I tried to choose a photo that would not give readers a false impression of The American (nothing with Clooney staring down a scope, or holding a pistol out ready to fire). It is far from being the action-packed, spy-fi thrill ride one might expect. I knew very little about this movie, so it served…
Category: Movies
Movie #32: Catfish
While it was definitely not the movie that I had expected, Catfish was also much more engrossing than I expected. I didn’t know much about the movie going in, but I thought that it was a mockumentary. Actually (despite some controversy around the question), it’s a straight documentary. Nev Schulman, a New York photographer, receives…
Movie #31: The Thing
I’m not quite sure how to review a movie like The Thing. I have not seen the original 1982 horror movie classic, but I suspect that it was not too different from the pure creature-feature that this remake is. The movie is set almost entirely in Antarctica, where a group of Norwegian scientists invite a…
Movie #30: My Week With Marilyn
Starting out as the young, misunderstood, blonde, Jen Lindley on Dawson’s Creek, it’s interesting how Michelle Williams has come full circle to play the ultimate young misunderstood blonde as Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn. I’m not really a Marilyn fan, being that of her movies I’ve only seen Some Like It Hot, but…
Movie #29: Unknown
Unknown is the kind of plot-twisting action thriller that I used to love watching (still do, but good ones are not as common these days). Liam Neeson stars as Dr. Martin Harris, a scientist visiting Berlin with his wife (played, quite poorly I might add, by Mad Men‘s January Jones) for a biotech conference. He…
15 Flicks for Fall 2012
As summer is more than half over, it’s time to start thinking about movies for the fall. Sadly, I didn’t end up watching all of last year’s list (at least not in the theatres). Nevertheless, here’s what I’m looking forward to (in vaguely chronological order) for Fall 2012: 1. Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Pt. 2…
The Bourne Legacy – Movie Review
From the opening scene of a silhouetted man floating in the water, The Bourne Legacy begs for comparisons to the first movie, The Bourne Identity (as well as its two sequels). Similarly, Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross fights to live up to Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne as the rogue government-programmed assassin du jour. Renner did a…
Movie #27: Fast Five
After 10 years, it is no surprise that the film series which has perfected the “cartosterone” sub-genre of action flick is back for a celebratory fifth instalment, but in honour of its love of number-play, here are Five Things that did surprise me about Fast Five. Casting Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the nemesis was…
Movie #26: Another Earth
I didn’t know what to expect from this movie, but I’m a sucker for indie sci-fi movies. I think sci-fi concepts open up a huge realm of storytelling — it’s a great way to explore dramatic and philosophical questions. Anyway, in this case, Another Earth is mostly a human drama about a teenage girl, Rhoda,…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 