&#39;Ladder&#39; rungs shy of a classic
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The proliferation of action-adventure movies can be explained by our collective craving for heroes. They need not come from other planets or have super powers, for we have all-too-mortal creatures worthy of hero worship in our firefighters.
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Ladder 49&quot; is a solid, old-fashioned fire-fighting melodrama. It&#39;s a string of sentimental snapshots of a firefighter&#39;s life told in flashback as he and his crew fight for his life in a towering inferno where he has been trapped.
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Alas, we&#39;re not quite over the rainbow, either. Not with &quot;Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.&quot;. More&#39;s the pity, because this groundbreaking sci-fi romp wants so desperately to fly high -- as high as writer-director Kerry Conran&#39;s imagination.
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This is turning out to be more like a game of snakes and ladders than anything else. Or perhaps an analogy with chess would be better.
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Like its hero, &quot;Alexander&quot; is bold and ambitious, destined to be debated by future generations. It&#39;s also tragically flawed.
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The game isn&#39;t for everyone because of its graphic violence and coarse language, but mature fans of this 32 million-unit-selling franchise who want to know if this sequel lives up to its hype, the answer is a resounding yes.
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Ladder 49: Drama. Starring Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta. Directed by Jay Russell. (PG-13. 125 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.).
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Robert Zemeckis' new film has technical wizardry but lacks heart.
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Desperate to propel a plot when chemistry doesn&#39;t work, this sequel puts its heroine through the wringer. Female viewers may feel similarly abused.
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To move up the ladder, you must do more than win votes. You are, quite literally, expected to pay your dues.
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&quot;Shark Tale&quot; is a not-quite-fresh fish story. Fairly or not, it&#39;s bound to draw comparisons to last year&#39;s &quot;Finding Nemo,&quot; another computer-animated comedy with quirky hijinks from denizens of the sea.
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A considerable  improvement over his messy 2002 gangster drama, &quot;Empire,&quot;  Franc. Reyes&#39; &quot;Illegal Tender&quot; is quite an entertaining genre  piece boasting a terrifically sinewy lead performance from  Wanda De Jesus.
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Maybe it has something  to do with seriously diminished expectations, but &quot;Fantastic  Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer&quot; is an improvement of sorts  over the lifeless 2005 edition.
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Shark Tale proves that a good animated movie needs more than a star-studded cast to completely win us over. Story is everything and Shark&#39;s is rather thin and soupy, despite the
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In the pecking order of Olympic virtues, &quot;higher&quot; has always seemed less exciting than &quot;faster&quot; and &quot;stronger.
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It&#39;s not doing &quot;Shark Tale&quot; any favors to compare it to &quot;Finding Nemo,&quot; last year&#39;s blockbuster cartoon about fish.
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Robert Patrick, part of the ensemble in the new film &quot;Ladder 49,&quot; has a face that everyone recognizes from a myriad of film and television roles but a name that few can conjure up.