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BuzzFlix – August 2007

August 2007
Quiet

Who says John Wayne couldn’t act? While almost everybody young or old has heard of John Wayne, the general consensus has him cast in a oater or war flick where he throws a punch or shoots a gun on behalf of law and order or the American way. Even Oscar was considered sentimental by awarding the Duke with an Academy …

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BuzzFlix – July 2007

July 2007
Godfather

Who says the third time is a charm? While a number of films have spawned a sequel over the decades, going three deep has gained momentum as an exclusive practice of the current generation of movie makers, even with concepts stolen from television. The trend of squeezing a unique storyline to death is becoming commonplace in today’s market.

With the …

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BuzzFlix – June 2007

June 2007
Star Wars

Did you ever wonder if the box office champion was indeed the best movie in a given year, or if it was just the beneficiary of distribution monopolies and unmitigated hype aimed at younger audiences Is equating box office success to quality filmmaking really just great science fiction?

Oscar, for instance, leans towards films in wide release for his accolades, …

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BuzzFlix – April 2007

April 2007
Field-of-Dreams

If baseball is America’s pastime, why are so few good baseball movies produced in this country? Could it be that the stateside motion picture industry doesn’t want to promote the competition? After all, there is only so much spendable income to divvy up among the entertainment gurus across a growing number of leisure industry lines.

The real reason is probably …

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BuzzFlix – March 2007

March 2007
Oscar

THE BEST FLICKS OF 2006 . . . HOW DID OSCAR PERFORM?

One of the rewards of having an objective tool that compiles all of the critical opinions of domestic and international motion pictures, is having a list of the year’s best movies (as determined by my rating system) in hand before the awards season even begins. For instance, this …

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BuzzFlix – February 2007

February 2007
Beauty

What better month to discuss serious drama in the name of romance than February? After all, the only warmth in the coldest four-week stretch of any year is Valentine’s Day.

Now if you’re one who thinks a love story has to be mushy, take a look at the best scenarios cooked up in the name of romance for the silver …

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BuzzFlix – January 2007

January 2007
Bond

International spies have been in existence since the beginning of time, yet only recently did they step into the film limelight. Ian Fleming’s pen scratched out super spy James Bond in the middle of the Cold War, and espionage immediately took on a hallowed glow. Carefully crafted as the epitome of manhood—with exquisite tastes in everything from scotch to women—James …

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BuzzFlix – December 2006

December 2006
Ben Hur

What a pity the human animal cannot assume the posture Edmund Gwenn has as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street and keep it in gear every day of the year. We all get a touch of this spirit every December but, alas, it is left behind much too quickly as we turn the calendar page and reboot our survival …

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BuzzFlix – November 2006

November 2006
Brian's Song

When it comes to producing sports movies, the biggest problem facing Moviedom is finding an actor with box office appeal who can still pass for a believable athlete.

When it comes to producing football movies, this problem is compounded by a factor of 22, or the number of players on the field during any football game.  And this reality is …

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BuzzFlix – October 2006

October 2006
Psycho

The number of critical bodies habitually pairing up “science fiction” with “horror” is amazing. Not all sci-fi flicks are horror flicks, and horror flicks aren’t necessarily sci-fi. Why they are constantly lumped together is anybody’s guess.

The fact is, horror can creep into virtually any film genre, and some of the most horrific pictures ever made deal with man’s inhumanity …

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BuzzFlix – September 2006

September 2006
IHON

I’ll never forget the first time I saw A Shot in the Dark (1964, .358 batting average, No. 556 all-time movie, No. 45 all-time comedy) during its initial theater run. Besides being one of my first car dates ever, I found myself laughing out loud repeatedly at the antics of Peter Sellers as the inept Inspector Clouseau. What burned the …

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BuzzFlix – August 2006

August 2006
GWTW

For both parents and kids, a movie with common thematic interests and acceptable content is as rare as a good bat in the Astros’ lineup these days. G-rated pictures are rare, and the ones produced seem to be geared more for an infantile mind than the burdened brain of a breadwinner.

Sharing in the frustration of money spent and time …

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