"Man on a Ledge" is a movie that employs all the mechanics of a standard Hollywood thriller, while taking sidelong glances at the same voyeurism that fuels both the film and cinema itself.

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The Ides of March, one of two big movies opening this weekend, is a political thriller starring two of the hottest movie stars around: George Clooney and Ryan Gosling.

FORBES: George Clooney and Ryan Gosling: Two Odd Movie Stars

Joining a hive could be as simple as laughing or gasping along with an audience at a comedy or thriller (movie attendance is up 17.5 percent this year).

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That's a problem when "The Road" is done as a movie: It's like a zombie thriller drowning in tastefully severe art-house gloom.

CNN: Review: A journey down 'The Road'

All of this is a relief from the clangor of an American thriller, but our interest in the movie ebbs when Corbijn devotes many minutes to the fashioning of a perfect rifle.

NEWYORKER: The American