Inglourious Basterds – Movie Review

Most of us come to a Tarantino movie expecting the usual trademark elements: visceral, somewhat gratuitous violence; complicated, witty, scummy, razor-sharp dialogue; and complex, interweaving storyline featuring interestingly off-colour characters. So how does that blend against a backdrop as often-used as WW2/Nazi-occupied France? Well, let’s just say he makes it work (for the most part)….

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“Don’t Stop Believing” – 2009’s pop anthem?

For some reason, “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey, has had a surprising resurgence in popular culture this year, 28 years after its debut (two years after it capped the finale of The Sopranos TV series). It’s been featured on American Idol, it was the number selected from hit Broadway musical Rock of Ages to be…

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15 Flicks for Fall 2009

On the pop-cultural calendar, the climax of the year is supposedly the summer blockbuster season. Fall is when we begin the year again with new TV and more serious cinema (leading up to the Oscars). After a lacklustre summer (where even the stalwart Harry Potter franchise left me disappointed), we could really use some fresh,…

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District 9 – Movie Review

I’ve mentioned before how much I like “intelligent” sci-fi movies: in other words, ones which spend more effort on concept and story rather than just perfecting the CGI or blowing things up in cool ways. District 9 falls into the “intelligent” camp even though its concept is not the brain-twisting kind. Essentially, in the 80s…

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Movie Review

It’s been a while now since I saw the movie (I’m on vacation) but I didn’t want to let an HP milestone go by without some comment on this blog. For those of you not Potter afficienados, Half-Blood Prince is the second to last book in the Potter series and (because they are making two…

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Torchwood: Children of Earth – TV (P)review

Anyone who’s seen the “They’re here…” moment from Poltergeist, or seen images of the Village of the Damned kids with their glowing eyes, knows that children have long been used for both sentimental and chilling effect in sci-fi and horror. In the new Torchwood mini-series, Children of Earth (technically season/series 3 of the BBC show),…

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Up – Movie Review

I defy you not to be charmed by the new Pixar movie, Up (such a non-descript title for such a fun film). In a field that is rapidly filling with vapid imitators, Pixar continues to keep itself above the others by creating lovable, fresh characters and heart-warming stories, even while skimping nary a pixel on…

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Terminator Salvation – Movie Review

With the recent(ly cancelled) series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, still so fresh in the pop culture atmosphere, it’s odd that they’d be going forward with the movie series as well. Granted, the franchise reboot is becoming a sub-genre of its own these days, but for this series it’s getting a bit confusing. Nevertheless, when…

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Glee – TV (P)review

There’s a lot of singing, a lot of dancing, and a lot of teen drama on TV these days, so perhaps it shouldn’t be a big deal when a new show comes along that combines these all together. However, when I watched the preview episode of Glee on Fox last week, I was more excited…

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