Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture

The Happening – Movie Review

I had a strange feeling while watching M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie, The Happening, and it was not just the horror of watching people kill themselves for no apparent reason. Neither was it fear over the threat of a mysterious event that was causing these suicides, nor disappointment about the amateurish performance of Mark Wahlberg…

2008 TV Season Review

Always struggling between whether to review TV seasons at calendar year-end or summer season-end, but inspired by the awesome finales of Lost and Battlestar Galactica, I’ve decided to talk about the shows I loved, and not-so-loved this season (no comment, however, on shows I dropped ages ago — that means you: Bionic Woman, Dirty Sexy…

Kung Fu Panda – Movie Review

Is there anything more fun than a cartoon panda who does kung fu with the slacker wit and squeezable charm of Jack Black? I totally think not! What I thought was going to be another throw-away animated feature from Dreamworks (I wish I could throw away memories of Shrek 3!) was instead an awesome movie…

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – Movie Review

Everyone seems pre-occupied with whether or not the 66-year-old Harrison Ford can still pull off the role of Indiana Jones at his age, but the real question should be whether or not this movie can live up to the legacy of fun, cinematic adventure that comes with the Indiana Jones name. From the opening scene…

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – Movie Review

While Walden Media, the production company with the magic touch when it comes to adapting children’s fantasy classics for the big screen, had great success with the first Narnia movie, they don’t have the same knack for making sequels. Prince Caspian (the fourth book in the C.S. Lewis series, but second movie) is an obvious…

Iron Man – Movie Review

This summer is going to be jam-packed with comic-book super-heroes on the big screen, and the first one out of the secret hideout is Iron Man. While the character is definitely one of the giants of the Marvel Comics universe, he’s less well-known in popular culture than others like Captain America, Hulk or Spider-Man. Most…

Forbidden Kingdom – Movie Review

Finally, the long-awaited showdown between kung-fu movie masters Jet Li and Jackie Chan! For many lovers of the genre, that’s what Forbidden Kingdom is all about (Don’t worry, I won’t tell you who wins). Granted, it’s a pretty spectacular martial arts flick with the amazing fight-choreography of movie master Yuen Wo Ping (even fans mildly…

Galactica creator Moore sticks with Sci-Fi

Check out the Hollywood Reporter article which reveals what Ronald D. Moore (co-creator of the excellent sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica) is up to next. With Fringe (new sci-fi series from Alias creator JJ Abrams) and Dollhouse (new sci-fi series from Buffy creator Joss Whedon) already slated for the 2008-2009 TV season, this is looking to…

Idol Worship?

American Idol performs Shout to the Lord but I have to say, I’m pretty ambivalent about it. I love this song. It’s one of my favourite worship songs, so it’s nice to hear it being performed (even if they substitute “Shepherd” for “Jesus” — does that make it less religious? less Christian? not really). But,…