Barbara Hershey

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The 9th Life Of Louis Drax Review

Very Good

With heavy overtones of Hitchcockian mystery and intrigue, this stylish thriller is the enjoyably melodramatic story of a rather odd 9-year-old boy and the adults caught in a twisted vortex around him. Emotive acting helps make the characters come to life, and the story's secrets keep the audience hooked as what's actually happening becomes horrifyingly clear.

Louis Drax (Alden Longworth) has had several close encounters with death in his first nine years. Is he immortal? Or just accident prone? His mother Natalie (Sarah Gadon) protects him fiercely, while his father Peter (Aaron Paul) clearly adores him. So what happened on his birthday, when Peter went missing and Louis ended up in a coma after falling from a cliff? While treating him, Dr Pascal (Jamie Dornan) becomes entangled in the drama of their life. He meets Louis' sardonic therapist (Oliver Platt) and Peter's manic mother (Barbara Hershey), and he also gets perhaps a bit too close to Natalie than he should.

Director Alexandre Aja and writer Max Mingella have a lot of fun stirring in references to Hitchcock films, including the San Francisco setting, switching identities, vertiginous heights and a dangerous blonde. They add so many mysteries and red herrings into the plot that the audience is kept happily off-balance for most of the film, waiting for the other shoes to drop. This means that everything feels somewhat overcooked, complete with fantasies, dreams and even some magic. But this gives the cast a lot to play with. Dornan is his usual charming, seductive self, haplessly wooing Natalie even though he already has a hot wife (McGregor). But then Gadon oozes vulnerable lustiness in her role, so he doesn't have much of a chance. And despite the obvious set-up, Paul creates a surprisingly complex character out of Peter, while Hershey has fun chomping on the scenery.

Continue reading: The 9th Life Of Louis Drax Review

The 9th Life of Louis Drax Trailer


Louis Drax is a young boy who lives with his mother and father, the family are close but each year Louis seemingly has a bad accident. His parents put this down to their son's clumsy ways but they're fully aware that something deeper might be at play.

It's Louis ninth birthday and he and his parents plan to go into the woods for a picnic to celebrate. As the trio begin to have a nice time, tragedy strikes and Louis is found at the bottom of a cliff.

In a deep coma, the young boy is transferred to a special coma unit where his vitals are monitored by acclaimed neurologist Dr. Allan Pascal. Louis had been technically dead for two hours before being rescued and the fact that he's reciprocating to any form of treatment is a miracle in itself.

Continue: The 9th Life of Louis Drax Trailer

Insidious: Chapter 2 Trailer


Renai and Josh Lambert think that their life is back to normal after a horrific paranormal ordeal involving their son Dalton whose gift of astral projection landed him in a coma and possessed by several malevolent forces. However, Josh is now tormented by his own demon after it succeeded in claiming his body when he ventured into 'The Further' to save his child. His wife and child are unaware of his condition at first, but it soon becomes clear that they have to rope in new ghost-busting help to save their family who are far from out of danger yet. They're no strangers to inanimate objects moving of their own accord and ghostly figures wandering around their house, but what they're facing now could be much more sinister than they ever imagined.

Continue: Insidious: Chapter 2 Trailer

Barbara Hershey Sunday 13th February 2011 Orange British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) held at the Royal Opera House - Arrivals. London, England

Barbara Hershey

Barbara Hershey Monday 13th September 2010 Toronto, Canada

Barbara Hershey

11:14 Review


Good
Car crashes seem to be ripe material for screenwriters looking for a hook to hang their movies on. From Intersection to Crash to Crash (the other one), this seems to be a well-travelled genre. 11:14 adds another notch in that post, a Rashomon-like story of a half-dozen characters who all intersect on one quiet road at 11:14 PM, which results in the loss of at least one life, one male member, a lot of cash, and endless property damage. The immediate before and after of the event contain even more chaos, including a gunshot wound for Hilary Swank.. The film tells each story in sequence, each time adding a little more context to this bizarre series of events, and each time causing us to care a little bit less about what exactly happened. It's not terrible filmmaking, but the plot's "cleverness" will hardly knock your boots off.

Beaches Review


Terrible
In the history of men going to the movies, there are few horrors as singularly terrifying as the movie Beaches. With its combination of precious tragicomedy plot, copious singing, and Bette Midler, the horror trifecta is already complete. But there's plenty more: Not only is Midler heard here singing about her tits (her words), Mayim "Blossom" Bialik plays the 11-year-old version of brazen Bette. Chills don't get much colder than this.

