What kinds of magical creatures lived in your backyard as a child? Did you imagine any fantastic lands just beyond the next tree? The Spiderwick Chronicles (based on a series of kids’ books) is about Jared Grace (played by the ubiquitous Freddie Highmore) and his twin brother Simon (ditto re Highmore), and their sister and…
Category: Movies
Cloverfield – Movie Review
Can a geek-friendly movie like Cloverfield really live up to its monster-sized hype? Judging from the box office returns and the sell-out showings, I’d say it’s doing pretty well. However, after seeing this “Blair Witch Project meets Godzilla” movie myself, I’m surprised at the way the marketing went for the “mysterious” angle. (For those of…
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem – Movie Review
OK. Larval aliens bursting out of the chest? Check. Heat vision and night vision scenes of innocent victims? Check. Drippy saliva on long, long teeth? Check. Pointless teen melodrama and token cute kid to make viewers care about characters who probably won’t all survive the film? Check and check. Aliens vs Predator: Requiem is absolutely…
I Am Legend – Movie Review
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…
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…
