Why does everyone hate Sucker Punch? Was it the giant samurai robots toting artillery guns? Was it the WWI steampunk German zombies? Was it the fire-breathing dragons or the armies of orcs? Or was it the emphasis on over-the-top, stylized visuals over a bleak and irrelevant storyline? Does anyone really care about the depressing fable…
Category: Fantasy
The Adjustment Bureau – Movie Review
When I saw the trailer for The Adjustment Bureau, I saw similarities to two other rather different movies and I wondered which one was closer. With mysterious men-in-hats who secretly manipulate the world, is it going to be a mind-bending proto-film-noir like Dark City? Or when boy meets girl and they are kept apart by…
Midseason TV 2011
I confess I’ve been a bit slow on the draw this year to talk about midseason TV. I guess I’ve been too caught up with my pre-Oscar movie-watching. However, I’ve still found the time to enjoy many of the series which have debuted or returned since the start of 2011. What’s more, many if them…
Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – Movie Review
Since I don’t know the original stories, I think I have the same expectation for each of the Narnia movies before I see them. Some kind of fantasy conflict will lead a bunch of kids to fight alongside some magical creatures for the good of the world. That’s been the case for the first two…
Tangled – Movie Review
Whenever Disney releases an animated movie, I wonder whether they’ve finally abandoned their classic formula. Last year’s The Princess and the Frog was probably their last foray into hand-drawn animation, but Tangled clearly suggests that they’re staying true to the kinds of movies that brought them success in the past. It’s definitely the successor of…
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1 – Movie Review
It’s definitely the beginning of the end. When the final Harry potter book came out, fans like me felt sad that this enjoyable adventure with beloved characters was coming to a close. Now, the same is happening on the big screen. It doesn’t help the melancholy that this movie opens with scenes of Hermione casting…
TV: Red Light, Green Light (Fall 2010)
I wanted to do a TV: Red Light, Green Light post for this TV season to think through all the shows that are up in the air in terms of whether I will keep watching them. This fall season has not been great on TV. New shows are not catching on and even long-running shows…
Let Me In – Movie Review
Cloverfield director Matt Reeves’s Let Me In (a remake of Swedish film Let The Right One In) tells the coming-of-age story of a withdrawn young boy, neglected by his mother and bullied by his peers. The boy’s name is Owen and he makes a connection with an equally reserved young girl who moves in next…
Fall TV 2010 – Returning Drama
If you’ve read my blog, you know that even though I’m posting about returning dramas, you’re not going to read about House or Mad Men or Grey’s Anatomy. My tastes tend towards genre shows, though I do watch the occasional melodramedy… Desperate Housewives … Let’s get that one out of the way first. Even after…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 