Even though I was alive for most of her political career, I don’t know very much about Margaret Thatcher — the Iron Lady who is the subject of Meryl Streep’s latest Oscar-worthy impersonation. The movie version of Thatcher’s story starts oddly with Streep looking convincingly like a very senior Thatcher (probably somewhere around her current…
Category: (3 out of 5)
Happy Feet Two – Movie Review
How can a movie that looks so much like the original, wonderful tale of singing and dancing animated penguins become such an awful sequel? The animation in Happy Feet 2 is great, with amazing Antarctic scenery, realistic-looking animals like seals, birds, and of course penguins who not only look like penguins but can dance and…
Jane Eyre – Movie Review
I may not remember everything from when I read Jane Eyre as a young English major, but I don’t remember it being so lifeless. While I can understand that the filmmakers need to abbreviate certain parts (such as most of Jane’s early life as an orphan) in order to fit the important parts into the…
The Adjustment Bureau – Movie Review
When I saw the trailer for The Adjustment Bureau, I saw similarities to two other rather different movies and I wondered which one was closer. With mysterious men-in-hats who secretly manipulate the world, is it going to be a mind-bending proto-film-noir like Dark City? Or when boy meets girl and they are kept apart by…
Midseason TV 2011
I confess I’ve been a bit slow on the draw this year to talk about midseason TV. I guess I’ve been too caught up with my pre-Oscar movie-watching. However, I’ve still found the time to enjoy many of the series which have debuted or returned since the start of 2011. What’s more, many if them…
Movie #50: Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen
After all the indie, foreign, direct-to-DVD movies that I’ve been watching lately in my 50-movie marathon, I thought I’d end my adventure with a blockbuster bang. After the first Transformers movie blew out my eardrums, I was not eager to watch Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen on the big screen. However, since those robots-in-disguise played…
Movie #48: Horsemen
It’s been a while since there’s been a standout psycho-serial-killer thriller (and I’m not counting horror movies like the Saw series in that category). I’m thinking of classics like Silence of the Lambs or Seven. Unfortunately Horsemen may owe a lot to those forerunners, but it’s not exactly a new milestone for the genre. Dennis…
Movie #47: The Outlander
After a slew of indie-type, serious movies, I was really starting to crave some escapist sci-fi. There wasn’t too much of that left that I hadn’t already seen, but I did find The Outlander, which fit the qualifications, but only barely. Jim Caviezel (yes, Jesus does sci-fi too) stars as Kainan: a warrior from another…
Movie #46: Gone Baby Gone
I had never even heard of Gone Baby Gone until my brother recommended it to me. He knows that I like movies full of plot twists, but unfortunately this was still not my kind of movie. This tale of a child abducted from her trashy drug-addict mother and the messiest set of circumstances surrounding the…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 