It’s not really until I watched this movie did I consider how ridiculous a premise this was: President Abraham Lincoln as a secret vampire hunter. It sounds like a spoof or something silly for Halloween (maybe a segment from The Simpsons latest “Treehouse of Horror” episode). However, this movie isn’t tongue-in-cheek. Except for some vampire…
Category: Fantasy
Brave – Movie Review
It’s great to see that (7 years after the two studios joined) Brave brings together the computer-generated artistry of Pixar with the fairytale storytelling of Disney. While it’s the first Pixar movie with a strong female lead, Disney has been producing “princess” tales for years. The story of young Merida, princess to the Scottish kingdom…
50 Movies, 1 Summer — Movie #1: Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1
Well, I’ve been lax in my movie watching again. Either I just haven’t gotten out to the movies enough or I’ve been kept away by too many mediocre reviews, but I have built up a huge backlog in my movie watch list. So, I figure that I’ll try again (like I did two summers ago)…
Snow White and the Huntsman – Movie Review
I don’t know about “fairest”, but this Snow White was by far the dullest and most disappointing movie I’ve seen all year. It may be difficult to give a new spin to a classic story that everyone already knows, but it’s not enough to simply throw familiar actors, fancy costumes and special effects at it…
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – Capsule Book Review
All over the tents, small lights begin to flicker, as though the entirety of the circus is covered in particularly bright fireflies. The waiting crowd quiets as it watches this display of illumination. Someone near you gasps. A small child claps his hands with glee at the sight. When the tents are all aglow, sparkling…
Cabin In The Woods – Movie Review
Most of the hype around this movie is about two things: how it defies (or plays with) conventions of the horror movie genre; and how it took (courtesy of the fall of studios) three years to see the light of movie screens. I don’t have much to say about the second topic, but the first…
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin – Book Review
Some of you fellow pop-culturists might be like me, enjoying the preparation for movie sequels or new TV seasons by re-watching past instalments or (better yet) reading the next book in an adapted series. I decided to prepare for Game of Thrones season two by reading the second book in George R.R. Martin’s epic series,…
Mirror, Mirror – Movie Review
Since Disney has long cornered the market on fairy tale adaptations, it’s actually hard to know what to expect from one that isn’t full of singing birds and pixie dust. After watching director Tarsem Singh take on Greek mythology with The Immortals, I was willing to bet that his adaptation of the Snow White story…
Kraken by China Mieville – Capsule Book Review
A literate novel about odd, cleverly-conceived cults who worship ancient gods and primal forces; a magical reality right under our noses (set in London, no less!); an epic end-of-days scope worthy of Joss Whedon; not to mention a squad of occult police officers — these are all the crazy elements that I’d love in a…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 