I know I’m missing something about the highly-acclaimed, award-winning film A Prophet because even though I could see that it was well done, it didn’t impress me as the masterpiece that so many other people obviously think that it is. Definitely it’s impressive to watch the protagonist Malik El Djebena go from illiterate, hapless punk…
Category: Movies
Movie #48: Horsemen
It’s been a while since there’s been a standout psycho-serial-killer thriller (and I’m not counting horror movies like the Saw series in that category). I’m thinking of classics like Silence of the Lambs or Seven. Unfortunately Horsemen may owe a lot to those forerunners, but it’s not exactly a new milestone for the genre. Dennis…
Movie #47: The Outlander
After a slew of indie-type, serious movies, I was really starting to crave some escapist sci-fi. There wasn’t too much of that left that I hadn’t already seen, but I did find The Outlander, which fit the qualifications, but only barely. Jim Caviezel (yes, Jesus does sci-fi too) stars as Kainan: a warrior from another…
Movie #46: Gone Baby Gone
I had never even heard of Gone Baby Gone until my brother recommended it to me. He knows that I like movies full of plot twists, but unfortunately this was still not my kind of movie. This tale of a child abducted from her trashy drug-addict mother and the messiest set of circumstances surrounding the…
Movie #45: Sleuth
I like movies adapted from plays. Even though the action is typically very static (two actors on a single set), play-films usually offer the promise of superior dialogue. Sleuth was not only one of those films, but also a remake of a movie adaptation of a play, and the new version was written by acclaimed…
Movie #44: Operation: Endgame
I’m not quite sure what to think of Operation: Endgame. It’s a black comedy unlike too many I’ve seen. New recruit (codename: The Fool) starts his first day in a secret underground office housing two opposing teams of covert agents all named after Tarot cards. At first we get a dose of office humour through…
Movie #43: Bedtime Stories
It seems a bit harsh to criticize a sweet little kids movie like Bedtime Stories when all it’s trying to do is put a little artificial sweetness out in the world. Adam Sandler plays Skeeter, a (you guessed it) man-child, who was raised in a hotel by his father the owner (cameo by Jonathan Pryce)….
Movie #42: The Ghost Writer
I always thought I was an intelligent movie-watcher, but there’s just something about thrillers like The Ghost Writer that dim my enjoyment a bit. I enjoy the twists and the clues, but the pace is slow and often characters have conversations that sound like they’re meaningful and revealing, but aren’t really that interesting to watch….
Movie #41: The Orphanage
Guillermo Del Toro is becoming one of my favourite directors (and there’s an opening now that Shyamalan has moved to my bad books). I loved Hellboy II and Pan’s Labyrinth. While his 2007 film The Orphanage has more in common with his earlier ghost story, The Devil’s Backbone, than his more recent works, there’s no…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 