley Scott | | Format: Blu-Ray DVD Release Date: 11/10/2009 | | Video Reviews Available: 2 | | Body of Lies - Blu-Ray DVD Review By: Robert M. Barga - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 2/22/2009 11:06 PM | | In this day and age, it's hard to find a film about war, be it a real one or a covert one, without finding that it leans one way or the other on the issues. If you are talking about a real war situation, it's even harder to create that film without your bias showing. Many directors and screenwriters have attempted to do this with a whole slew of movies and only a few have succeeded. Director Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) and writer William Monahan (The Departed) hide their biases extremely well. Though do they occasionally crop up, Body of Lies is clear of most political and cultural biases, which is a good thing in a movie. read the full review | |
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 | | 41. 3:10 To Yuma (Fullscreen) | | | Starring: Christian Bale Russell Crowe Director: James Mangold | | Format: DVD Release Date: 9/9/2008 | | Video Reviews Available: 1 | | 3:10 to Yuma - DVD Review By: Chris Cabin - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 12/28/2007 6:59 PM | |
Based on a short story by Elmore Leonard, a writer known more for loan sharks and confidence men than ruthless bandits and old-soul lawmen, 3:10 to Yuma originally sold Glenn Ford as slick outlaw Ben Wade and Van Heflin as Dan Evans, the rancher burdened with delivering Wade to a prison train heading to Yuma. Directed in 1957 by Delmer Daves, the original was a perversely intimate piece of rawhide for a genre that already prided itself on its strange seclusion. Fit for our time, Evans is now played by master of reticence Christian Bale and Wade is now played by a rough-and-tumble Russell Crowe with just the right hint of sadism. read the full review | |
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 | | 42. 3:10 To Yuma (Blu-ray) | | | Starring: Christian Bale Russell Crowe Director: James Mangold | | Format: Blu-Ray DVD Release Date: 1/8/2008 | | Video Reviews Available: 1 | | 3:10 to Yuma - DVD Review By: Brian Holcomb - Cinema Blend DVD Reviews Published on: 1/11/2008 11:24 PM | | The western has been buried and revived so many times in recent years that it's beginning to resemble one of George Romero's stale zombies, stumbling about with only a trace memory of it's former self. The trouble lies in the very idea of a "revival". As director James Mangold mentions himself on the DVD commentary, this inspires contemporary filmmakers to make westerns that are about other westerns and the genre itself rather than simply telling their own story. read the full review | |
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 | | 43. L a Confidential | | | Starring: Guy Pearce Kevin Spacey Director: Curtis Hanson | | Format: DVD Release Date: 9/23/2008 | | L.A. Confidential (Two-Disc Special Edition) - DVD Review By: Andy Sayers - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 11/3/2008 1:02 PM | | I've been having trouble with how to approach this review since I watched the new two-disc special edition DVD of L.A. Confidential a little over a week ago. Generally, it's standard reviewing technique to withhold one's ultimate opinion of the movie until a big flourish at or near the end, parsing out smaller opinions to slowly make one's case until the big finish (this technique has the added benefit of forcing readers to keep reading until the end). But in this case, I don't feel like I have anything to say about the movie until I get the big flourish out of the way, so I'm trusting you all to keep reading after I do, so here goes: L.A. Confidential is easily one of the best movies of the past 20 years, an absolute masterpiece that is as fresh today as it was 11 years ago. read the full review | |
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