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: Reviews
Scream 4 (aka Scre4m) – Movie Review
When I saw the original Scream, I was blown away. I had always been afraid of horror movies, but hype compelled me to check out this genre-buster, and I thoroughly enjoyed the way it took its “meta” so seriously. Now, three movies and 15 years later, the gang is back. Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David…
Rio – Movie Review
As you might expect from an animated movie about blue macaw parrots set in Rio de Janeiro during Carnival, this is a very colourful movie. The opening musical sequence features all kinds of jungle birds in a fun, catchy, follies-style production number, but unfortunately, the rest of the movie is kind of underwhelming by comparison….
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…
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…
Win Win – Movie Review
I didn’t realize that writer-director Thomas McCarthy was one of my favourites until I looked up his latest movie, Win Win. As an actor, I’d seen him as Mr. Riley on the David E. Kelley tv series about teachers, Boston Public. As a writer-director, I loved his first movie (The Station Agent) and his second…
Paul – Movie Review
Has the pop cultural marketplace become over-saturated by geek-chic? How else can you explain how a comedy from popcult satirists Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (who brought us such great send-ups as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) can take aim at sci-fi geekdom and produce something so unfunny and cliche? (Perhaps it’s 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…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 