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3.5/4
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Twister
(1996)
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Dennis King
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With its rippingly good special effects, its eerie and chilling sound, it's clever touches of humor and pathos, and its full-tilt storytelling, Twister is the perfect amusement to set the summer movie season off with a bang.
Posted Jul 16, 2024
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4/5
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When Harry Met Sally...
(1989)
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Dennis King
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Despite a troubling superficiality, When Harry met Sally... delivers something rare for a summer movie -- a bright, intelligent, timely and funny comedy of adult manners.
Posted Jul 12, 2024
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Jaws
(1975)
|
Ronald E. Butler
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It's a chilling, vivid picture, toying with primordial human fears of vulnerability to unseen and inescapable horrors.
Posted Jul 02, 2024
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3/5
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Steel Magnolias
(1989)
|
Dennis King
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Call it a "feel good" movie, and you won't be the least bit wrong.
Posted May 03, 2024
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Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows
(1968)
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George Kane
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Needless to say, three clever lines aren't enough to sustain, or overcome, an inadequate and dumb screenplay.
Posted May 01, 2024
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Planet of the Apes
(1968)
|
George Kane
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Planet of the Apes would have been -- could have been -- a far, far better movie had it not so heavy-handedly beaten its audience over the head with the obvious.
Posted May 01, 2024
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3/4
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Planet of the Apes
(2001)
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Dennis King
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Burton spiffs up the place and dusts off the story's conspicuous homilies with enough artfulness to make it all seem freshly entertaining, if not particularly profound.
Posted Apr 30, 2024
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2/4
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Spaceballs
(1987)
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Dennis King
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Too often, the payoff just doesn’t warrant the buildup.
Posted Apr 12, 2024
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3.5/4
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Little Women
(1994)
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Dennis King
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Armstrong clearly has approached this film as a labor of love, and devotees of Alcott's literary gem should be very happy, with this reading.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings
(1976)
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Ronald E. Butler
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It leaves one hungering for more than just a fluffy summer matinee picture. The subject matter and cast are too good to waste like that.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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Dog Day Afternoon
(1975)
|
David MacKenzie
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"Dog Day" stirs you deeply but not about anything in particular.
Posted Apr 07, 2024
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(1977)
|
Ronald E. Butler
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While Star Wars was all dazzle and fun, "Encounters" leaves audiences in a more thoughtful, emotionally drained mood. After all, this is our planet, our time, and our people.
Posted Apr 03, 2024
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3/4
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Seven
(1995)
|
Dennis King
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Watching Seven is a trial -- one that's definitely thought-provoking but far more unsettling than entertaining.
Posted Mar 28, 2024
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4/4
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Almost Famous
(2000)
|
Dennis King
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Journalism 101 never looked so cool.
Posted Mar 26, 2024
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Chinatown
(1974)
|
Ronald E. Butler
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Chinatown loses some momentum and some of its suspense because of its excessive length and the meandering of its hero. But accepted on its own merits Chinatown is an excellent character story.
Posted Mar 08, 2024
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3.5/4
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The Shawshank Redemption
(1994)
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Dennis King
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An old-fashioned yarn that takes all the standard conventions of the "big-house" drama and makes them seem fresh and original.
Posted Mar 02, 2024
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4/4
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Pulp Fiction
(1994)
|
Dennis King
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Possessed of the literary grit and low-life existentialism that its title suggests Pulp Fiction is a hard-boiled work of virtuoso moviemaking by writer-director Quentin Tarantino.
Posted Mar 01, 2024
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Four Weddings and a Funeral
(1994)
|
Dennis King
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What Newell produces is a cunningly astute comedy of manners that reminds us once again that even the most proper and stuffy Britains are not immune to the wiles of sunny romance.
Posted Feb 28, 2024
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2/4
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Dune
(1984)
|
David Wilson
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Dune does a good job of introducing us to another solar system, but it is full of such soap-opera dialogue and pretentious seriousness that many won't find it worth the trip.
Posted Feb 15, 2024
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4/4
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Amélie
(2001)
|
Dennis King
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An utterly fresh, imaginative and emotional piece of filmmaking that s touched by enough sheer magic to lift the spirits of even the most hardened cynic.
Posted Feb 13, 2024
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3/4
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Quiz Show
(1994)
|
Dennis King
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While Redford manages to wring an amazing amount of drama from what was in fact a tedious investigative process, the liberties he's taken with fact are nagging.
Posted Feb 13, 2024
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Grease
(1978)
|
Vern Stefanic
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A pointless, directionless film that is cute as only an elementary school play can be.
Posted Feb 08, 2024
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Mean Girls
(2004)
|
Dennis King
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Perhaps most remarkably, Mean Girls manages to be funny without wallowing in condescending clichés concerning either grown-ups or teens and without resorting to the usual gross-out-gags.
Posted Jan 10, 2024
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3/4
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Heat
(1995)
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Dennis King
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De Niro and Pacino light up the screen when they're on. And although Heat is largely overheated, it's a fascinating and worthy effort at investing the action genre with the kind of texture and character it seldom possesses.
Posted Dec 20, 2023
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3/5
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Home Alone
(1990)
|
Dennis King
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Home Alone will send most moviegoers home with the warm glow of a story well told.
Posted Nov 29, 2023
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3/4
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The Horse Whisperer
(1998)
|
Dennis King
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Even though the movie plods in places, its acting and production values are first class.
Posted Nov 28, 2023
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Little Big Man
(1970)
|
Theodore Barrington
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Generally, it is a most entertaining film -- humorous, wise, often touching -- but its defects, though few, are indelible blots on an otherwise well-executed canvas.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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3/4
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Smoke Signals
(1998)
|
Dennis King
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The cast here is enormously appealing, especially Beach who has a handsome movie-star charisma and Adams (in his “Frybread Power” T-shirt) who shows off a natural-born comedian’s sense of timing.
