Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture

Movie #10: Daybreakers

Wow! Even in our current age of ‘fang-mania’ Daybreakers was actually a fresh take on the vampire movie — kind of a cross between True Blood and Children of Men. A plague of vampirism led to over 90% of the population becoming vampires in 10 years. That allows the filmmakers to come up with all…

Movie #9: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

After all the hype around the novel, I was intrigued by the Swedish film adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I thought I might read the novel, then wait for the Hollywood movie (whenever that’s coming) but the book’s opening chapter was so dense (I am told that it’s a page-turner, but those…

Movie #8: The Lovely Bones

I almost never call any movie “a mess”, but I think that’s the best way to describe The Lovely Bones. I have no idea how much of this film was true to the original Alice Sebold novel and how much of it was artistic license taken by writer/director Peter Jackson, but I hope that the…

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…

Movie #7: A Single Man

A bit of a change of pace, A Single Man is the Oscar-nominated (best actor nod for Colin Firth) drama directed by fashion designer Tom Ford (movie-goers will know him as the Man Who Dressed James Bond). Naturally, I expected something stylish, with everyone impeccably dressed, filmed at interesting camera angles, each shot a potential…

Movie #6: Taken

I put off seeing Taken because I find kidnapping stories a bit too tense with the emotional stakes involved. Plus, there’s always some weepy mother who won’t let the hero take the risks needed to get the victim back. Anyway, that’s what I expected, so I was in no rush to see Liam Neeson play…

Movie #5: Ninja Assassin

One of the problems with so many martial arts films like Ninja Assassin is that the characters are often the strong, silent type who don’t go into detail about their motivations or why they’re doing something, so I often get very confused. Add to that the kind of gutteral whispers that they all speak in,…

Despicable Me – Movie Review

As I’ve said before, computer animation has always done its best at making cute things that normally aren’t, including ogres, monsters, fish, rats, robots, and aliens. It wasn’t going to be long before the same cuddlification was applied to the type of character whose entire purpose is not to be loved: the supervillain. Gru…

Movie #4: The Men Who Stare At Goats

This did not turn out to be the movie that I thought it would be. I knew that The Men Who Stare At Goats featured George Clooney as part of a secret team of real-life psychic soldiers. However, I also knew that it was not actually the kind of sci-fi storyline that the premise suggested…