I’m the first to admit that I did not love Orson Scott Card’s seminal sci-fi novel on which this movie was based. It was well-written, but I didn’t enjoy the brutal bullying and could never buy into how “mature” these pre-teen characters were supposed to be. The story of Ender Wiggin begins with Earth having…
Category: 50 Movies 1 Summer
Movie #2: About Time
I may not be a fan of romantic comedy, but I make exception for the British take on the boy-meets-girl movie. The blend of dry wit with heart-warming sentimentality has made writer-director Richard Curtis a master of these movies, having been responsible for some of my faves such as Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a…
Movie #1: World War Z
Once again, the movies on my watch-list have piled up and I need to spend another summer catching up. Where to begin… well, while I love science fiction in general, there are only two subgenres of sci-fi that I don’t love: zombies and post-apocalyptic survival. So, it is either foolish or maybe gutsy that I…
Movie #50: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
First let’s establish that I couldn’t get past a few pages of the Stieg Larsson novel; and I viewed-but-didn’t-enjoy the original Swedish film featuring Noomi Rapace (who I did enjoy watching). Nevertheless, I was excited when I heard that The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was being remade in English by director David Fincher (whose…
Movie #49: Contagion
Contagion was not an easy movie to watch (and probably the scariest of my summer 50). Director Steven Soderbergh once again uses the technique he mastered in Traffic, the sober series of interconnected stories featuring a huge ensemble cast, to tell the larger tale of a global viral outbreak. While it’s a bit of a…
Movie #48: The Woman In Black
I think the biggest question on viewers’ minds was how actor Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) would continue his career after playing the young wizard for a decade. I don’t know if anything was proven by his role/performance in the gothic horror movie The Woman In Black, but I guess it’s not a bad idea…
Movie #47: Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
I debated not including this movie in my summer 50, because it’s so different (especially if you’re not used to this genre of quasi-historical Chinese martial arts fantasy epic adventure movie). However, the more I thought about it, the more Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame actually reminded me of a much…
Movie #46: The Descendants
I don’t think these kinds of serious, mundane films are really for me. I think I like my movies more for escapism, taking me to places and experiences I would probably never have in real life. While The Descendants was set in Hawaii, it clearly wasn’t meant as an escape (in fact, those false expectations…
Movie #45: Headhunters
I love movies with good plot twists, and the Norwegian film Headhunters (Hodejegerne) is enjoyable not only because of the surprises in its storyline, but the movie twists from style to style as well. The film starts out as an edgy, modern, satirical fable (like Fight Club or American Psycho). Executive recruiter Roger Brown feels…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 