Posted Nov 08, 2023
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4/4
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Atanarjuat the Fast Runner
(2001)
|
Dennis King
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Natar Ungalaaq, a prominent Inuit sculptor and actor, anchors the drama in the robust role of Atanarjuat, and he manages to make the man both grandly heroic and frustratingly human.
Posted Nov 08, 2023
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The Last Picture Show
(1971)
|
Ronald E. Butler
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Because of its compassion, its intelligence, and its artistic integrity while dealing with what is part nostalgia, The Last Picture Show may be one of those rare "instant classics."
Posted Oct 26, 2023
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5/5
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Goodfellas
(1990)
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Dennis King
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GoodFellas is a rich, ringing, visceral picture of life in the underworld. It's Scorsese's best film since Raging Bull, and one that packs the punch of a champion filmmaker in his prime.
Posted Oct 18, 2023
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Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
(1974)
|
Ronald E. Butler
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It's a funny, poignant picture and while the acting is superior throughout, the weight lies gracefully on the talents of Miss Burstyn.
Posted Oct 12, 2023
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Raging Bull
(1980)
|
Vern Stefanic
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Scorsese is a talented director, and this time he tops himself. He takes bold steps to make his film a powerful, visual masterpiece, and the gambles pay off.
Posted Oct 10, 2023
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3/4
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Ultimate X: The Movie
(2002)
|
Dennis King
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It's a high-sheen circus of color, crashes, acrobatics and testosterone that's perfect for the large-format IMAX screen.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
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4/4
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Y tu mamá también
(2001)
|
Dennis King
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[Alfonso Cuarón] has here crafted a wonderfully precise and observant picture that feels as utterly natural and off-handed as a roguish reminiscence between life-long friends.
Posted Sep 09, 2023
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3.5/5
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Traffic
(2000)
|
Dennis King
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Even as it ably dramatizes the pervasiveness of drugs in modern America... it puts the epochal social problem in a bright, shinning light for us to see it in a clear-eyed, bracing and sobering new way.
Posted Sep 07, 2023
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3.5/4
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Moulin Rouge
(2001)
|
Dennis King
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For those who celebrate risky, questing pictures that give voice and image to singular visions, Luhrmann's foray into realm of absinthe, can-cans and pop tunes is cause for film lovers to kick up their heels.
Posted Sep 05, 2023
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2.5/4
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When a Man Loves a Woman
(1994)
|
Dennis King
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When a Man Loves a dances deftly between cool-eyed calculation and wet-hanky emotionalism... But it is a well-meaning honestly acted film that gets to the heart of a profound universal human drama.
Posted Sep 01, 2023
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3/5
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White Men Can't Jump
(1992)
|
Dennis King
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Shelton's neat little story of court gamblers is beautifully fleshed out by Harrelson and Snipes. Both are slick, accomplished roundballers, and they pull off the action sequences with total believability.
Posted Aug 31, 2023
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3/5
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A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
(1987)
|
John Wooley
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The special effects this time include some convincing animation and a couple of very grisly sequences.
Posted Jul 25, 2023
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4/4
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Magnolia
(1999)
|
Dennis King
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It's perhaps the most profoundly sobering thought in [Magnolia] that in this era of cultural fragmentation and soulless isolation, the most powerful unifying element that binds us together is the hypnotic cobalt glow of television.
Posted Jul 15, 2023
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2.5/4
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The Matrix
(1999)
|
Dennis King
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With pounding assurance, The Matrix scores as a real triumph of technical special-effects-driven filmmaking. Sad, though, that the Wachowskis end up letting the machines run away with the show.
Posted Jul 13, 2023
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3/4
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Mulholland Dr.
(2001)
|
Dennis King
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Step back at the end and take in the whole experience of film and you might find that it assumes a certain logical coherence.
Posted Jul 11, 2023
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2/4
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Armageddon
(1998)
|
Dennis King
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Overproduced, overblown, overhyped and just plain exhausting. And as storytelling goes, it's about as satisfying as staring at a video game screen while someone else controls the joystick.
Posted Jun 22, 2023
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3/4
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The Color Purple
(1985)
|
David Wilson
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Steven Spielberg has done the impossible... he has made a crowd-pleasing movie from a book that many literary critics thought would never reach the silver screen.
Posted May 31, 2023
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3/4
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An American Tail
(1986)
|
David Wilson
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The story is simple enough for children while including enough winking historical references to keep adults interested. An American Tail may not be tip top, but it does much more than simply squeak by.
Posted May 17, 2023
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3/4
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Crossing Delancey
(1988)
|
Dennis King
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Silver is a filmmaker with a wonderful capacity for creating fully realized characters on screen, characters that are worthy of an audience's affection.
Posted May 16, 2023
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Raiders of the Lost Ark
(1981)
|
Vern Stefanic
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After watching just the first five minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, you’re hooked. You’re held captive in a action-packed world of adventure and romance and you can’t turn away because the thrills keep coming faster and faster, bigger and better.
Posted May 04, 2023
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4/5
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Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
(1989)
|
Dennis King
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verall it’s a cunning expertly made film that proves itself a lavish entertainment. Its mixture of blithe silliness and heart-racing action makes keeping up with the Jones a joyful and exhilarating experience.
Posted May 01, 2023
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2.5/4
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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
(2008)
|
Michael Smith
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Welcome back, Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford, the two of you have both aged well.
Posted Apr 12, 2023
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