There will not be a better film this year, animated or other, than HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. It’s a rip-snorting story flawlessly animated on every level that seamlessly blends humor, both subtle and broad but never gross, with heart. Lots of heart. Translated from Cressida Cowells novel of the same name, the filmmakers show… Read More »
SPLICE
Before Oppenheimer and company at the Manhattan Project detonated their first A-bomb on the Alamogordo testing grounds way back in 1945, they were almost completely positive that the resulting chain reaction would stop at some point, probably, very probably, long before it destroyed the planet. Science is not without its risks and when humans start… Read More »
DESPICABLE ME
In DESPICABLE ME, the direct honesty of childhood innocence, in the form of three orphan girls, goes head to head with the evil machinations of a super villain feeling his evil competition nipping at his heels, usually with marine life. The result is a smart, funny, and perceptive animated film that dresses up its unabashed… Read More »
SORCERER’S APPRENTICE, THE
THE SORCERERS APPRENTICE starts with so much promise. Nicolas Cage as Balthazar, the eccentric and eponymous sorcerer on a quest to find Merlins heir and with him conquer the evil sorcerers bent on ruling the world by first destroying it. Jay Baruchel as Dave, the sweet but stuttering science geek and, as a magic dragon… Read More »
INCEPTION
Christopher Nolan spent eight years perfecting the script for INCEPTION, the first script of his that hes directed since is stunning, time-bending debut, FOLLOWING. The result is a complex meditation on the interplay between the conscious mind and the layers below it, and the insidious tendency they have to pull the strings of perception on… Read More »
NANNY MCHPHEE RETURNS
Its as though Emma Thompson had a backlog of story ideas and wanted to use them all at once with NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS. The less than magical sequel to her enchanting NANNY MCPHEE is at once a story of British stiff upper lips during the Blitz, a bizarrely cartoonish tale of a gambler without the… Read More »
TROLLHUNTER
With his faux-documentary, TROLLHUNTER, filmmaker Andre Ovredal has pulled of the difficult trick of adding fantastic elements to reality and make it seem perfectly reasonable. Certainly the evocative landscape of his native Norway, craggy mountains and hushed valleys shrouded in mist and snow, give credence to the idea that trolls really do roam among the… Read More »
TROLLHUNTER
With his faux-documentary, TROLLHUNTER, filmmaker Andre Ovredal has pulled of the difficult trick of adding fantastic elements to reality and make it seem perfectly reasonable. Certainly the evocative landscape of his native Norway, craggy mountains and hushed valleys shrouded in mist and snow, give credence to the idea that trolls really do roam among the… Read More »
PARANORMAN
Laika Studios latest animated film, PARANORMAN, is a story with heart, soul, and a killer funny bone. The humor ranges from the broad to the subtle, and even ventures into that most dangerous of territories, the poignant, and it does so with a sure hand, backed up with an astounding feat of animation. Norman (Kodi… Read More »
WRECK-IT RALPH
WRECK-IT RALPH may be set in the world of video games, but its conceit is set firmly in the most classic of paradigms, the Hero’s Journey. The mythic realms are made of bits and bytes, but the landscapes are just as magical, just as forbidding, and the tasks nothing short of Herculean. Not that any… Read More »