When Oscar time comes around, movie fans get excited about the nominated films, and I’m no exception. In the past several years, I’ve done a little viewing blitz around this time, trying to catch up with some of the major nominees, but lately I’ve been a bit disappointed. Last year, I really wasn’t interested in…
Category: (3.5 out of 5)
Eragon – Movie Review
There once was a blond-haired boy living on a farm with his uncle. One day, events set into motion by a rebel princess led him to encounter a local older man known for telling stories of a war long past. At the boy’s request, he recounted stories of the legendary order of mystic knights who…
Apocalypto – Movie Review
Apocalypto was not the movie I thought it was going to be. I expected an epic set in the fabricated history of a lost culture, but Mel Gibson’s pre-Columbian tale is actually more of an action movie (with subtitles). Apocalypto has a bit of a split personality that way. Action movies typically don’t have subtitles…
The Fountain – Movie Review
If you’ve seen any of Darren Aronofsky’s other movies (i.e. Pi or Requiem for a Dream), you know that they are not going to be easy to follow. Partly that’s what fans (and I count myself in that group) like about them. An Aronofsky movie seems to be inventive and fresh. So when he decides…
The Open Door by Evanescence and A Thousand Different Ways by Clay Aiken – Music Review
In the last month, two acts who sold massive quantities of their debut albums have put out new follow-up CDs (I know Aiken had released a Christmas album, but you can’t expect me to count that). After all kinds of personal turmoil, it was perhaps uncertain whether Evanescence would be around to produce a second…
Fall TV 2006 – week two
My DVR runneth over. Between the returning shows, new shows that started last week, and new shows that started this week, I have had a huge backlog of episodes to watch. Week one I watched no less than 11 premieres. Let’s start with the two that came on after I posted my last update: Brothers…
Fall TV 2006 – week one
Jam-packed week! Let’s get right to the shows: Last year, a bunch of new lawyer shows debuted that just didn’t survive. This year, we try again. I already mentioned Justice in my last post. Shark stars James Woods as a top-notch defense attorney switching to head up a team of prosecutors specializing in high-profile cases….
Picking the Pix at the Toronto International Film Festival 2006
Each year it becomes more of a challenge to pick movies to see at the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s not that there aren’t really good movies at the fest, it’s just that I don’t really see very many, so I have to use a set of criteria to choose what to see. I don’t…
The Illusionist – Movie Review
Edward Norton stars as the movie’s namesake—Eisenheim the Illusionist—a stage magician in turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna. His amazing illusions gain him a huge audience, including the prince and his entourage. When Eisenheim asks for a volunteer, the prince puts forward his fiancée (played by Jessica Biel), who happens to be Eisenheim’s old friend. As the childhood sweethearts’…
