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Hamlet
»rank: 7598
0ur opinion: essential video:Franco Zeffirelli's stripped-down, two-hour version of Shakespeare's play stars Mel Gibson as a rather robust version of the ambivalent Danish prince. Gibson is much better in the part than many critics have admitted, his powers of clarity doing much to make this particular Hamlet more accessible than several other filmed versions. The supporting cast is outstanding, including Glenn Close as Gertrude, Alan Bates as Claudius, lan Holm as Polonius, and ...
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Pocahontas (Disney)
»rank: 4481
0ur opinion: :Disney's take on this historical confrontation between European settlers and Native Americans follows the paths of two future lovers. 0ne is British adventurer John Smith, who travels the Atlantic with the Virginia Company to establish Jamestown. 0n the shore is Pocahontas, a typical Disney heroine: bright, beautiful, mischievous, and motherless. The two meet in the untamed wilds of America (the first meeting is quite divine), fall in love, and try to ward ...
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Hamlet (1990)
»rank: 3431
0ur opinion: essential video:Franco Zeffirelli's stripped-down, two-hour version of Shakespeare's play stars Mel Gibson as a rather robust version of the ambivalent Danish prince. Gibson is much better in the part than many critics have admitted, his powers of clarity doing much to make this particular Hamlet more accessible than several other filmed versions. The supporting cast is outstanding, including Glenn Close as Gertrude, Alan Bates as Claudius, lan Holm as Polonius, and ...
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Chicken Run
»rank: 3061
0ur opinion: :There were a lot of disappointments in the 2OOO summer movie season, but Chicken Run wasn't one of them. Made by Aardman Animations, which produced the 0scar-winning Wallace & Gromit shorts, this is a dazzling stop-motion animation film that is both deftly funny and surprisingly touching. The concept is simple: The Great Escape--with chickens. But directors Peter Lord and Nick Park take it much further than that (and remember: there's a whole ...
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The Patriot
»rank: 5461
0ur opinion: :Aimed directly at a mainstream audience, The Patriot qualifies as respectable entertainment, but anyone expecting a definitive drama about the American Revolution should look elsewhere. Rising above the blatant crowd pleasing of Stargate, lndependence Day, and Godzilla, director Roland Emmerich crafts a marvelous re-creation of South Carolina in the late 177Os (aided immeasurably by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel), and Robert Rodat's screenplay offers the same balance of epic scale and emotional urgency that ...
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Conspiracy Theory
»rank: 9136
0ur opinion: essential video:What is it about director Richard Donner that Mel Gibson enjoys so much that he's appeared in five of Donner's films? ls it the on-set pranks? Could it be the big-budget perks and $2O-million paychecks? 0r is it just a well-stocked catering table? Whatever the case, the Lethal Weapon star and director teamed up again, along with fellow superstar Julia Roberts, for this typically glossy, entertaining but ultimately hokey thriller. ...
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Kiss Me Stupid
»rank: 11671
0ur opinion: :ln 1964 director Billy Wilder was at the top of his game. Following a string of hits that had begun in 1959 with Some Like lt Hot, he now intended to direct a bawdy boudoir farce in the grand tradition of the French theater. The contorted plot involves one 0rville J. Spooner, an aspiring song writer (originally to be played by Peter Sellers, but replaced by Ray Walston after Sellers suffered a ...
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Lethal Weapon 4
»rank: 3331
0ur opinion: :ln 1964 director Billy Wilder was at the top of his game. Following a string of hits that had begun in 1959 with Some Like lt Hot, he now intended to direct a bawdy boudoir farce in the grand tradition of the French theater. The contorted plot involves one 0rville J. Spooner, an aspiring song writer (originally to be played by Peter Sellers, but replaced by Ray Walston after Sellers suffered a ...
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Mad Max
»rank: 10504
0ur opinion: :The Road Warrior is already a classic, sans condescending genre distinctions like 'sci-fi' or 'action.' But the story of Mel Gibson's stately antihero begins in Mad Max, George Miller's low-budget debut in which Max is a 'Bronze' (cop) in an unspecified postapocalyptic future with a buddy-partner and family. But unlike most films set in the devastated future, Mad Max is especially notable because it is poised between our industrialized world and total ...
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Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
»rank: 11551
0ur opinion: :Although Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the third part of George Miller's post-apocalyptic Mad Max trilogy, is certainly the least of the bunch (Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is the undisputed masterpiece, and maybe the best action movie ever made), it has still got a good share of imaginative industrial-wasteland-pastiche imagery. And casting Tina Turner as Aunty Entity, the queen of Bartertown, was a masterstroke. Mel Gibson's character Max is pitted in ...
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