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 2012 11/19/09   2012, the latest in a long line of nearly-identical disaster films by director Roland Emmerich, is the ultimate "missed it by one inch" movie. By that, I mean that the main characters will get into a random vehicle, start moving.....................................................Chris Boyle
The Box 11/11/09 Set in the 1970's, The Box starts out simply enough: Norma (Cameron Diaz) and Arthur (James Marsden, the guy with laser eyes in X-Men) Lewis appear to be a moderately successful married couple.....................................................Chris Boyle
13 Scary Films To Keep You Busy This Halloween 10/29/09 Instead of just reviewing one film, I'm going to compile a whole list of my own personal horror movie recommendations, past and present, to get you in the mood for this dark and evil season.....................................................Chris Boyle
Black Dynamite 10/22/09 The movie business, just like most things in life, is rife with politics, and at times these politics can prevent otherwise groundbreaking films from achieving the success they so richly deserve.................................................Chris Boyle
Paranormal Activity 10/15/09 To start off, Paranormal Activity lives up to the hype- and then some. And aside from being a truly engrossing and disturbing horror movie, it's also important in the sense that it was made.................................................Chris Boyle
Zombieland 10/08/09 Zombieland is fun, fast-paced, and for fans of gratuitous violence and gore, there's plenty to ensure that Zombieland easily earns its "R" rating.................................................Chris Boyle
Surrogates 09/30/09 Surrogates is a pretty solid film, but one that has the odd distinction of sharing exact, major plot elements with another recently-released sci-fi movie...in this case Gamer................................................Chris Boyle
The Informant! 09/23/09 The Informant is centered around a real-life international price-fixing conspiracy in the mid-1990s to artificially inflate the price of an animal feed additive called lysine................................................Chris Boyle
Gamer 09/10/09 While it doesn't quite reach the heights (and depths) of sheer, utter lunacy that the Jason Statham-starring Crank sequel did, Gamer still gets pretty out there from time to time...............................................Chris Boyle
Halloween II 09/02/09 Halloween 2 picks up right after the first movie ended. Laurie Strode, the sister of Michael Myers, is wandering down the streets of Haddonfield, IL, after plugging Mikey point-blank in the puss with a .357 magnum..............................................Chris Boyle
Inglourious Basterds 08/26/09 Much like director Quentin Tarantino's last movie, Death Proof, his new film Inglourious Basterds would have been brilliant if the editor had chopped out maybe 30 minutes or so..............................................Chris Boyle
District 9 08/19/09 District 9 is an excellent film. It's not the movie of the year like many are hailing it (the last act somewhat abandons the story in favor of a suprising amount of action instead)..............................................Chris Boyle
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra 08/12/09 I must say that despite taking huge liberties with the look and some storyline details involving the characters and their relationships with each other, the movie DOES feel like G.I. Joe in the basest sense..............................................Chris Boyle
The Collector 08/05/09 The Collector is a horror movie about a guy called...well, The Collector. He's a scrawny masked guy with zero backstory whatsoever, other than he "collects" people.............................................Chris Boyle
Orphan 07/29/09 I found Orphan to be a really effective horror/thriller. You could tell director Jaume Collet-Serra is very familiar with all the standard, tired horror movie tricks and tactics and tries to play off of them in rather amusing and unexpected ways............................................Chris Boyle
Brüno 07/15/09 Brüno is a film that gleefully crosses the line time and time again, so much so that I experienced equal amounts of shock and awe. Yes, it's super-offensive and certainly not for your kindly old grandma...........................................Chris Boyle
Dead Snow 07/09/09 Dead Snow is a Norwegian horror film starring actors you've never heard of and directed by Tommy Wirkola, who you've also never heard of. The film made its US premiere at the Sundance Film Festival where it was snapped up by IFC Films for distribution...........................................Chris Boyle
Pixar's New Movie: Up 07/01/09 As far as I'm concerned, there's one constant in this universe of ours...Pixar always brings the goods. If you've read my review for 2008's WALL-E, you'd know the high esteem I hold this animation studio in...........................................Chris Boyle
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 06/24/09 Revenge of the Fallen learned nothing from its predecessor, 2007's Transformers. Directed by Michael Bay and based on the popular toy line and cartoon about sentient alien robots..........................................Chris Boyle
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 06/16/09 A very good, yet flawed movie. At its heart, it's an intimate tale of two men talking over the airways and figuring out what makes the other tick..........................................Chris Boyle
Drag Me To Hell 06/04/09 As a horror movie (which it was billed as), Drag Me To Hell was a complete failure. But as a comedy, it was HILARIOUS. But don't take my word for it...ask the entire audience of the showing I went to..........................................Chris Boyle
