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Review: 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Often Thrills, But Undone By An Underwritten Villain & Thin Story

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • May 3, 2013 5:44 PM
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  • 25 Comments
Star Trek: Into Darkness
Reviews
Cast your mind back four years or so, to stardate early May 2009, and remember a time when J.J Abrams wasn't yet the anointed savior of Hollywood. He had an ever-growing fanbase, and had already been behind at least one bona-fide small screen pop culture phenomenon. But his influence on the big-screen up to that point only extended to a few screenwriting credits, mostly forgotten, a producing credit on disposable sleeper hit "Cloverfield," and directing "Mission: Impossible III," an enjoyable, but somewhat interchangeable entry to the Tom Cruise spy franchise.
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More: Reviews, Review, Star Trek Into Darkness, J. J. Abrams, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoe Saldana, Alice Eve, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin

Review: ‘Like Crazy’ A Familiar Tale Of Impossible Love, Well Told

  • By The Playlist
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  • October 28, 2011 7:41 AM
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  • 6 Comments
This is a reprint of our review from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival by correspondent James Rocchi.
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More: Films, Actors, Actresses, Review, Drake Doremus, Like Crazy, Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones

LFF '11: Drake Doremus Says He Shot 'Like Crazy' For $250,000 On A $1,500 Still Camera

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • October 26, 2011 10:04 AM
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  • 5 Comments
And More We Learned From The Director Of The Sundance Award-Winning Romance The Sundance Grand Jury Prize is traditionally something of a kiss of death for an indie, in terms of gaining a wider audience. Irrespective of the quality of the film, the likes of "Girls Town," "Sunday," "Three Seasons," "Slam," "Forty Shades of Blue," "Quinceanera" and "Padre Nuestro" never really set the world alight, did they? But things have changed in recent years, with the last two winners, "Precious" and "Winter's Bone," both picking up Best Picture Academy Award nominations, and this year's victorious movie has just as good a good chance at crossing over to a more mainstream audience
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More: Films, Actors, Actresses, Interview, Drake Doremus, Like Crazy, Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, BFI London Film Festival

Empire Big Screen '11 Review: 'Fright Night' Is Entertaining, But Eminently Disposable

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • August 15, 2011 12:01 PM
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  • 4 Comments
A confession: this writer has never seen the original "Fright Night." It's one of a certain kind of 80s VHS-era film ("The Goonies," 'Weird Science," 'Wargames"), beloved by a certain generation that this writer was a few years too late for, and that we've never caught up on, principally because it feels like there are plenty of better things to do with our time. This is a long-winded way of saying that if you're looking for comparisons between the original and 2011's "Fright Night", if you're looking for someone to tell you if Colin Farrell lives up to Chris Sarandon, this is not the review for you. What we can do is judge Craig Gillespie's remake on its own merits, of which there are a few: "Fright Night" is an enjoyable time at the movies. But we suspect it's the kind of film that, when it airs on TV five years from now, we'll only realize that we've seen before half an hour in.
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More: Films, Actors, Actresses, Craig Gillespie, Fright Night, David Tennant, Anton Yelchin, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Imogen Poots, Toni Collette

Comic-Con '11: Vampires --The Biting Kind -- Are Back With 'Fright Night' & 'Underworld: Awakening'

  • By Kimber Myers
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  • July 23, 2011 3:21 AM
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  • 0 Comments
Though "Breaking Dawn" has captured the hearts of teens and their moms, the brutal, blood-sucking, non-sparkly vampire remains immortal. After Thursday's "Twilight" lovefest, Comic-Con's Hall H was taken over by two vehicles for the meaner brand of the undead with "Fright Night" and "Underworld: Awakening" on Friday. "Fright Night" reimagines the '80s classic, this time casting Colin Farrell as the not-so-neighborly vamp Jerry and Anton Yelchin as the threatened boy next door. Meanwhile, "Underworld: Awakening" revives Kate Beckinsale's role in the franchise as her Selene comes out of a coma after more than a decade.
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More: Films, Actors, Actresses, Interview, Craig Gillespie, Fright Night, Anton Yelchin, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Imogen Poots, Kate Beckinsale

