What would you do if you were the last man on Earth? Apparently, Will Smith would drive around in sports cars, hunting deer in the middle of Manhattan. Despite this pretty heavy premise (and somewhat weighty title), I Am Legend still has all the earmarks of a Hollywood holiday blockbuster. Fun set pieces like the…
Category: Movies
2007: The Year on Screen
Pardon the grandiose title of this post, but as the year comes to a close, I like to take a look back at high points (and maybe a few lows) at the movies and on TV. The Silver Screen This year was a pretty average year for me at the movies. I watched about 30…
Hobbit’s in good hands
Jackson to Produce The Hobbit After the legal issues between New Line Cinema and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson cast a Sauron-worthy darkness over the possibility of his involvement in the prequel story of Bilbo Baggins’s Ring quest, I am relieved to read that not only have the two sides settled their differences,…
The Golden Compass – Movie Review
I first picked up Philip Pullman’s novel, The Golden Compass, for the typical reason: I was looking for something to fill the void between Harry Potter books. This movie adaptation was likely made with similar motives, but I think viewers expecting a Potter-esque fun-ride might be a bit disappointed or confused by Compass’s extra complexity….
Enchanted – Movie Review
When you see how easily an animated fairy tale morphs into a contemporary romantic comedy, you’ll wonder why it’s taken so long for Disney to come up with this movie. Most romantic comedies are essentially tales of storybook love dressed in modern clothing anyway. Enchanted is just a whimsically literal take on that connection. Animated…
Beowulf – Movie Review
What can we expect from a fully-computer-animated movie without Pixar in the credits or a green ogre in the lead? With Beowulf, hit director Robert Zemekis improves upon the motion-capture techniques used in his Polar Express to bring an ancient, legendary monster-slayer to vivid, digital life. Seeing it in IMAX 3-D, I was subjected to…
Riddick might see a trilogy after all
How many of you saw cool sci-fi indie film Pitch Black? How many of you were (it’s OK, we can say it) suckered into the theatres to see its big-budget sequel Chronicles of Riddick? I was definitely one who expected the same kind of tight, cool Alien-esque movie as Black, rather than the sprawling, Dune-esque…
August Rush – Movie Review
It’s been quite some time since I decided that I just don’t get music movies. When a character becomes so inspired by music that he will sacrifice anything to express it, I don’t understand what’s going on in there. Movies like Shine, My Immortal Beloved, and Amadeus all confound me a bit. Along comes August…
Chan, Li, and Yuen: A Martial Arts Dream Team
Empire: Movie News – First Footage From Forbidden Kingdom I didn’t know anything about Forbidden Kingdom, this new project from Jackie Chan, Jet Li and fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping, until today — now it’s one of my most anticipated films of next year! I grew up listening to the Chinese folk tale of the…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 