The idea of having a pet dragon is the dream of every fantasy fan. It’s an intelligent, powerful, strong creature that can protect you with its claws and fiery breath, and it can fly you anywhere on its back. In Dreamworks’s latest animated movie, How To Train Your Dragon, a young viking boy named Hiccup…
Category: Movies
Alice in Wonderland – Movie Review
Tim Burton should do more adaptations. Most fans probably prefer his quirkier, original movies like Edward Scissorhands or Ed Wood, but I am fond of his fantasy adaptations such as Sleepy Hollow and now Alice in Wonderland. Director Burton has really expanded the Wonderland universe into an even more spectacular place than it had been…
Oscar, Schmoscar 2010
I’m pretty excited about this year’s Oscars. That’s not because I finally care who wins (there are probably so many factors besides merit which determine that), but more because I’m enjoying watching a lot of the nominated films. Here are some capsule reviews of movies that I’ve discovered as part of cramming for the Oscars….
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief – Movie Review
There is a litany of similarities between Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and the first Harry Potter film that goes way beyond their shared director, Chris Columbus. Like Harry, Percy Jackson’s life is turned upside-down when he learns of his special background and destiny. He realizes that things around him aren’t as…
Sherlock Holmes – Movie Review
I have to admit that I’m a bit Downey’d out. When I found out that the role of the latest incarnation of the British super-sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, was going to Robert Downey Jr., I was less than excited. It’s not that he’s not an excellent actor, or that his movies are not enjoyable, but the…
Nine – Movie Review
Nine, the new movie-musical from director Rob Marshall obviously faced the same challenge as its Oscar-winning predecessor, Chicago: How do you integrate musical numbers with serious drama? In the case of Chicago, the songs were figments of the character Roxie Hart’s imagination. In Nine, it’s not clear what the songs are there for. In fact,…
Avatar – Movie Review
For a film with revolutionary CGI effects, such as Avatar, all eyes are definitely on the visuals. Director James Cameron (remember him from Titanic and Terminator 2?) has taken his time to produce this amazing new movie. Using the kind of computer techniques that brought to life Gollum in the Lord of the Rings series,…
The Princess and the Frog – Movie Review
I might have felt slighted that Disney’s first 2D animated movie in a while was so derivative if it did not successfully remind me of the things I’d been missing from Disney animation for so long. Unlike the recent hit Enchanted, which up-ended the conventions of the Disney fairy tale movie and squeezed it into…
New Moon – Movie Review
It’s difficult to be disappointed with a movie that gives you exactly what you expect. Going into New Moon (the second in the highly successful book, now movie, franchise known as The Twilight Saga) it was not surprising that half the movie would be spent on looks between attractive teens prone to longing and melodrama….