Watch: Colin Farrell Channels Your Creepy Neighbor In New Clip From 'Fright Night'

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • May 31, 2011 1:18 AM
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  • 0 Comments
One of the biggest remaining question marks of the summer is DreamWorks' remake of cult horror-comedy classic "Fright Night." We'd been feeling mostly positive about the project in advance, with a script from former "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" writer Marti Noxon, "Lars and the Real Girl" helmer Craig Gillespie directing, and a top-notch cast led by the hugely charismatic Anton Yelchin with Colin Farrell, Toni Colette, Imogen Poots, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and David Tennant.
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More: Films, Actors, Craig Gillespie, Fright Night, Anton Yelchin

Trailer And Poster For Craig Gillespie's 'Fright Night' Doesn't Suck...

  • By Christopher Bell
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  • May 13, 2011 7:19 AM
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  • 8 Comments
But Isn't What We Thought It'd Be, Either After a slew of teasing pictures, DreamWorks has finally unveiled the trailer for upcoming horror remake "Fright Night" starring Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, adorable next-big-thing Imogen Poots, Toni Colette, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Dave Franco, and Chris Sarandon. And the verdict?
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More: Films, Actors, Actresses, Film Studios, Craig Gillespie, Fright Night, Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Toni Collette, Dreamworks

Jodie Foster Asks: Can You Put Aside Things You Know About Mel Gibson While Watching 'The Beaver'?

  • By Edward Davis
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  • May 6, 2011 8:43 AM
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  • 3 Comments
And Many Other Revelations Learned From The Actor/Director and Co-star Anton YelchinIt feels like we've been practically stalking director/actress Jodie Foster, whose latest film, the comedic drama, "The Beaver" hits theaters today (May 6) in select cities. We've spoken to the actress in Austin, Texas at SXSW, in L.A. for recent press rounds and heard her speak at various screenings in New York (at the Film Society of Lincoln Center) and Austin. Each time she has illuminated her intentions and reiterated the same sentiment: "The Beaver," which stars current persona non-grata Mel Gibson, has been a tricky film, not only to market -- due to Gibson's infamous personal exploits last year -- but a challenge to get the tone right.
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More: Films, Actors, Actresses, Comedies, Anton Yelchin, The Beaver

Addison Timlin In Talks For 'Odd Thomas'; Tim Robbins To Join Too?

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • April 6, 2011 1:04 AM
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  • 1 Comment
The trouble with the new transparency of the casting process -- the stories that break at every stage of the process, from wishlist, to shortlist, to meetings, to screen-tests, to offers, to negotiations, to signing on -- is that you can sometimes think that an actor's firmly on board on a project based on one of these stories. More often than not, offer-stories lead to an actor actually being in the film, so when we reported a few weeks back that Lily Collins, rising star of "The Blind Side," had been offered the female lead in "Odd Thomas," the adaptation of Dean Koontz's mystery series about a short-order cook who can communicate with the dead, from "The Mummy" director Stephen Sommers, we'd filed it away, assuming that the offer was a formality, and that Collins would end up on the marquee for the picture, alongside Anton Yelchin, who's playing the title role.
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More: Films, Actors, Actresses, Stephen Sommers, Odd Thomas, Anton Yelchin, Tim Robbins, Lily Collins, Addison Timlin

Anton Yelchin To Star In Stephen Sommers' 'Odd Thomas'

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • February 8, 2011 2:13 AM
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  • 3 Comments
It's been clear ever since his debut in the otherwise weak "Hearts in Atlantis" that Anton Yelchin was destined to be a pretty big star. Across films like "Alpha Dog," "Fierce People," "Charlie Bartlett" and the unjustly neglected TV series "Huff," Yelchin's blended nerdiness and charisma with ease, and he's moved into tentpole territory in recent years with the only performance with a pulse in "Terminator: Salvation," and as part of the ensemble in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek."
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More: Films, Actors, Stephen Sommers, Odd Thomas, Anton Yelchin

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