leonardmaltin
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Leonard Maltin

SIDE EFFECTS

  • By Leonard Maltin
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  • February 8, 2013 1:02 AM
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  • 2 Comments
"Side Effects" is a good, juicy thriller with echoes of film noir in its DNA. Director Steven Soderbergh is a genre fan and while his film feels completely contemporary...

Magic Mike—movie review

  • By Leonard Maltin
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  • June 29, 2012 1:48 AM
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  • 3 Comments
All the women I know are hot to see this movie. So were the women who packed the screening I attended, and they made their feelings known during the opening strip-club number—just like the adoring women onscreen. Then the story kicked in and everything changed.

Haywire—movie review

  • By Leonard Maltin
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  • January 20, 2012 1:00 AM
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  • 12 Comments
In the old days a film like this would have been called a “programmer” and fulfilled its modest ambitions as the second feature on a double bill. Alas, we don’t have double features or programmers anymore; every movie carries weight, and expectations, with it. Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire has all the trappings of an “A” movie, including a big-name cast and impressive international locations, but it never rises above the level of a “B.”

Contagion—movie review

  • By Leonard Maltin
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  • September 9, 2011 4:30 AM
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  • 10 Comments

I can’t call Contagion as a feel-good movie. In fact, you won’t want to be feeling anything—or anyone—after seeing this cautionary tale about the spread of a deadly virus. But you won’t be able to take your eyes off the screen.

Contagion was directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns, who collaborated on the underappreciated The Informant! That film was played tongue-in-cheek, while this one couldn’t be more serious. I would describe it as a horror movie—the most potent kind, because it’s so completely credible. Like other films of this kind (Outbreak, 28 Days Later) it takes—

The Informant!

  • By Leonard Maltin
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  • December 11, 2009 2:51 AM
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  • 0 Comments

Matt Damon has matured into one of our most versatile—and daring—screen actors, and he’s on top of his game in The Informant!, the wacky new film from ever-unpredictable Steven Soderbergh. It is, at once, an incredible true story of one man’s attempt to expose corporate wrongdoing, and a straight-faced parody of whistle-blower stories like The Insider. So how exactly do you tell a (mostly) real-life story and...