Oscar, Schmoscar 2006

I fancy myself a movie-lover, so over the last several years I’ve tried to pay more attention to the Oscar nominees. I thought, “These must be the best films of the year, so I should watch a handful of them.” People are raving about this year’s nominees, but after watching some of them, I sadly…

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Are we Friends again?

After Friends went off the air, producers of the spin-off Joey kept reminding us that Joey was not going to be another Friends. That was unfortunate, because Friends was one of my all-time favourite shows, but Joey not so much. Two shows debuted this season (one in the fall and one in January) which are…

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The New World: Movie Review

The New World tells the somewhat familiar story of Pocahontas, John Smith, and the 17th century founding of the Jamestown colony. It’s the same story told by the Disney musical movie Pocahontas, which is in many ways the antithesis of this film. Where Pocahontas was exuberant and fun, The New World is ponderous and artsy….

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Pride and Prejudice – Movie Review

OK. First, let’s get this out of the way: I liked this version better than the BBC mini-series. Gasp?! Sacrilege? Colin Firth is coming to get me? Bring it. Now let me put this preference in perspective. I loved the BBC mini-series—6 hours long, but I have seen it at least twice, once staying up…

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Munich – Movie Review

Steven Spielberg’s story of a team of Israeli assassins sent to kill 11 Palestinian terrorist leaders in retaliation for the killing of 11 hostages at the 1972 Munich Olympics seems to be equal parts drama and thriller. Already there have been rave reviews about this movie—one of the reviewers at Entertainment Weekly even chose it…

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Water and Memoirs of a Geisha

I recently watched two movies with very similar stories and themes. The first was Water, directed by Deepa Mehta, and the second was Memoirs of a Geisha by Rob Marshall. Water is set in India while Memoirs is set in Japan, but both take place in a pre-WW2 time frame and tell the stories of…

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2005: The Year on TV

Let’s face it. The new fall season is a dud. They’ve cancelled shows that I was watching (like Just Legal and Threshold) and kept on inferior ones (like Invasion, Surface, Ghost Whisperer) that I wouldn’t want to watch unless you paid me (and I ain’t seen no cheques in the mail yet!). However, calendar year-end…

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King Kong: Movie Review

Coming out in December, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson’s King Kong is literally the 800-pound gorilla of this year’s cinema box office. This 2005 version is a more-than-faithful remake of the classic 1933 original about a monstrously huge gorilla found on a remote island who abducts and falls for a struggling actress, gets…

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