I didn’t get to read Neil Gaiman’s novel on which this movie was based thanks to Michael Chabon’s latest novel gumming up the works, but after seeing this film, I am looking forward to it. Gaiman has a legion of fanboys for his work on the Sandman (and many other) graphic novels, his book […]
Nothing I say in a review will make a difference as to whether Potter fans see this latest film adaptation of the 5th book in the Harry Potter series. This is fortunate for Warner Brothers, as this film grossly misfired where its predecessors had so (seemingly) effortlessly gone before. I confess, I was taking the […]
Day Watch (Dnevnoy Dozor)
Catch it on HBO
Fans of Night Watch, we eagerly gobbled up previews for this sequel. The trilogy is based on popular Russian fantasy novel by Sergey Lukyanenko (1998), and began with the excellent film Night Watch. We rushed out to our local art-house theater to fight the crowds we had fought the […]
Evan Almighty shares little in common with its prequel, Bruce Almoghty beyond the character of Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) and Morgan Freeman pigeonholed as always as God. Here, instead of wicked Bruce temping as a substitute God, Evan is asked to build an ark in preparation for a Flood. (Hey, wasn’t the rainbow […]
Much grumbling was done with regards to the second film in this three part adventure series. The low expectation and incredible payoff of the first film made the second, written specifically to accompany this the third, bound to disappoint. My readers know that I found #2 (Dead Man’s Chest) to be action packed, funny, and […]
I didn’t really want to see this movie. Generally, I have liked the Spider-Man movies more than many of the other comic book adaptations, but I had zero interest in a third go-round. Seventy-five minutes into it, I check my watch and groaned, realizing from the preview that we haven’t even introduced all […]
I have a twisted fondness for movies that titillate us with pseudo-biblical horror stories (The Omen and many bad examples). The Reaping offers us an Oscar winner plunked in the middle of what is apparently a rerun of the ten plagues of Egypt. Hilary Swank plays a formerly-ordained-minister-now-debunker-skeptic who runs around sucking the […]
This is an exceptionally difficult movie to describe, never mind assess. On one hand, it has the simplistic charm of a old-fashioned fairy tale, with high stakes, magical and arbitrary rules, and an easily manipulated heroine. On the other hands, it is a depiction of a brutal despot’s heartless greed for an heir and power […]
You know what? There are few better antidotes to intense Oscar-wanna-be releases and treacly holiday throwaways than a fun, high-concept starring 3-4 generations of comedians. Yeah, I said it. The idea is simple but delicious: everything in a major natural history museum comes to life after dark. It’s the basis of […]
As my companion dourly noted, “I just paid $30.00 to see Star Wars.” (And yes, that’s matinee pricing and all I had was a water.) As you have probably heard by now, the book on which the movie was based was written by Christopher Paolini when he was 15 years old. Now, […]
