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The Librarian 1: Quest for the Spear [2004] The Librarian 2: King Solomon's Mines [2006] The Librarian 3: Curse of the Chalice [2008]
Life [2017] Lightyear [2022] Lily Topples the World [2021]
The Lincoln Lawyer [2011] Line Walker [2016] Lion of the Desert [1980]
Little Evil [2017] The Little Shop of Horrors [1960] Livid (The Blood of the Ballerinas) [2011]
Living in the Future's Past [2018] Locker 13 [2014] Lockout [2012]
The Lodgers [2017] Loft [2010] Logan [2017]
London Has Fallen [2016] Lone Survivor [2013] The Long Good Friday [1980]
The Long Kiss Goodnight [1996]
Look Away [2018] Looper [2012] Lost Bullet [2020]
Lost Bullet 2 [2022] The Lost City [2022] Lost Souls [1998]
Lou [2022] Love, Antosha [2019] The Lovebirds [2020]
Lovers and Liars [1998] Lucky [2020] Lucy and Desi [2022]
Lumberjack Man [2015] Lupin III: The First [2019] The Lure [2015]
The Long Kiss Goodnight [1996]

            

A woman with amnesia, who's created a whole new life for herself over the last 8 years, is suddenly dealing with people who want her dead. This was a really exciting action thriller presented with the competent skills of director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Devil's Pass) and the stellar pairing of Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson. Some things I don't feel were explained well making the story a bit problematic for me - I wasn't quite sure what they were doing sometimes - but the action and the humorous dialog were spot-on making this a really fun ride.
The Lost City [2022]

            

A romance author is kidnapped to help find treasure on a Pacific island and her book cover model goes to her rescue. This Romancing the Stone style adventure is played out just like all the other adventures of its type with nothing new and not nearly as good as most. The characters were likable enough, especially Brad Pitt who stole the show and, as a result, had way too small a part. The constant banter was mostly irritating and flat with the occasional sprinklings of a few genuinely funny lines. Overall, it was fun entertainment, few laughs, but nothing new.
Lucy and Desi [2022]

         

A tribute to the lives of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz from their childhood through their meeting, marriage, creating one of the biggest TV shows ever, to building a TV and motion picture empire and subsequently their divorce and aftermath. Well balanced between their body of work and their personal lives, this film did a great job of not wallowing on the negative, gossip inducing material that many biodocs rely on, but rather celebrate their incredible lives, even showing that, despite the divorce, they remained friends and partners to the very end. Great for fans!
Lightyear [2022]

            

Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear Interrupts a space mission to investigate a planet with life and subsequently maroons the whole crew. Now he must find a way to bring them back home. This was an incredibly entertaining film with delightful characters full of life, personality and humor, outstanding animation, enough seriousness to make the action tense and exciting while making us laugh out load at the same time. Nothing new or particularly original here but they're intention was just to entertain us and, in that respect, my wife and I had lots of fun watching this.
Life [2017]

            

A space station for scientific research acquires a microscopic organism in a soil sample from Mars. Before they fully understand what they have, it suddenly gets real big and real hungry, real fast. Not wasting any time, the pacing is perfect and that, along with a malevolent, seemingly indestructible creature, makes for an unnerving and tense experience that doesn't let up. Some well known faces did a superb job with a good deal of character development amidst the chaos. Logical and scientifically accurate, this is a pretty horrific ride well worth seeing.
Lost Bullet [2020]
aka Balle perdue
            

A specialized mechanic, serving time for robbery, is offered a reprieve if he modifies police interceptors to catch the bad guys. He's soon framed for murder and must find a way to clear his name. This was an intense and enjoyable film with colorful characters that moves along at a very brisk pace. The action choreography was well crafted giving us some good car stunts and an incredible fight sequence inside a police station. Story is not particularly original and has no surprises but it's handled very nicely making this a tight and exiting thriller.
Lost Bullet 2 [2022]
aka Lost Bullet 2: Back for More / Balle perdue 2
            

Whereas the first film was more an investigation film with our protagonist trying to exonerate himself, this one uses a simple story of differing agendas as an excuse to fill the screen with fights, explosions and some incredible car chases / wrecks ...and that's OK. The action in this is stunning, accented by truly likable characters that keep the viewer engaged in their plight even if it's not entirely clear what that is. If you're looking for serious dramatic content you won't find it here but if you want non-stop, adrenaline-fueled escapism, this film has it in spades.
Lockout [2012]