Terminator Salvation 05/27/09 Back in 1984, an unknown director named James Cameron introduced us to a low-budget science fiction film simply called "The Terminator." ..........................................Chris Boyle
Angels & Demons 05/21/09 A sequel to last year's hit movie, The Da Vinci Code. Both films are based on novels written by Dan Brown that I've never read, and although I'm told that Angels & Demons was published and takes place before The Da Vinci Code..........................................Chris Boyle
Star Trek (2009) Star Trek, directed by J. J. Abrams, is a “reboot” of sorts of the classic science-fiction media franchise that has existed for decades. Now, do I really have to explain to you the significance of Star Trek in American society?..........................................Chris Boyle
X-Men Origins: Wolverine 05/06/09 Back in 1963, the comic book "X-Men" was created by the duo of writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics. Considered very progressive for its time, the comic used.................................................Chris Boyle
Crank: High Voltage 04/22/09 Crank: High Voltage, a sequel to 2006's Crank, is the craziest movie I've ever seen. It makes the intense original film seem tame and mild-mannered in comparison...................................................Chris Boyle
Observe and Report 04/15/09 Observe and Report is a very unusual movie. How, you may ask? First of all, the advertising campaign: the film that it's portraying in ads is nothing like the film you see when you actually go to the theater..................................................Chris Boyle
Fast & Furious 04/08/09 Fast & Furious is a difficult film to review, I'll admit. On the one hand, I tried my very best not to enjoy it, feeling myself above the type of "all style and no substance" drivel that this flashy streetcar-racing franchise.................................................Chris Boyle
12 Rounds 04/01/09 The first thing I have to say about the 12 Rounds is that it's produced by WWE Films. As in, World Wrestling Entertainment. As in, a pro wrestling company.................................................Chris Boyle
I Love You, Man 03/25/09 I Love You, Man, a comedy starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, came as a complete surprise to me- it was very, very good..................................................Chris Boyle
Miss March 03/18/09 I could wrap up this review with less than one paragraph by simply telling you that Miss March is a terrible movie and not worth your time or money.................................................Chris Boyle
Watchmen 03/10/09 A comic book being listed by Time Magazine as one of the top 100 novels of all time is quite an impressive feat. But it's a feat that Watchmen, a complex superhero story originally written................................................Chris Boyle
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li 03/04/09 Occasionally, I actually go to the movies not just as a critic, but for my own personal pleasure. Saturday night was one such occasion................................................Chris Boyle
Friday the 13th (2009) 02/20/09 - As you are all no doubt aware, as of late Hollywood is crazy about pointlessly remaking movies that were perfectly good the first time around.................................................Chris Boyle
Taken 02/11/09 - If you're a long-time fan of my reviews here on Long Island Exchange (well, of course you are!), then you know that, in addition to my love of cultured, sophisticated cinema, I am also an unabashed action movie junkie..................................................Chris Boyle
The Wrestler 02/03/09 It's funny - growing up and into my early adulthood, I loved professional wrestling. I can't say why I enjoyed watching grown men in spandex play-fighting, but eventually I grew out of it..................................................Chris Boyle
Gran Torino 01/17/09 Ah, getting older- it's no fun. Friends and loved ones pass on, your annoying kids try to ship you off to the old folks home, and the neighborhood you built a life in is slowly changed foreign cultures..................................................Chris Boyle
Transporter 3 12/06/08 After reviewing several of his movies previously here on Long Island Exchange (such as The Bank Job and Death Race), I'm beginning to think that I'm something of a qualified Jason Statham expert. Let's see...he's a tough-guy who's really good at driving a car.................................................Chris Boyle
Quantum of Solace 11/22/08 I've been a huge James Bond fan ever since I was introduced to the British secret agent's films as a kid growing up in the 70's. Back then Roger Moore played the titular role, and I reacted with stunned disbelief when informed that this wasn't always the case.................................................Chris Boyle
Zack and Miri Make a Porno 11/11/08 Overall, I'm not what you would call a fan of Kevin Smith's movies. The New Jersey-based writer/director burst onto the indie filmmaking scene back in 1994 with the low-budget hit Clerks.................................................Chris Boyle
Max Payne 10/25/08 Max Payne (yes, that's his real name) is a NYPD detective working the Cold Case unit. The Cold Case unit, for those that are unaware, is basically where all the dead-end and unsolvable cases go..................................................Chris Boyle
Righteous Kill 09/20/08 Righteous Kill got a lot of pre-release hype due to the clandestine paring of two acting icons- Robert De Niro (Goodfellas, Raging Bull) and Al Pacino (The Godfather, Scarface)..................................................Chris Boyle