Watching the 1989 movie today, it's not just an unabashed chick flick, it's also revealed as a plain-old Bad Movie. For starters, it's not really about anything, instead preferring to work (or not) as a collection of loose scenes that illustrate the ups and downs of two friends (Midler and Barbara Hershey) from their pre-teens to the grave. Things happen, but not much. The film's only real plot point comes in the last act (spoilers ahead if you care), when Hershey's character croaks on us, sticking Midler with her daughter.

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The Right Stuff Review


Extraordinary
Fortuitous time for The Right Stuff to hit DVD, when the American space program is nearing rock bottom in the court of public opinion.

Based on Tom Wolfe's novel (though heavily inspired by the truth), The Right Stuff follows the formative years of the space race, from 1947 to 1963, when it was us vs. the Russians. The film begins as we first punch through Mach 1 in experimental aircraft and ends with seventh and final Mercury astronaut blasting off.

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The Portrait Of A Lady Review


Very Good
Jesus, I didn't realize when I went to the movies this morning I was going to have to think!

But seriously, that's what you're going to be doing if you see The Portrait of a Lady -- Jane Campion's follow-up to The Piano, based on Henry James's "classic" novel that you've probably never read. Now, I'm wishing that I had, though, because Portrait is a fantastic movie to watch, exquisitely crafted and painstakingly detailed, gorgeously photographed and full of style -- but it is just plain impossible to follow.

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Lantana Review


Good
Men have feelings too. Men cry, despite the stigma attached to their gender, or at least they want to more than they let on. It's all societal conditioning. That's the pretentious premise of this never-ending, two-hour look at couple dysfunction.

With a highly acclaimed cast that includes Anthony LaPaglia, Barbara Hershey, and Geoffrey Rush you would hope this idea would provide great material for such illustrious actors to sink their teeth into. Unfortunately, having been adapted for the screen from a play, by the playwright himself, much of the emotional impact is lost in overwhelmingly dramatic dialogue.

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Hoosiers Review


Essential
It's very simple. When you talk about the best sports movies of all time, there is Hoosiers, and then there's everything else.

Hoosiers stars Gene Hackman as Norman Dale, a former successful college coach with a checkered past, who takes a last chance job coaching small Hickory High in 1951. Despite being located in basketball-crazed Indiana, the Huskers only have six players and they're missing their star, Jimmy Chitwood, a troubled boy who doesn't say much. His soft shooting touch does all of the talking.

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Lantana Review


Good

Marital stress hangs like an albatross around the necks of all the primary characters in "Lantana," an viscous Australian ensemble piece that begins as an intricate, intimate web of rocky relationships and evolves into a tangled, disconcerting mystery.

Two floundering couples, connected through six-degrees-of-separation periphery, are at the center of the story. Anthony LaPaglia is Leon Zat, a police inspector who takes out his many frustrations on suspects and in bed with Jane (Rachael Blake), an almost-divorcee from the salsa dance class his wife drags him to every week. His marriage to brittle Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) has grown tepid and uncommunicative -- a fact that she regularly bemoans to her shrink, Valerie Sommers (Barbara Hershey).

Valerie is a woman who has had a hard time maintaining her professional detachment since her young daughter was murdered two years before. Her marriage to John (Geoffrey Rush), a prickly law school dean, has grown so numb since the loss of their child that they speak to each other -- even about sex -- like uneasy co-workers. And the fact that John deals with his sorrow in quietly tearful visits to the murder site while Valerie has chosen to grieve publicly, publishing a book about the killing, hasn't helped heal their rift.

Continue reading: Lantana Review

Barbara Hershey

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Barbara Hershey Movies

The 9th Life of Louis Drax Movie Review

The 9th Life of Louis Drax Movie Review

With heavy overtones of Hitchcockian mystery and intrigue, this stylish thriller is the enjoyably melodramatic...

The 9th Life of Louis Drax Trailer

The 9th Life of Louis Drax Trailer

Louis Drax is a young boy who lives with his mother and father, the family...

Insidious: Chapter 2 Movie Review

Insidious: Chapter 2 Movie Review

After his assuredly traditional The Conjuring, director James Wan bounces back with a more playful...

Insidious: Chapter 2 Trailer

Insidious: Chapter 2 Trailer

Renai and Josh Lambert think that their life is back to normal after a horrific...

Black Swan Trailer

Black Swan Trailer

Nina has always strived to be the best dancer in the New York City ballet...

Beaches Movie Review

Beaches Movie Review

In the history of men going to the movies, there are few horrors as singularly...

Lantana Movie Review

Lantana Movie Review

Men have feelings too. Men cry, despite the stigma attached to their gender, or...

Lantana Movie Review

Lantana Movie Review

Marital stress hangs like an albatross around the necks of all the primary characters in...

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