            
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Taking a page out of the Escape From N.Y. handbook, a falsely accused killer is sent to a supermax prison, orbiting earth, to rescue the President's daughter from the wacko inmates. Cons: This film is dark, don't try to watch it in a lighted room. The setup, action, scenarios and conclusion are exactly what you'll expect. Pros: The dialog is great! Especially our hero, Guy Pearce, playing an overly arrogant jerk delivering his lines with humor and surgical precision that was a true delight. Acting works. Overall, good matinee entertainment worth a bag of popcorn.
Line Walker [2016]
aka Shi tu xing zhe
            
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There's an international drug ring, a lot of undercover cops and some solid action but that's the best I can do as far as a summary. Perhaps I'm losing something in translation but this film was really hard to follow but not for lack of trying. The actors did a great job, the action scenes were intense and well choreographed, the characters were likable and it seemed like there was a really important story going on here. I just wish I understood what it was. If you don't care much about groking the substance of this film and just want some stylish action, here you go.
Lily Topples the World [2021]

         

Lily Hevesh began publishing domino videos to YouTube when she was 9 years old and over a decade later, and with over 3.5 million subscribers, she's quickly becoming a empire. This biography was a wonderful example of the power of a hobby and the drive to take it as far as it'll go. As a self-proclaimed Domino Artist, she's created her own line of Toppling Dominoes and is developing the H5 Domino Community. Showing us several demos of her work as well as giving us a full picture of who Lily is has made this one of the best biodocs I've ever seen.
Lucky [2020]

            
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May has become the victim of a relentless attacker every night, who always disappears, and everyone around her just seems to take it for granted. Written and starring Brea Grant (who did a fantastic job), this psychologically twisted thriller was extremely intriguing and had me hooked from the start. Several different ending scenarios were playing out in my mind only to have them dismissed with a new twist. The initial premise played out a bit too long and I would imagine a lot of folks will hate how this ends but I was OK with it ...at least marginally. Not bad!
Lupin III: The First [2019]

            

Lupin III, world class thief, and several others seem to be after a diary that will lead them to a powerful weapon known as the Eclipse. Sensational animated action adventure with super colorful characters full of life and emotion, well designed action sequences, excellent writing and absolutely stellar animation that's colorful, incredibly imaginative and nearly photographic quality. I'm usually not a big one for animated films but this one was first rate. Watch it with the kids!
London Has Fallen [2016]

            

Practically every world leader heads to London to attend the funeral of the British Prime Minister and they find themselves under an attack orchestrated by a major weapons dealer. Mike Banning must, once again, save the president when they find themselves on the London streets with nowhere to go. As with the first film, the initial attack, and many of the action sequences, are violent, brutal, and extremely intense. Although panned by critics, I've found these films to be exactly what they intended ...a non-stop thrill ride, and done extremely well. Just enjoy the ride!
Loft [2010]

         
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A murdered woman is found in a loft shared by 5 men who use it to carry on clandestine affairs outside their marriages. Told almost exclusively in flashback as a way to determine who's responsible, we are subjected to enormously long segments of shallow, morally vacant, misogynistic men and confused, passive and emotionally dysfunctional women as they all psychologically and sexually torture each other as if this were normal. The longer I watched this, the more I hated everyone in it. Had an interesting twist but I really didn't care by then.
Love, Antosha [2019]

         
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An excellent biographical documentary of Anton Yelchin, a supreme talent who was taken from us at 27 via a incredibly freakish accident. Taking us from his childhood, the film goes into wonderful detail on his love for his parents, film, music, photography, friends. Because of his drive and desire to excel, he never missed a single day of work through 69 screen appearances despite growing up with cystic fibrosis. Regarded as one of the greatest young talents in the industry today, this film celebrates his life and his body of work with grace. Definitely worth a watch.
The Lure [2015]
aka Corki Dancingu
         
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An incredibly bad, Polish horror?, comedy??, musical, about 2 mermaids who sing and dance at a nightclub. We have naked girls with no genitals. We have mermaids eating people. Tail amputation? Mermaid vaginas? Sea foam, what? Sea foam!! ...all done to some absolutely terrible music and dance. Since it got good ratings, I'm assuming this is a cultural thing but as for me?.. I would rather slit my wrists before sitting through this again. Geez, this was awful!
Lone Survivor [2013]

            