Death Race 08/28/08 This is the first time in ages I'm going to voice a positive opinion of a film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. Not an overall positive opinion, mind you, but Death Race is a level above the usual deck expected of him after delivering to us such cinematic.................................................Chris Boyle
WALL-E 07/06/08 Wall-E is a movie created by Pixar, the premiere computer graphics animation studio responsible for mammoth hits such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Their track record in the industry is nearly flawless.................................................Chris Boyle
Incredible Hulk 06/20/08 For those of you out of touch with popular culture for the last 46 years, The Hulk is a big green man who talks like a third grader and is very mad and very strong, and the madder you make him, the stronger he gets.................................................Chris Boyle
Iron Man 05/15/08 Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, is atypical as far as superhero alter-egos go. He's
not a nerdy school kid pining away for the girl of his dreams, nor is he some
angst-ridden recluse out to avenge the death of his family. ................................................Chris Boyle
88 Minutes 04/28/08 When an American movie featuring a major star finishes filming in December of 2005 but isn’t released nationally until April of 2008, you tend to suspect its overall quality may have some...minor issues................................................Chris Boyle
Doomsday 04/01/08 Doomsday is basically a mish-mash combination of a number of various movies, and the resulting concoction adds up to far less than the sum of its parts...............................................Chris Boyle
The Bank Job 03/17/08 I’m horrible with accents. Call me uncultured or whatever, but if someone has a thick foreign accent, it just takes me a while to get my ears around it...............................................Chris Boyle
Semi-Pro with Will Farrell 03/06/08 Yes, it’s Will Ferrell in yet another sports spoof, and it's (surprise, surprise) exactly like every other Will Farrell movie ever made..............................................Chris Boyle
Rambo 02/06/08 My fellow moviegoers, let me tell you of a time known as the 1980’s. Former actor Ronald Regan was president, and in Regan’s America, an odd duality existed in the movies produced during that era- sex was bad.............................................Chris Boyle
Cloverfield 01/24/08 There’s been more mystery surrounding Cloverfield than any film in recent memory. A cryptic, untitled teaser trailer for this “giant monster eats Manhattan” movie was released this past summer.............................................Chris Boyle
Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem 01/08/08 Merriam-Webster defines a Requiem as “A mass or solemn chant for the dead.” That alone tells us that no good will befall any of the characters involved in today’s review- 20th Century Fox’s Aliens Vs. Predator..............................................Chris Boyle
I Am Legend 12/19/07 The new film starring the always bankable Will Smith, originally came into existence back in 1954 in the form of a Science Fiction novel written by Richard Matheson about the last man alive on Earth..............................................Chris Boyle
Stephen King's 'The Mist' 11/29/07 Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to my very first 4-star review. I suppose it's fair to inform you that I'm a huge fan of horror movies, and that The Mist is, in fact, a horror movie.
American Gangster 11/20/07 The easiest way to describe American Gangster is that it’s similar to Al Pacino’s Scarface in the sense that it covers the rise and fall of a crime lord from the ghetto...................................................................Chris Boyle
Saw 4 - A Cinematic Nightmare 11/02/07 I viewed Saw 4 last night and have no idea what the hell I watched. Honestly. I went on Wikipedia to read the plot recap right when I got home from the theater...................................................................Chris Boyle
Gone Baby Gone 10/25/07 Gone Baby Gone is horrific actor Ben Affleck’s directorial debut. And, to my surprise, it started out very solidly, with an especially excellent bit of character acting by star....................................................................Chris Boyle
We Own the Night 10/20/07 We Own the Night is a crime drama set in Brooklyn, NY during the late 1980’s, an era known for its decadence, style, and big, big hair................................................................Chris Boyle
Resident Evil: Extinction 10/10/07 You normally won't find the words 'fine cinema' and 'based on the hit videogame' in the same sentence. Such is the stigma that videogame-based film adaptations...................................................................Chris Boyle
Halloween 2007 - Rob Zombie 09/13/07 In 1978, fledgling director John Carpenter released a low-budget, independent horror film titled simply: Halloween. It told the tale of Michael Myers...................................................................Chris Boyle
Balls of Fury 09/01/07 Few things are worse than something the exhibits promise, yet fails to live up to it. A good example of such a thing would be a movie that claims to be a comedy, but in reality, it isn't....................................................................Chris Boyle
Rush Hour 3 08/17/07 There have been a lot of “cop buddy” movies throughout the years. A “cop buddy” film is when two police officers with obviously clashing personalities are forced to “team up” on a case, usually for comedic effect...................................................................Chris Boyle
