OK. First, let’s get this out of the way: I liked this version better than the BBC mini-series. Gasp?! Sacrilege? Colin Firth is coming to get me? Bring it. Now let me put this preference in perspective. I loved the BBC mini-series—6 hours long, but I have seen it at least twice, once staying up…
Category: Movies
Munich – Movie Review
Steven Spielberg’s story of a team of Israeli assassins sent to kill 11 Palestinian terrorist leaders in retaliation for the killing of 11 hostages at the 1972 Munich Olympics seems to be equal parts drama and thriller. Already there have been rave reviews about this movie—one of the reviewers at Entertainment Weekly even chose it…
Water and Memoirs of a Geisha
I recently watched two movies with very similar stories and themes. The first was Water, directed by Deepa Mehta, and the second was Memoirs of a Geisha by Rob Marshall. Water is set in India while Memoirs is set in Japan, but both take place in a pre-WW2 time frame and tell the stories of…
King Kong: Movie Review
Coming out in December, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson’s King Kong is literally the 800-pound gorilla of this year’s cinema box office. This 2005 version is a more-than-faithful remake of the classic 1933 original about a monstrously huge gorilla found on a remote island who abducts and falls for a struggling actress, gets…
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe: Movie Review
I think the first thing people want to know about The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is how it compares to other fantasy blockbusters like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. First, I think it stands on its own as an enjoyable, spectacular movie. It is not as heavy or dark as Rings,…
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Movie Review
With each successive movie in the Harry Potter franchise, the action level is amped up a notch. There is no doubt about that in Harry Potter and the Tri-Wizard T—I mean Goblet of Fire. The 700-page story has been neatly trimmed (i.e. most of the side plots have been left out) around what is arguably…
Halloween Movies 2005: It’s All About The Creeps
When Halloween rings my bell each year, I like to dig out a scary movie or two to get into the spirit of things. I’m not really into serious horror, nothing with too much blood or violence; generally I enjoy stuff that’s more suspenseful, fantastical or creepy. In the past, I’ve rewatched old X-Files episodes…
Serenity (2005) – Capsule Review
After hours of listening to fan podcasts and rewatching the entire TV series on DVD, there was no way that I wasn’t going to love Serenity. And as a fan hoping for sequels, I’m glad that most reviews and audience response seems to agree. Despite the sci-fi trappings of this movie, it’s the interesting characters…
Corpse Bride (2005) – Capsule Review
Director Tim Burton’s previous voyages to the land of odd (such as Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, and Ed Wood), have led audiences to expect his films to be completely off-kilter. However, while Corpse Bride obviously skews towards the ghoulish, that is all that really separates it from your average animated romance. There are splashy musical…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 