I can’t say that I really understood Where The Wild Things Are when I read it as a kid. Sadly, 30 years later, I can’t say that I understand the new Spike Jonze directed big-screen adaptation of this children’s classic either. While the visuals were great, and the characters (especially the Wild Things themselves, of…
Category: Movies
Zombieland – Movie Review
Zombieland is hardly a zombie movie. Sure, there are throngs of the undead (a zombie-making virus struck down the entire planet — take that, H1N1!) who are happy to disembowel people for fun and snacking; but they don’t appear for large chunks of the movie. This is more of a post-apocalyptic, survival, road movie mash-up….
The Informant! – Movie Review
Seeing the trailer and premise for The Informant! (plus the tongue-in-cheek exclamation point), I expected Matt Damon’s character to be goofy and bumbling (Paul Blart: FBI snitch), but leave it to director Steven Soderbergh to pull off an interesting and thought-provoking character study laced with odd, retro humour. (Is it my imagination, or do the…
9, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, and Dragon Hunters – Capsule Reviews
Recently I’ve seen a few animated movies, and while they don’t have anything in common, I thought I’d present them together in a set of capsule reviews. 9 When Elijah Wood last played a diminutive hero courageously seeking to save the world (in Lord of the Rings), it took over 10 hours to tell the…
Inglourious Basterds – Movie Review
Most of us come to a Tarantino movie expecting the usual trademark elements: visceral, somewhat gratuitous violence; complicated, witty, scummy, razor-sharp dialogue; and complex, interweaving storyline featuring interestingly off-colour characters. So how does that blend against a backdrop as often-used as WW2/Nazi-occupied France? Well, let’s just say he makes it work (for the most part)….
15 Flicks for Fall 2009
On the pop-cultural calendar, the climax of the year is supposedly the summer blockbuster season. Fall is when we begin the year again with new TV and more serious cinema (leading up to the Oscars). After a lacklustre summer (where even the stalwart Harry Potter franchise left me disappointed), we could really use some fresh,…
District 9 – Movie Review
I’ve mentioned before how much I like “intelligent” sci-fi movies: in other words, ones which spend more effort on concept and story rather than just perfecting the CGI or blowing things up in cool ways. District 9 falls into the “intelligent” camp even though its concept is not the brain-twisting kind. Essentially, in the 80s…
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Movie Review
It’s been a while now since I saw the movie (I’m on vacation) but I didn’t want to let an HP milestone go by without some comment on this blog. For those of you not Potter afficienados, Half-Blood Prince is the second to last book in the Potter series and (because they are making two…
Up – Movie Review
I defy you not to be charmed by the new Pixar movie, Up (such a non-descript title for such a fun film). In a field that is rapidly filling with vapid imitators, Pixar continues to keep itself above the others by creating lovable, fresh characters and heart-warming stories, even while skimping nary a pixel on…
