I first picked up Philip Pullman’s novel, The Golden Compass, for the typical reason: I was looking for something to fill the void between Harry Potter books. This movie adaptation was likely made with similar motives, but I think viewers expecting a Potter-esque fun-ride might be a bit disappointed or confused by Compass’s extra complexity….
Author: alving4
Battlestar Galactica: Razor + a funny post for BSG fans
So, I watched the 2-hour morsel of BSG (aka Battlestar Galactica: Razor) to keep us hungry until whenever season 4 finally airs. It was a pretty good extended-episode, flashing back to the story of what happened on board the Pegasus after the Cylons attacked, as well as a separate story of a rescue mission during…
Enchanted – Movie Review
When you see how easily an animated fairy tale morphs into a contemporary romantic comedy, you’ll wonder why it’s taken so long for Disney to come up with this movie. Most romantic comedies are essentially tales of storybook love dressed in modern clothing anyway. Enchanted is just a whimsically literal take on that connection. Animated…
Beowulf – Movie Review
What can we expect from a fully-computer-animated movie without Pixar in the credits or a green ogre in the lead? With Beowulf, hit director Robert Zemekis improves upon the motion-capture techniques used in his Polar Express to bring an ancient, legendary monster-slayer to vivid, digital life. Seeing it in IMAX 3-D, I was subjected to…
Riddick might see a trilogy after all
How many of you saw cool sci-fi indie film Pitch Black? How many of you were (it’s OK, we can say it) suckered into the theatres to see its big-budget sequel Chronicles of Riddick? I was definitely one who expected the same kind of tight, cool Alien-esque movie as Black, rather than the sprawling, Dune-esque…
August Rush – Movie Review
It’s been quite some time since I decided that I just don’t get music movies. When a character becomes so inspired by music that he will sacrifice anything to express it, I don’t understand what’s going on in there. Movies like Shine, My Immortal Beloved, and Amadeus all confound me a bit. Along comes August…
Chan, Li, and Yuen: A Martial Arts Dream Team
Empire: Movie News – First Footage From Forbidden Kingdom I didn’t know anything about Forbidden Kingdom, this new project from Jackie Chan, Jet Li and fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping, until today — now it’s one of my most anticipated films of next year! I grew up listening to the Chinese folk tale of the…
The TNG Drinking Song
YouTube – Star Trek TNG Episode Guide Song If you think I’m a geek, here’s someone who’s created a song naming every single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation! It’s awesome for carousing in 10-Forward. Y’know, I really never knew the depths of my love for this show until I could sing along to…
Jack Bauer: The America Online years
With the WGA writers’ strike on, the fate of future episodes of 24 is pretty uncertain. In the mean time, the folks over at CollegeHumor have gone back into the past for a satirical look at how Jack Bauer might have fared a decade earlier. What if Jack didn’t have the conveniences of his super…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 