Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture

Movie #42: The Ghost Writer

I always thought I was an intelligent movie-watcher, but there’s just something about thrillers like The Ghost Writer that dim my enjoyment a bit. I enjoy the twists and the clues, but the pace is slow and often characters have conversations that sound like they’re meaningful and revealing, but aren’t really that interesting to watch….

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…

Movie #40: Under The Mountain

I can’t believe that people on the internet found Under The Mountain imaginative and fresh. It was a lame fantasy/horror adventure for tweens is what it was. Generally, I go for those kinds of Harry Potter, Golden Compass, even Lemony Snickett kind of movies, but this one was beyond-blah. Essentially, after the death of their…

Movie #39: Elizabeth: The Golden Age

After The Other Boleyn Girl, I figured that I’d treat myself to a Tudor double-bill by watching Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the 2007 quasi-sequel to 1998’s Elizabeth. Both films feature Cate Blanchett in amazing performances as England’s “virgin queen” (and daughter, of course, of Anne Boleyn). While the first one was mostly about Elizabeth becoming…

Movie #38: The Other Boleyn Girl

I forgot how much I like period dramas. I used to enjoy the sumptuous costumes, the ornate dialogue, the spectacular buildings, and the historical intrigue of movies like The Other Boleyn Girl all the time. I guess they’ve fallen out of fashion since their heyday in the 80s and 90s when Merchant-Ivory productions (like A…

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…

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – Movie Review

From the opening credits, where the Universal Studios logo and theme are rendered in 8-bit graphics and sound, I knew that Edgar Wright (director of other geek-friendly satires such as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) was going to do a great job with this movie. The premise was totally fun and drool-worthy on…

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…