HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA is a sunny little animated film about vampires and other assorted creatures of the night. Co-written by Robert Smigel, he who makes those divine animated shorts for Saturday Night Live, there is enough, youll pardon the expression, bite to the humor to make this a mostly painless experience for adults. The film, though,… Read More »
FRANKENWEENIE
Decades ago Tim Burton created a short stop-motion animated film called FRANKENWEENIE, and this tale of a boy who brings his beloved dog back to life became Mr. Burtons entrée into the world of cinema. He revisits this tale in a feature length version, the which he has directed from a screenplay that John August… Read More »
CLOUD ATLAS
CLOUD ATLAS is an ambitious film plagued with problems that garbles its overarching themes. Some of these problems stem from its makers attempting to adapt the six novellas of the original book into a film with a running time of only(?) three hours. Others are of a more puzzling nature, troublesome and unforgivable for being something… Read More »
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL — WORLDS AWAY 3D
Cirque du Soleil never really found a purchase in those specials to be found on television. The small screen was far too diminutive, even in its larger versions, to convey the ambitious, aethereal, and surrealistic flights of fancy that are the Cirques trademark. That and the inherent flatness of the medium. All that has been… Read More »
HANSEL & GRETEL — WITCH HUNTERS
HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS is a stumblebum exercise that explores many tones, skipping over the good as well as the bad, with an uneven script and curiously inert direction. This is a shame, because the irreverent re-telling of the Grimms fairy tale had so much potential, glimpses of which still peek through, much to… Read More »
STAR TREK: NEMESIS
The problem with reviewing any Star Trek film is that it is a no-win situation from the point of view of both the fan and the anti-fan. If I praise it, I will be accused of being a Trekker. If it slam it, its because I dont like Trek in general and diss the flick… Read More »
OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL
It is a bold move to revisit a classic film, even if it is to make a prequel to it. Particularly when the studio involved, Disney, had tried, and failed, once before to produce the WIZARD OF OZ. That was in the early part of the last century, before MGM got hold of it in… Read More »
THE CROODS
On one level, THE CROODS is a funny, heartwarming, and imaginative look at life in the original dark ages, those of prehistoric humankind crouching in their caves surviving, barely, in a state of perpetual fear of the dark. And it would be perfectly fine to enjoy this animated film from Dreamworks in just that way.… Read More »
STAR TREK –INTO DARKNESS
The best speculative fiction is rooted firmly in reality. Though set in faraway lands, planets or time, it speaks, nonetheless, directly to the issues and emotions of its audience. Smart writers know that, and this is why the continuing re-boot of the Star Trek franchise is so wildly successful. Set in an alternate timeline from… Read More »
AFTER EARTH
AFTER EARTH is a solemn, self-congratulatory flick showing all the symptoms of a vanity piece run amok. Based on a story devised by star Will Smith as a vehicle to launch 14-year-old son Jaden as an action star, it shows little internal logic while never giving the audience a reason to care about anything that… Read More »
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