Popular reviews

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  Review by Aaron ★★★★★ 14

  Part of Buddy the Elf, What's Your Favorite Color?

  “I hope we never die.” “So do I.” “Do you think there’s any chance of it?”

  The year was 1969. Nominations for the 1968 Academy Awards were soon to be announced. Naturally, the films leading the Oscar discussion and the nomination field were 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick’s dazzling venture into the far reaches of space, human evolution, and the future, and Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski’s American debut featuring an oustanding Mia Farrow performance and a memorable exploration of maternal anxiety and paranoia. The two films combined to sweep the ceremony held in March, with 2001 winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Cinematography,…

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  Review by Sam Meltzer🏳️‍🌈 ★★★★ 11

  Things I realized while watching this gem:
  - Katharine Hepburn is the queen of focus crying and getting whatever tf she wants
  - Peter O’Toole’s character looks like a lion 
  - This is my favorite performance from him, and I’m 100% aware that Lawrence of Arabia exists 
  - This is one dysfunctional family and you can’t spell dysfunctional without fun. 
  - It’s baby Anthony Hopkins 😲🥺

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  Review by vincent price was 6′4″ 3

  If you thought YOUR family Christmas gatherings were dysfunctional, just watch The Lion in Winter, or read a sampling of my favorite quotes:

  - "I'd hang you from the nipples, but you'd shock the children."
  - "A king? Because you put your ass on purple cushions?"
  - "Well, what shall we hang... the holly, or each other?"
  - "Oh Eleanor, you've brought me my tombstone! You spoil me!"
  - "I'm vilifying you for God's sake— pay attention!"

  Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn are a pairing made in heaven.

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  Review by CJ Probst ★★★½ 6

  Katherine Hepburn’s voice really annoys the shit out of me. It was always irritating but as she grew older it got worse. It makes me want to stick ice picks in my ears. That’s not to say she isn’t a great actress because she is. But she sounds like a pretentious death rattle.

  Peter O’Toole was the star of my favorite film of all time so he gets a free pass for everything he ever did. Even Caligula. I own Caligula on Blu-ray.

  Sooooooo, I’m sort of typing this while I’m watching it because it’s preeeeeeetty boring. 2 hours and 14 minutes huh? Pfffffffffffff. Twiddles thumbs. I’ve never written ‘twiddled’ before now. I guessed right. Great cast. 2 great actors…

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  Review by Quintin 📽 Philipson ★★★½ 4

  George RR Martin completely stole the character Cersei Lannister from Eleanor in this film. You can't convince me otherwise.

  - Both have long dark blonde hair
  - Both associate with red and gold, especially their iconic dress
  - Both are married to a big fat brown beard loser
  - Both have three children who they love unconditionally

  - The three children also thirst for power and the throne
  - One is naive, one is truly monstrous, and the youngest is a bumbling idiot

  - Both women are underestimated by the men around them due to the times, despite being the most powerful
  - Both resort to poison to deal with their enemies
  - Both like to drink red wine
  -…

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  Review by hllambis ★★★★

  If the dialogues of today's films were half important and transcendent than they are in this film, I'm sure they would be much more interesting.

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  Review by Matt Gourley 2

  This is the first play I was ever in. La Serna High School, Whittier California, 1989. Teenagers playing 50 year olds. This film is pretty good too.

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  Review by Florin Scanlon ★★★★ 11

  Based on a play by James Goldman that is fictional but centers around historical facts and characters, The Lion in Winter is a historical drama about King Henry II and his family during Christmas of 1183. Henry (Peter O'Toole) has to decide which of his three sons will inherit the throne: Richard (Anthony Hopkins in his debut), a formidable soldier with a heart made of stone; Geoffrey, a cold and calculated man lacking honor; and John, the youngest and Henry's favorite, a simpleton with no muscles nor brain. Henry allows wife Eleanor (Katharine Hepburn) out of imprisonment for the holiday while King Philip II of France is Henry's guest at the castle.

  The movie takes place almost entirely inside or…

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  Review by Aaron Michael ★★★★½

  If you're looking for a family drama that takes place over the course of 24 hours on Christmas Eve: WATCH THIS MOVIE. Game of Thrones wishes it could be this smart and sharp. The screenplay is honestly out of this world and the performances knock it out of the park. Katharine Hepburn AND Peter O'Toole!!! This two hours and twenty minutes flies by so fast.......sigh. God bless movies. 

  I was lucky to see the 4K restoration of this on the big screen and BOY was it pretty.

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★

  There are so many great movies like this I still haven't seen that sometimes I feel my frame of reference for judging movies is a bit inadequate. I know the only way to progress forward is to keep doing my best, but occasionally it feels like there's just too much out there for me to wrap my head around it all.

  In any case, this brought me back to my college days studying Shakespeare. Definitely feels like a play, and it's a bit slow and long, but the dialogue is just so perfect and snappy and all the characters work phenomenally well. Everyone was cast perfectly. Production design was through the roof. Very classically shot. A real pleasure.

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  Review by elizabeth 🌈 ★★★★ 2

  I was suprised by how dark the movie was, probably because i went in knowing absolutely nothing about it. Kings and queens fight with words, a verbal war created by the real war that never ended, a war created by everyone's desire for the illusion of power. Corruption silently motivates their actions as they use love to hide the hate they feel. Hepburn and O'Toole feel like 2 forces of nature crashing into each other, they are loud animals more than anything, playing a dangerous game of chess with their own past, their family, their words, and their manipulative emotions(it's debatable whether they feel anything or not). I think at the end their story becomes a tragedy, they wanted to…

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  Review by 🐱Andrew Chrzanowski🐱 ★★★★ 4

  ☆"If I went up in flames, there's not a living soul who'd pee on me to put the fire out."
  "Let's strike a flint and see."☆

  I guess I ought to watch one Christmas movie this year, so I found one a little different that I hadn't seen before. Three-time Oscar winner The Lion in Winter indeed features the late December holiday, but we must turn back the clock to the year 1183 in the time of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. If the historical plot doesn't catch your eye, perhaps the cast list will: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, and both Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton in their major film debuts.

  Christmastime, Angevin Empire in present-day France.…