Take Wolverine, arguably the most popular of Marvel Comics’ X-Men and give him a story set in Japan, full of ninjas, samurais, and swordplay and it would seem like you’ve got a great combination — perfect for a second solo adventure. Unfortunately, when Logan-san (played again by Hugh Jackman, who seems almost as ageless as…
Category: (3.5 out of 5)
Man of Steel – Movie Review
This umpteenth retelling of the Superman story had a whole lot going for it. Directed by Zack Snyder (one of my favourite directors, despite his penchant for stylish and flashy visuals over dramatic substance) and written by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer (two of the men behind the highly successfully and recently concluded Batman…
Cloud Atlas – Capsule Movie Review
From the Wachowskis (Andy & Lana), creators of The Matrix trilogy and Tom Tykwer, director of Run, Lola, Run, Cloud Atlas was poised to be a mind-bending piece of sci-fi filmmaking. An adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel of the same name, the story (set in six distinct time periods) deals with reincarnation and the evolving…
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl and Richard LaGravenese – Book and Movie Review
I’m not quite sure what brought me to another supernatural, teen romance (especially after giving up on the Twilight books after only halfway through the second) but I guess I wanted to see if they were truly as similar as they seem. One of the things I noticed right away (especially since I was listening…
Oscar Schmoscar 2013
Each year I write this post for two reasons: 1) to show how much I don’t really care about the nominees (not really true) and 2) do quickie reviews of the nominated movies that I haven’t already reviewed separately. Back when there were fewer Best Picture noms, I tried to watch all of them by…
Movie #47: Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
I debated not including this movie in my summer 50, because it’s so different (especially if you’re not used to this genre of quasi-historical Chinese martial arts fantasy epic adventure movie). However, the more I thought about it, the more Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame actually reminded me of a much…
Movie #43: John Carter
Hearing that there’s going to be a big-budget sci-fi-fantasy movie made, gets me pretty excited. But when the movie turns out to get bad reviews, I get a bit nervous to watch the movie for fear of how they’ve botched something that could have been really good. I was going to save John Carter for…
Movie #38: Shrek Forever After
I’m not quite sure why I watched this movie. I was a big fan of the original Shrek; I liked how it upended fairy tale conventions and made a monster into a hero. The satirical, contemporary jokes played really well in a storybook context. However, Shrek Forever After comes three whole movies later, after the…
Movie #34: Water For Elephants
Whenever the circus is used as a backdrop, it’s always a kind of magical place. I guess that was even more so during the Great Depression of the 1930s (when this movie is set). Everyone was struggling and life was harsh. People needed to escape to something more exotic and sensational. Water For Elephants captures…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 