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…
Category: Movies
The Hunger Games – Movie Review
Happy Hunger Games! In adapting a book to screen, living up to the expectations of readers about how the characters look and act is not the only challenge. If you can make viewers tear up when a scene is moving, or jump when a scene is surprising even though they already know what’s coming, that’s…
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen – Movie Review
In Lasse Hallstrom movies (like Chocolat, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, and now Salmon Fishing in the Yemen), special individuals originally thought of by normal society as outsiders eventually draw the so-called “normal” people in and help them bring imagination, passion, and joy to their staid lives. In this movie, it’s a super-wealthy Yemeni Sheikh Muhammed,…
The Secret World of Arrietty – Movie Review
Studio Ghibli (like its American cousin/rival, Pixar Studios) has such a flawless reputation for producing beautiful, magical, creative, and original masterpieces of feature animation that audiences are predisposed to liking any new movie that they produce. The Secret World of Arrietty is the latest from these Japanese animation masters and for me, while it is…
Oscar Schmoscar 2012
Last year’s nominees had a few pleasant surprises that I would have regretted missing out on if not for the noms. This year, nothing really compelled me and it’s unfortunate that I didn’t find the Best Picture nominees to be much of a checklist for exploration. Even the critics don’t love them all, since Hugo…
The Iron Lady – Movie Review
Even though I was alive for most of her political career, I don’t know very much about Margaret Thatcher — the Iron Lady who is the subject of Meryl Streep’s latest Oscar-worthy impersonation. The movie version of Thatcher’s story starts oddly with Streep looking convincingly like a very senior Thatcher (probably somewhere around her current…
70 Science Fiction and Fantasy Movies to Watch Out for in 2012
70 Science Fiction and Fantasy Movies to Watch Out for in 2012 (from io9.com) Link out for a great summary of the scifi/fantasy/horror horizon for this new year. Reading through the list, I noticed four odd trends, and one great one: Fairytale reinterpretations – We already have TV’s Once Upon a Time and Grimm, now…
Nostalgia: Hugo & The Muppets – Movie Reviews
This week I watched two movies that unexpectedly shared a common theme. Hugo by director Martin Scorsese, is the story of a young orphan whose quest to repair a mechanical man leads to an adventure of discovery into the history of early cinema. The Muppets features a young man/muppet named Walter, whose quest is to…
Happy Feet Two – Movie Review
How can a movie that looks so much like the original, wonderful tale of singing and dancing animated penguins become such an awful sequel? The animation in Happy Feet 2 is great, with amazing Antarctic scenery, realistic-looking animals like seals, birds, and of course penguins who not only look like penguins but can dance and…