The Bourne Ultimatum 08/08/07 People have long been intrigued by the glamorous picture painted by the celluloid spy, starting in the 1960’s with the granddaddy of them all, James Bond....................................................................Chris Boyle
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 07/27/07 Harry Potter. The famous boy wizard and star of author J.K. Rowling's recently-concluded series of books has become the stuff of pop-culture legend...................................................................Chris Boyle
Transformers 07/05/07 Initially starting out as a line of Japanese toys imported by Hasbro and released in America back in 1984, the idea of everyday, innocuous objects such as cars, jet planes and boom boxes that transformed into fighting robots caught the imagination of children everywhere....................................................................Chris Boyle
Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer 06/28/07 In 2005, the original Fantastic Four was released in theaters and was a major hit with moviegoers...................................................................Chris Boyle
Hostel Part II 06/14/07 In 2005, Eli Roth’s Hostel was released and managed to spark some controversy with its brutal subject matter....................................................................Chris Boyle
28 Weeks Later 06/08/07 28 Weeks Later is a horror movie and sequel to the critically acclaimed 28 Days Later by director Danny Boyle (no relation), which itself was a sequel to the hit film 28 Days starring the always-spunky Sandra Bullock...................................................................Chris Boyle
Distrubia with Shia LaBeouf 05/19/07 It’s always pretty cool when you go into a movie expecting it to be somewhat generic and uninspired and come out actually having had a quality entertainment experience. That’s the case with Distrubia..................................................................Chris Boyle
Spider-Man 3 with Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst 05/10/07 First off, I feel compelled to mention that Spider-Man 3 has Venom in it, the best Spider-Man villain ever. Okay, on with the review.....................................................................Chris Boyle
The Condemned with Steve Austin 05/04/07 I love action movies. Movies that make no pretense of being high art- just good, old-fashioned blood, death, and violence. This magical genre saw its heyday in the late 80’s through to the early 90’s....................................................................Chris Boyle
The Reaping with Hilary Swank 04/26/07 There are a lot of instantly forgettable films released into theaters nowadays. Movies that are neither good nor bad, movies that decline to stand out in a special or memorable way, lost in a vast abyss of mediocrity....................................................................Chris Boyle
Grindhouse 04/16/07 Grindhouse is, if nothing else, an interesting experiment. It’s a testament to two men’s love of the Exploitation film genre and a throwback to the 70’s when sleazy, violent, sex-filled movies...................................................................Chris Boyle
Blades of Glory with Will Ferrell 04/09/07 It’s been a while since I’ve seen a good comedy- the best one in recent memory was 2003’s Old School...................................................................Chris Boyle
Shooter with Mark Wahlberg 03/31/07 Shooter. I hate the name (it’s super-generic), but I guess it wraps up what the movie is all about. It’s about a guy who shoots stuff with guns, and he’s real good at it...................................................................Chris Boyle
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon 03/21/07 Last night, my movie-going cohort and I were trying to decide on a new film to view this week. There were, as always, a plethora of various releases to decide upon, but the showtimes of the vast majority of them were pretty inconvenient..................................................................Chris Boyle
Ghost Rider - Nicolas Cage 03/06/07 The wave of movies based on comic books just keeps coming. And for someone whose childhood was greatly influenced by reading of the exploits of larger-than-life superheroes, I couldn't be happier.................................................................Chris Boyle
Hannibal Rising 02/21/07 Hannibal Lecter. The charismatic, cultured, cannibalistic serial killer was originally introduced to the world by novelist Thomas Harris in the 1981 novel Red Dragon and later popularized into iconic status by films such as Silence of the Lambs................................................................Chris Boyle
Epic Movie with Kal Penn, Adam Campbell, and Carmen Electra 02/07/07 Sorry, folks, but I can only review this movie up until about the 45-minute mark, because that's the point that I walked out of the theater in search of something less painful, like pulling out my toenails with rusty pliers. Yeah, Epic Movie is that bad...............................................................Chris Boyle
Smokin' Aces with Jeremy Pivan and Ray Liotta 02/02/07 After giving such a glowing review to Blood Diamond in my very first article written for this website last week, I began to wonder when I'd have the dubious honor of writing my first negative movie review..............................................................Chris Boyle
Blood Diamond with Leonardo Dicaprio 01/25/07 A lot of people have been talking about this movie, which released nationwide on December 8th. Our fellow movie going friend informed us that his father had seen it and that if we didn't do the same, that we would be "crazy".............................................................Chris Boyle
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