In a sea of sameness, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World emerges as a fine work of originality and energy. It merges everything that twenty-to-early-thirty-something men have ever loved in life: video games, crazy action, humor, and the pursuit of women. While the core story is hardly anything special, director Edgar… Continue reading
Disclaimer: I don’t know the first thing about the source material. Not that it matters. I can imagine any fan of the series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, sitting in the theater, slack-jawed, at this dreary, joyless, and boring effort from M. Night Shyamalan. Where’s the fun? We’re talking about characters… Continue reading
Toy Story 3 is a masterpiece, not to mention probably the greatest movie ever made with a title that ends in “3.” This series has always stood for never losing the kid within us all, but here the Pixar team has outdone themselves with adventure, comedy, and a sentimentality that… Continue reading
The primary fear with a movie like Prince of Persia: The Sand of Time, other than the fact that it’s another film based on a video game, is that it will take itself too seriously. Nothing can sink a would-be summer diversion more than self-importance, and while Prince of Persia… Continue reading
Well, at least I know what setting $70 million ablaze looks like in 3D. That’s about all that’s to be gained from this 2010 version of Clash of the Titans, an ugly, joyless clunker that could only have been made better if it were an April Fool’s joke. No such… Continue reading
A quick search on IMDb reveals that no less than twenty-three adaptations, including this one, of Alice in Wonderland have been produced over the years. That would at least partially explain why Tim Burton’s big-budget refitting feels so familiar, but it doesn’t quite explain why it’s so bland. On paper… Continue reading
Inkheart, based upon the bestselling novel by Cornelia Funke, fits right in to the current trend in Hollywood of the written page becoming a reality. The very notion arouses all kinds of childhood memories (“what would my favorite character be like if he/she were real?”), and for the most part… Continue reading
I have no doubt that the notion of a “working man’s” superhero reads great on the written page. Hellboy is such a character, but for the second time on the big screen he really fails to be all that engaging. He’s a big brute with an attitude that is easy… Continue reading
The dream of Jackie Chan and Jet Li teaming up has been swimming in the heads of film geeks for years. Both are martial arts masters, but both also have vastly different demeanors. Chan has always been a fan favorite as the everyman who is always caught in the wrong… Continue reading
What’s with this trend where sitcoms get to be movies? It’s one thing to adapt a sitcom or TV show (and it’ll more than likely be a big mistake), but to deliberately take ideas and scripts that would barely pass a Screenwriting 101 class and green light them for the… Continue reading