Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture

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…

Rango – Movie Review

Rango is weird. He has surreal dreams, wears a Hawaiian shirt, puts on little dramas in his terrarium with a windup toy fish, and has a chorus of mariachi owls singing a lament of his demise. The animated movie from Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski is quirky to say the least. Nevertheless, the…

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…

The Green Hornet – movie review

What if Batman had been kind of inept, and Robin had all the skills? I hadn’t known much about The Green Hornet before watching Michel Gondry’s new movie adaptation, but I knew that kung-fu legend, Bruce Lee, played the Hornet’s butt-kicking side-kick Kato in the original TV series. When Seth Rogen was cast in the…

2010: The Year On Screen

Movies Each year I am less inspired to go out to the movie theatres. The hassle and the hell of other movie-goers is rarely compensated by the big screen experience these days despite (or maybe because of) the move to go all 3D all the time. Seeing TRON: Legacy in the second row in IMAX…