Saturday movie review: A Royal Night Out

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When I watch films billed as "based on a true story," I figure the full film is pretty much, as noted, true. With a few dramatic or comedic liberties taken, of course. I assume it tells the complete story.

When I watch films marked as "based on actual events," though, I usually spend a fair amount of time considering which scenes might be true, which might not. Which are the actual events. Usually. Yet while enjoying A ROYAL NIGHT OUT — a movie supposedly based on actual events — I didn't. Because the rom-com drama was such fun, I simply didn't want to know in the midst of its magic what truly happened, what was screwball silliness or romantic dreaminess added for cinematic effect.

a royal night out movie

I certainly did wonder afterward, I assure you. Even did a wee bit of research before embarking on writing this review. (More on that later.) See, A ROYAL NIGHT OUT is "the untold story of Princesses...

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Saturday movie review: 'The Book Thief'

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I'm always a little leery of movies made from books I love. So when I saw that one of my favorite books of the last several years, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, was being filmed, I vacillated between being thrilled thrilled filmmakers loved it as much as I did and being reluctant to watch it when it came out just in case those filmmakers screwed it up.

I'm happy to report screenwriter Michael Petroni...

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