Excellent real-life biopic of Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of a reconnaissance mission in Afghanistan. The strong personal and emotional interaction between friends and comrades is punctuated by gripping and intensely realistic scenes of warfare as the group struggles to survive against overwhelming odds. Very well made, brutally intense, heartfelt movie.
Looper [2012]

            

In 2044, men known as loopers would assassinate victims sent to them from 30 years in the future. This film focuses on one such looper who hesitates to kill his older self causing quite a bit of turmoil and chaos. This is quite an elaborate and complex story of time travel, conflicting goals, paradoxes and trying to figure out what's the right thing to do. Great action, super characters ...even in the slow parts, the dialogue and interaction between subjects kept my attention firmly glued to the screen. May take multiple viewings to fully grasp everything but worth the trouble.
Little Evil [2017]

         


A man begins to believe his new step-son is the Antichrist. Basically a parody of The Omen (they actually mention it in the film), this was somewhat entertaining with a few colorful characters. Although there were a couple of laugh-out-load moments, most of the humor was a bit flat and I believe the dialogue could have been far wittier than it was. Still good fun, though.
The Lodgers [2017]

         
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Twins, living in a dark, dilapidated mansion, have to lock themselves in their bedrooms at night so that undead things can come up through the floor after midnight ...I guess. Extremely dark, both visually and psychologically, exceedingly dull and depressing, contains a whole story around one character which, in the end, means absolutely nothing. No likable characters and an ending that left me shaking my head.
The Librarian 1: Quest for the Spear [2004]

            
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TNT produced 3 Librarian TV movies before launching the series, which ran for 4 seasons. This first entry features a professional student - recruited to become the new "Librarian" - who's first assignment is to retrieve the Spear of Destiny and save the world. Characters are quite likable (Bob Newhart and Jane Curtin were great) and it was adventurous, entertaining, and often humorous. Good family viewing.
The Librarian 2: Return to King Solomon's Mines [2006]

            
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Second in the TNT series of movies before 'The Librarians' TV show. This one seemed to lack something but it's hard to say what. It just seemed sloppier than the first and felt like there was a lot of roaming around with not much to do but talk about each other. This exposition came into play later but is was still somewhat laborious. Overall, it was fun ...just not as lively.
The Lincoln Lawyer [2011]

            
  
I've seen few films that are not only just like the novel, but John Romano (screenplay) manages to capture the multitude of events in the book and masterly present them all in a comprehensible fashion without rushing it. Movie or book, take your pick. They're both a tense, complex, and insidious legal thriller you're not likely to forget. Matthew McConaughey "IS" the Lincoln Lawyer, heart and soul and the acting all around is fantastic.
The Librarian 3: The Curse of the Judas Chalice [2008]

            
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Surprisingly good third movie in the Librarians series. Stana Katic as the leading lady was fantastic and I enjoyed the connection between Vlad Dracul the Impaler and Judas Iscariot in its theological fantasy storyline. Great special effects and a few good laugh-out-loud moments. Looks like they finally got the formula right. Great entertainment and, except for a few scary moments and some minor adult themes, fairly safe for the whole family.
Lovers and Liars [1998]
aka Criminal Desire
     
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An advertising agency is a front hiring models and then sending them to Europe as slaves. Also involves a kidnapping of an ultra-rich man's daughter. This is a ludicrously low budget movie filmed on video tape that comes off like a badly made episode of a soap opera. Michael York and David Carradine must have really been hurting for cash. Smart idea to gave this film two names - Lovers and Liars in '98 and then Criminal Desire in '05 - just in case you missed it the first time around. (grin)
Lumberjack Man [2015]

            

A lumberjack monster is slaughtering folks in a bible camp. I absolutely hated everyone in this film within the first 10 minutes. The whole film was ludicrous and infantile and insulted my intelligence so completely that I was nearly shaking with anger when the credits rolled. Michael Madsen must have done this as a favor as I can't believe his career has actually sunk to this level. If you watch this, I guarantee afterwards you will say, "Should have taken Doc's advise and skipped this one". One of the worst and most insulting movies I've ever seen.
Lion of the Desert [1980]

            
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A historical biopic about Italy's invasion of Libya in the 20's to 30's, centered around the Italian Gen. Rodolfo Graziani and the leader of the Libyan people, Omar Mukhtar. At 173 mins, it is excessively long winded and could have easily dropped a hour. Regardless, it is a compelling film that held my interest throughout. Although dated by today's standard, the warfare was well presented and, at times, quite brutal. Oliver Reed and Anthony Quinn were excellent and the human misery of warfare was captured well.
The Little Shop of Horrors [1960]

