I’ll come clean. After all the slaps I got from fanboys about my subjective, personal opinion of the first two X-Men movies, I am not eager to jump in and comment on the third in the series. Sure, this one is different. It’s got a different director, it’s got a whole political […]

It is difficult to write a fairy tale that can exist in modern times but retain its folksy, timeless quality. How many deep woods have you let your 5 year old child traverse to bring her grandmother bread at her incredibly isolated cottage? Nanny McPhee is based on the decades-old Nurse Matilda books […]

OK. There are movies about vampires, and there are movies about werewolves, and occasionally, both (even with Stooges) but what strikes me here is that the Underworld movies want desperately to be about both, but somehow end up being about familial squabbles and centuries-old politics. If you’re reading this review with any intent […]

I was on pins and needles waiting for this movie. The preview made me misty and wriggly with anticipation all at once. Knowing director Peter Jackson’s intense adoration of this film, and having witnessed many examples of his dedication to art on film, I had supreme confidence that this King Kong was going […]

C.S. Lewis wrote this book first of the seven volumes of the Chronicles of Narnia, and many of my generation received the boxed set that had renumbered them so that this book was the first. My kindergarten teacher, Miss Connors, read us the first 2 or 3 books at nap time. Rereading them […]

In the Harry Potter films, author J.K. Rowling has had a hand in with screenwriter Steven Kloves and has made sure that no important information (to the series) gets cut out of the films so as to have a continual story arc experience for those who only see the movies, as well as an exciting […]

Zathura’s story may seem a little familiar to you. A board game creates an exciting and fantastical world of the game for real for its players, putting them in harm’s way (and destroying their home) until they finish the game (and learn a lesson). Yes, it’s by the same author as Jumanji, though […]

I was dreading a snooze such as the kind that was always brought on by A Nightmare Before Christmas. During that film I fell asleep in the theatre, and on every subsequent attempt to watch it at home, before 30 minutes could pass. Beautiful, but deadly dull. Corpse Bride was well on […]

Terry Gilliam is as unable to make an uninteresting movie as he is unable to make a “commercial” film. This is a compliment, honestly. The problem is, no one is going to see this movie. Why would they? People like me are, i.e. “Terry Gilliam? I’m there!” and the few […]

Those of you out there in Generation X know how we as a demographic feel about the 1971 version of Roald Dahl’s sweet, sad story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, renamed Willy Wonka et al. When it was announced that Tim Burton was going to take a stab at Dahl’s work – NOT a remake, it […]