Author: Jay Ruud

[av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shakespeare-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’76’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] RUUD RATING Leviathan 4 SHAKESPEARES [/av_image] In the Bible, Leviathan is the name of the chaos monster defeated by Yahweh in pre-Biblical Hebrew mythology. He appears in isolated places in some of the Psalms that probably predate the composition of Genesis, and is… Continue reading Movie Review: Leviathan Andrey Zvyagintsev

[av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3-12.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Ruud Rating TIMBUKTU Three Tennysons/Half Shakespeare[/av_image] Though it was little noted in the United States, on April 3, the BBC reported that an Islamist jihadist rebel group in Mali called Ansar Dine (“Defenders of the Faith”) had taken over the ancient city of… Continue reading Movie Review: Timbuktu by Abderrahmane Sissako

[av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] RUUD RATING Cinderella 3 TENNYSONS [/av_image] In Kenneth Branagh’s new retelling of the classic fairy tale, when her fairy godmother (Helena Bonham Carter) prepares to put her in a stylish new dress, Cinderella (Downton Abbey’s Lily James) stops her, insisting that she wear… Continue reading Movie Review: Cinderella by Kenneth Branagh

[av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/SusannTennyson.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Ruud Rating Kingsman: The Secret Service Two Susanns/Half Tenneyson[/av_image]   There are certain movies about which my wife has to constantly remind me “You’re not the intended audience,” and I find that to be true more and more the older I get. There are… Continue reading Movie Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service by Matthew Vaughan

[av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] RUUD RATING MacFarland, U.S.A. 3 TENNYSONS [/av_image] I’ve never been a huge fan of the whole “Based on a True Story!” thing, the note that you see at the beginning of movies that I assume is supposed to make the audience sit up… Continue reading Movie Review: MacFarland, U.S.A. by Niki Caro