It seems a bit harsh to criticize a sweet little kids movie like Bedtime Stories when all it’s trying to do is put a little artificial sweetness out in the world. Adam Sandler plays Skeeter, a (you guessed it) man-child, who was raised in a hotel by his father the owner (cameo by Jonathan Pryce)….
Category: (3 out of 5)
Movie #37: The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
One of the reasons I didn’t rush to see The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is because the trailer made it seem like it was just going to be one long, tense conversation between a NYC subway dispatcher (played by Denzel Washington) and a psychotic hostage-taker (played by John Travolta). To me, a script…
Movie #36: Valentine’s Day
OK, I have to stop claiming that I don’t watch romantic comedies because obviously that’s untrue. However, I can still say that don’t like them because if there are reasons for my liking Valentine’s Day, they have nothing to do with romance. The intersecting tales of a dozen or so characters who go through romantic…
Movie #35: Repo Men
I knew that Repo Men was going to be cut-rate sci-fi, so I didn’t watch it in the theatre. Set in future Toronto (at least it looks like Toronto, since it was filmed less than a block from where I live — Hey, the subway does not fly over Yonge-Dundas Square!) where everyone seems to…
Movie #27: The Class
I’m not sure what to say about The Class. It won the Palme d’Or prize for Best Picture at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, but I really didn’t like it — or more accurately, I didn’t enjoy watching it. Francois Begaudeau stars as M. Morin, a French teacher at an ethnically-diverse school in Paris. The…
Movie #22: Whiteout
I thought the concept for Whiteout seemed pretty cool (no pun intended): have a murder-mystery thriller set on a base station in Antarctica. Kate Beckinsale plays U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko, stationed at the South Pole, who’s just about to retire and go back to the U.S. when the body of a murdered man is discovered…
Movie #20: Ghost Town
With a name like Ghost Town you probably wouldn’t expect the movie to be a romantic comedy. It doesn’t start out like one. Ricky Gervais stars as Dr. Pincus, a year-round grinch who avoids people as much as he can (which may be a challenge since he’s a dentist). After a near-death experience during surgery,…
Movie #14: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
I love modern takes on old classics (especially dark classics) like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Since the audience is presumably acquainted with the original, there’s usually an interesting spin on the story. While it’s set in modern day rather than Victorian times, this modernization has Jekyll (played by Dougray Scott) as a medical doctor….
Predators – Movie Review
The hype around the latest Predator movie says that it’s pretty good. I’m no Predator expert, but it seems like a pretty typical action movie to me. Start out with Adrien Brody waking up in free-fall, hurtling towards the planet’s surface. Good thing he manages to activate his chute. On the ground, he discovers that…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 