Arts & Entertainment

Movie Reviews for The Great Gatsby, Iron Man 3, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and More

Find movie reviews written by Patch blogger Mark Glass and showtimes for theaters in the St. Louis-area, including West County, courtesy of Moviefone.

Are you a movie buff? Or maybe you just enjoy the occasional dinner and a movie date? Either way, Patch would be thrilled to have you on board as a movie blogger! It's free, quick and easy to do so! All you have to do is shoot a quick email to Brian Feldt at brianf@patch.com

The Great Gatsby

Patch Blogger Mark Glass: **½ This latest screen version of the classic novel is a mixed bag of assets and flaws. Director and co-writer Baz Lurhrmann ambitiously tries for a 3-D spectacle with several lavish party scenes that Busby Berkeley would have envied. He inserts bits of  anachronistically modern music into this 1922 setting. That worked beautifully in his Moulin Rouge, and hilariously in the opening joust of A Knight’s Tale, but feels overly coy and somewhat forced in this context. Full Review

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist

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Patch Blogger Mark Glass: ***½ If there were ever a cautionary tale for our times, this may qualify. Changez (Riz Ahmed) is a brilliant young Pakistani who emigrates to the U.S. in search of the American Dream. Coming from a scholarly middle-class family, he starts with an Ivy League education in finance and heads for Wall Street, where he quickly becomes a rising star at a large venture capital firm with international tentacles. He also falls in love with a hip, artsy lass (Kate Hudson). He is poised for success on both fronts when 9/11 occurs. From then on, nothing seems right here or in his homeland. He’s too Westernized for Pakistan, but viewed with too much suspicion here to enjoy the fruits of his labors...or even travel safely among strangers. Full Review

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Iron Man 3

Patch Blogger Mark Glass: *** Here’s what you need to know about the third installment of this wildly successful franchise from the Marvel Comics superhero stable. If you haven’t seen the first two flicks, don’t start here. You’ll be missing too much backstory to get into the flow. For veterans of the first two blockbusters, Robert Downey, Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow are back as the leads, with Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau reprising their supporting roles. Guy Pearce and Sir Ben Kingsley come aboard as the mega-villains du jour. William Sadler, after a long career of mainly crook, thug or mercenary soldier gigs, has finally been rewarded with elevation to the White House, playing our beloved POTUS. The whole planet is in peril, and only Tony Stark/Iron Man can save us. Full Review

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More Movie Reviews From Patch blogger Mark Glass


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