The original Fantastic Four had very little to offer, and this sequel has even less. That the first film was such a box office success came as a surprise to me at the time, but in hindsight 2005 was probably the apex of the comic book adaptation craze. The past… Continue reading
Guys like Nicolas Cage, not in a disturbing way, but in a bona-fide man-crush kind of way. The same thing happens when Mike Ditka walks into an unsuspecting Chicago sports bar. Why compare the two? Because Cage, at least of late, has made ridiculously entertaining films (see “guilty pleasures”) with… Continue reading
Ever since the little quibble with Pixar, Disney has been saddled with filling in the gaps between the aforementioned studio’s releases. With Pixar considered the zenith of computer-animated features, and for good reason, Disney’s non-Pixar releases are almost destined to disappoint; look no further than 2005’s Chicken Little. Meet the… Continue reading
Just when it looked like Sandra Bullock was getting her stuff together in films like Infamous and Crash she comes down with a bad case of Ashley Judd-itis (AJI, for the uninitiated) and retreats to the formulaic, gimmicky fare that put her on the map in the first place. Her… Continue reading
Who is this movie for? Kids will likely be bored by the slow-paced elements of a man’s mid-life crisis. Adults will see right through the smokescreen and identify Charles Farmer for what he really is: a selfish, irresponsible man with passive-aggressive tendencies. The message may be tried-and-true (reach for your… Continue reading
It is a fact of life that we, the audience, are expected to suspend our disbelief as we enter the theater. After all, isn’t that what makes the movies so fun? But it comes with a catch: the plot must be airtight and, more importantly, grounded in a reality that… Continue reading
If anyone out there ever had any doubts as to whether Superman was a metaphor for Jesus Christ, those doubts will be quickly quashed after viewing Superman Returns. Superman’s only weakness appears to be that he’s a human with the power to lift up a boat and stop a crashing… Continue reading
The X-Men series has been one of a handful of comic book-to-silver screen adaptations that I have truly been able to get into. Perhaps it’s because of the human traits inherent in each “mutant” character, or maybe it’s that the franchise uses the word “mutant” with such seriousness. Regardless, the… Continue reading
Horrors of War may be fiction, but in dealing with Hitler’s human experiments during WWII, nothing seems too far-fetched. The film is a pleasantly ambitious smörgåsbord of genres. Filmed entirely in the state of Ohio (a fact I note because this is a very rare occurrence), the film dishes up… Continue reading
How the era of computer animated films has changed in just the past few years. When the original Ice Age was released back in 2002, the genre was virtually unstoppable. Every offering was not only a box office cash cow, but also quite inventive and fun. I was not a… Continue reading