Pulling off a movie like Thor is no easy feat. The story of a Norse-god superhero set in modern-day USA requires the convincing marriage of an epic fantasy backdrop (with its magic, battles, and dialogue full of thee’s and thou’s) and a modern superhero movie (with its high tech, explosions, and dialogue often laced with…
Category: (4 out of 5)
Sucker Punch – Movie Review
Why does everyone hate Sucker Punch? Was it the giant samurai robots toting artillery guns? Was it the WWI steampunk German zombies? Was it the fire-breathing dragons or the armies of orcs? Or was it the emphasis on over-the-top, stylized visuals over a bleak and irrelevant storyline? Does anyone really care about the depressing fable…
Frankenstein – Theatre Review (National Theatre Live @ Cineplex)
This production of Frankenstein has a lot going for it that’s right up my alley. It’s in London (and despite my love for the city, I’m not in London right now, but I can attend this show thanks to the magic of the National Theatre Live series of broadcasts in movie theatres around the world…
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…
Oscar, Schmoscar 2011
When I first started my “Oscar Schmoscar” posts a few years ago, I was tired of the kinds of nominees that Oscar was coming up with. I lumped together some mini-reviews to let readers know what I thought of some of the nominated movies, but it was meant to be kind of dismissive. A few…
Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – Movie Review
Since I don’t know the original stories, I think I have the same expectation for each of the Narnia movies before I see them. Some kind of fantasy conflict will lead a bunch of kids to fight alongside some magical creatures for the good of the world. That’s been the case for the first two…
Let Me In – Movie Review
Cloverfield director Matt Reeves’s Let Me In (a remake of Swedish film Let The Right One In) tells the coming-of-age story of a withdrawn young boy, neglected by his mother and bullied by his peers. The boy’s name is Owen and he makes a connection with an equally reserved young girl who moves in next…
Devil – Movie Review
For every fan, there’s that point in M. Night Shyamalan’s career where we decided that we’ve lost faith in his ability as writer/director extraordinaire. Some say The Village was the breaking point, others say Lady In The Water or The Happening. For me it was definitely the abysmal Last Airbender. When this movie came along…
Movie #41: The Orphanage
Guillermo Del Toro is becoming one of my favourite directors (and there’s an opening now that Shyamalan has moved to my bad books). I loved Hellboy II and Pan’s Labyrinth. While his 2007 film The Orphanage has more in common with his earlier ghost story, The Devil’s Backbone, than his more recent works, there’s no…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 