State film incentives were gutted. North Carolina’s tax incentive program for film, television and commercial productions paid out more than $60 million in credits in both 2013 and 2014, a boon to the state’s film industry. According to the N.C. Film Office, production companies spent more than $316 million and created more than 3,000 jobs […]
Neil Morris
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Sylvester Stallone passes the torch to Michael B. Jordan in Creed, a Rocky for a new era
CREED Now playing Creed doesn’t propel the Rocky franchise into a rebirththe boxing-film genre reached its narrative limits long ago. But by using conjoined character arcs that double as Jungian archetypes, the series’ seventh film ably honors, updates and even deconstructs its legacy. Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan), the son of late champ Apollo CreedSylvester […]
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Movie review: Reclaiming original Bond lore, Spectre is a step back for the franchise
Spectre★★ Now playing Until now, Ernst Stavro Blofeld and the rest of the SPECTRE global crime syndicate hadn’t appeared in a James Bond film since 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever. But in 2013, after decades of rights-wrangling, MGM and the estate of film producer Kevin McClory finally reached a legal settlement, allowing Bond’s original infamous foes […]
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Movie review: Steve Jobs is a bittersweet symphony about the man who put a thousand songs in your pocket
Steve Jobs★★★★ ½ Now playingSteve Jobs is essentially a three-act opera. Each part is set at different times, inside different California concert halls, with composer Daniel Pemberton’s soundtrack accompanied by dollops of Bob Dylan and indie rock. The same characters rotate through each act, and at one point, Jobs (a mesmerizing Michael Fassbender) likens them […]
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Movie review: Tom Hanks is a Cold War Atticus Finch in Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies
Bridge of Spies★★★ ½ Now playing The childlike wonder that once accompanied the release of a Steven Spielberg film has been supplanted by an appreciation of the director’s finely honed craftsmanship, a maturation that parallels his preferred story lines. The now 68-year-old Spielberg still dabbles in the adventure flicks of his filmmaking yesteryear. But now […]
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Compulsive gamblers bluff their way to New Orleans in Mississippi Grind
MISSISSIPPI GRIND If nothing else, Mississippi Grind re-establishes the talents of its two lead actors. Ryan Reynolds shows that his wiseacre persona can crackle when channeled through the right role. And Ben Mendelsohn finally flashes the headliner acumen already familiar to audiences in his native Australia (and fans of his Emmy-nominated role in the Netflix […]
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The corrosive effects of an immoral border war on drugs in Sicario
SICARIO At the outset of Sicario, we learn that its title, Spanish for “hit man,” also refers to the Jewish zealots who used murder and other extremist measures to expel the Romans from first-century Judea. Both allusions apply to the shadowy U.S. government task force at the center of director Denis Villeneuve’s bleak appraisal of […]
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Movie review: Notorious Boston mobster Whitey Bulger immortalized, if not revealed, in Black Mass
Black Mass★★★ Now playing Johnny Depp’s reptilian portrayal of James “Whitey” Bulger in Black Mass seems spawned from Method acting animal work. His translucent eyes and capacious brow connote a coiled copperhead, though his skittishness suggests one in the midst of shedding its skin. And like the wayfarer who stumbles upon an ornery ophidian, director […]
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Movie review: Jesse Eisenberg is more Zuckerberg than Bourne in American Ultra
American Ultra ★★ Now playingAmerican Ultra tries to be a slacker romance, a dark comedy and an ultra-violent action thriller, but inelegant tonal shifts and slapdash production keep it from ably accomplishing any genre. Doing his time in the dog days of this summer movie season, Jesse Eisenberg plays Mike Howell, an unmotivated pothead living […]
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Movie reviews in brief: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Straight Outta Compton
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.★★★ ½ Now playing A lightly carbonated late-summer nightcap, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. reboots the 1960s TV series about Cold War espionage with winking style and period-adventure savvy. Henry Cavill (Superman) takes a chance by bringing an old-school, mannered acting approach to American secret agent Napoleon Solo. Get on his wavelength and […]