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 […]
For his entire career, Spielberg has been slowly evolving from a purveyor of pure popcorn into a sophisticated filmmaker. His popularity is merely a cunning façade for his connsumate skills - I mean, if he’s any good, why would so many people like it, right? With War of the Worlds, Spielberg reclaims the […]
Oh, this should have been funnier. With Doug Liman (Swingers, Go) at the helm, and two actors who can actually pull off supernatural bad-assness with a certain believability (at least one of which is a proven funny guy), this movie could have been a riot. Instead, it was a weird amalgam of […]
Despite being based on a beloved and pythonianly (I challenge someone to find a more appropriate adverb) random book, despite having a beyond-perfect cast, fantastic book animations, and superb production design, this latest adaptation of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is just not very enjoyable. It pains me to say it, […]
Talk about low expectations! Jimmy Fallon (SNL and Taxi), Drew Barrymore (50 First Dates and Duplex), Farrelly Brothers (Stuck on You), and (for me) baseball - that’s four negatives right there. As Ben (Fallon) and Lindsay (Barrymore0 know from their math studies, however, negative 1 to the 4th power equals a positive one, […]
At first, you pity wee Pendragon Pictures - they finally make a blip on the radar screen by producing a feature film of a popular science fiction story but doing it for the first time as it was originally written, set in 1898 with Martians chasing horse drawn wagons, etc - and then the Spielberg […]
A Bollywood take (complete with songs and dancing) on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice brought to you by the same team that brought you Bend it Like Beckham? Well, one thing is clear - you will end up smiling. Re-imagining the Bennett family as Indians whose mother is feverish to marry them off, […]
=Last Holiday is one of those perfect fantasy movies that somehow works in spite of itself. You might see the requisite “wacky panic” face on the faces of star Queen Latifah and costar Timothy Hutton in the preview, but those kind of painfully contrived moments are few and far between. Unfortunately, many of […]
In preparation for this film, a Georgian period novel which I had not read, I slogged through the miserable experience of reading William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel on which this film is based. My only terror, after seeing this delightful, vibrant, and exciting movie, is that someone will be inspired to read the book after […]
After watching the 1962-made (1964-released) original film, I wondered how terribly can modern Hollywood mess up this remake? Sure, plenty of stuff in that black and white craftwork was needless and frustrating, but the fantastic camerawork and twisty mind-bending direction is so cool! Fortunately, Silence of the Lambs’ helmer Jonathan Demme is at […]