         
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What do you feed a giant plant that says, "Feed me"? Humans, of course! This Corman classic is outrageously silly with over-the-top characters and a very hungry plant. Despite the silliness of it - and Jack Nicholson's outlandish cameo - the movie has a certain charm that makes it an enjoyable watch with a few laugh-out-loud moments.
Locker 13 [2014]

            
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An anthology movie with 5 stories that are sort of what you'd expect from the '80's versions of The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The stories were good and there were a lot of recognizable faces. The endings to some of the stories were quite sudden and, as such, somewhat anti-climatic. I've seen plenty of anthology movies that were better but this was fine for an evening's entertainment.
The Long Good Friday [1980]

         

After 10 years of peace, London's top mob boss is on the brink of legitimization when he finds himself under attack from unknown entities. This, oh, so very British, gangster movie is not an action film but rather an extremely engrossing drama among some very engaging characters as we witness the slow destruction of an empire. Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, and Derek Thompson put in excellent performances. In fact, there's not a bad performance to be found in this film. Even an extremely young Pierce Brosnan, who has no lines, is good. Well done.
Lost Souls [1998]
aka Nightworld: Lost Souls
     

A family with an autistic daughter moves to a new town. The father finds an old machine made by Thomas Edison in the house. Upon turning it on, strange things begin to happen. This is your blatantly typical made-for-TV supernatural mystery with nothing new or special and the mystery is so cliche that it was basically no mystery at all. It wasn't bad, though. Laura Harling was excellent as the autistic girl ...she didn't overplay it and you bought it completely throughout the film. Overall, fairly good.
Lou [2022]

         

Two women pursue a kidnapper - who's taken the daughter of one of the two women - through the forests of the Pacific Northwest. No other details are needed as, except for a minor twist, this plays out as expected with the usual dangers and obstacles. It also relies on people sustaining far more damage than realism would allow. However, the portrayal of deep, personal and emotional characters forces the viewer to effectively feel their plight, especially Allison Janney's as Lou, making this a exciting and fun trip through a rain forest. Overall, a pretty good movie.
Livid (The Blood of the Ballerinas) [2011]
aka Livide
            

A caregiver trainee learns that a patient in a coma has a fortune hidden somewhere in the house. Let's explore. Bordering on Gothic Vampirism, this film had a good story and a leisurely but steady pace. My real gripe was all the males in the film are completely retarded morons and/or obnoxious jerks, including our ring leader of the group. This was completely unnecessary and only served to distract from the overall feel of the film. Once past that, there's some effectively well constructed bloodshed and nightmare fuel going on here. Overall, very nice French horror.
The Lovebirds [2020]

         

Pretty much a slapstick comedy centered around a couple, dangling over the cliff edge of their relationship and ready to let go, suddenly find themselves the central focus of a murder. Trying to avoid the cops and the crooks, they're thrust into one bizarre situation after another making the whole thing rather humorous. Add to that the comfortable nature of banter you'd expect between two very likable people, who know each other well, and some colorful characters and LOL moments and you have one very entertaining film. My wife and I really enjoyed it.
Logan [2017]

         


What a great swan song for the old and ailing Wolverine. Far more a drama than an action picture (although it is loaded with some awesome action) the relationships between Charles (Professor X), Laura (Logan's genetic daughter) and the reluctant Logan (who would rather everyone just left him alone), is complex, heartfelt and, at times, heartbreaking. Truly excellent entertainment!
Look Away [2018]

            
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A bullied and generally miserable girl finds her alter ego within mirrors. It's never quite clear whether the mirror Maria (aptly named, Airma) is a paranormal personification of Maria's stillborn identical twin or if Maria is mentally fracturing. Regardless, India Eisley (who is actually 25) does a convincing job of portraying both sides of the high school student's personalities. The film is intended to be a slow burn but I found myself waiting for something to happen quite often. Could have been faster, scarier, more dramatic but, overall, pretty good.
Living in the Future's Past [2018]

         
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A film talking about the past, present and future of the world with its central focus on energy, the essence of the universe. If you're looking for a philosophical discussion on the subject, this is the movie for you and on that note, it was pretty good. However, this film provides nothing in the way of hard data or, unlike Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, how to solve the problems it presents. Overall, it was just repetitive philosophy from talking heads for an hour and a half ...sort of like a big rendition of "Come Together". Photography was beautiful, though.
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