Category: Review

One of the great controversies of this year’s Oscar race is the perceived “snub” of Jennifer Aniston for her performance in the film Cake (which garnered her a Screen Actors’ Guild nomination as well as a Golden Globe nomination for best actress) in favor of the surprise nomination for the Academy Awards’ favorite Frenchwoman Marion… Continue reading Movie Review: The Grudge Match 2014 – Jennifer Aniston & Marion Cotillard

[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 A MOST VIOLENT YEAR Three Tennysons/Half Shakespeare[/av_image]   If, as Jonathan Swift once wrote, “Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived,” then Abel Morales, protagonist of writer/director, J.C. Chandor’s new film (finally in wide release) A Most Violent Year,… Continue reading Movie Review: A Most Violent Year by J.C. Chandor

[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 WHIPLASH Three Tennysons/Half Shakespeare[/av_image]   Director Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, though critically admired, did not reach a huge audience upon its release last November, but since its five Oscar nominations it is making the rounds again, and deserves to be seen by… Continue reading Movie Review: Whiplash by Damien Chazelle

[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 American Sniper 3 TENNYSONS [/av_image] Clint Eastwood’s best movies have examined the intricacies of violence and machismo, from the thin line between gunfighter and lawman in the old west in Unforgiven, to the sport of boxing in Million Dollar Baby, to… Continue reading Movie Review – American Sniper by Clint Eastwood

[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 The Imitation Game 4 SHAKESPEARES [/av_image] If you are not a mathematician or computer scientist, it is quite possible that you have never heard of Alan Turing. That is unfortunate, since Turing is generally regarded as the father of computer science… Continue reading Movie Review – The Imitation Game by Morten Tildum

[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 WILD Three Tennysons/Half Shakespeare[/av_image] Last year, director Jean-Marc Vallée directed Matthew McConaughey into a Best Actor Oscar for his uncharacteristic role in Dallas Buyers Club. This year, he threatens to repeat that success on the Actress side with his direction of… Continue reading Movie Review – Wild by Jean-Marc Vallée

[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 INTO THE WOODS Two Susanns/Half Tenneyson[/av_image] The much anticipated Disneyfied version of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s revered musical Into the Woods, opened on Christmas Day nationwide and pulled in millions of fans of the musical or of Broadway in general, as… Continue reading Movie Review – Into the Woods by Rob Marshall

[av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Susanns.jpg’ attachment=’78’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] RUUD RATING The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies 2 JACQUELINE SUSANNS [/av_image] If you see The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies—Peter Jackson’s farewell to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth—you really should go to see it in HFR 3D, the new 3D projection introduced… Continue reading Movie Review – The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies by Peter Jackson

[av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Susanns.jpg’ attachment=’78’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] RUUD RATING Exodus: Gods and Kings 2 JACQUELINE SUSANNS [/av_image] Anyone making a film of the epic story of Moses and the Ten Commandments must inevitably deal with the 600-pound gorilla that is Cecile B. DeMille. DeMille invented and perfected the biblical epic… Continue reading Movie Review – Exodus: Gods and Kings by Ridley Scott

[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 NIGHTCRAWLER 3 TENNYSONS [/av_image] You may very well feel like you need a shower after watching Jake Gyllenhaal as the incredibly sleazy L.A. freelance crime photographer Louis Bloom in Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler. Gyllenhaal, sporting the worst screen haircut since Javier Bardem… Continue reading Nightcrawler by Dan Gilroy