THE DARK KNIGHT is the aptly named second installment in Christopher Nolan’s sublime retelling of the Batman story. The setting may be Gotham City, but the landscape is that of the unconscious, where archetypes roam unfettered by the restraints of the waking world. This the realm of the hero’s journey, fraught with all the peril… Read More »
IRON MAN — DVD
Itâs not the reason for most of us to go out and purchase the IRON MAN DVD, but it is certainly worth noting that a preview for the J. J. Abrams Star Trek flick is on it. The real reason to buy the DVD, or at least rent it, is the whiz-bang action, the sense… Read More »
IRON MAN — DVD
Itâs not the reason for most of us to go out and purchase the IRON MAN DVD, but it is certainly worth noting that a preview for the J. J. Abrams Star Trek flick is on it. The real reason to buy the DVD, or at least rent it, is the whiz-bang action, the sense… Read More »
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (2008)
There are many reasons for the temptation to remake a classic. There is the one about updating the theme to make it relevant to current events. There is the one about being able to do thematically or visually what one couldn’t have done in a previous era. There is the one about taking a known… Read More »
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
There will not be a better film this year, animated or other, than HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. It’s a rip-snorting story flawlessly animated on every level that seamlessly blends humor, both subtle and broad but never gross, with heart. Lots of heart. Translated from Cressida Cowells novel of the same name, the filmmakers show… Read More »
SPLICE
Before Oppenheimer and company at the Manhattan Project detonated their first A-bomb on the Alamogordo testing grounds way back in 1945, they were almost completely positive that the resulting chain reaction would stop at some point, probably, very probably, long before it destroyed the planet. Science is not without its risks and when humans start… Read More »
DESPICABLE ME
In DESPICABLE ME, the direct honesty of childhood innocence, in the form of three orphan girls, goes head to head with the evil machinations of a super villain feeling his evil competition nipping at his heels, usually with marine life. The result is a smart, funny, and perceptive animated film that dresses up its unabashed… Read More »
SORCERER’S APPRENTICE, THE
THE SORCERERS APPRENTICE starts with so much promise. Nicolas Cage as Balthazar, the eccentric and eponymous sorcerer on a quest to find Merlins heir and with him conquer the evil sorcerers bent on ruling the world by first destroying it. Jay Baruchel as Dave, the sweet but stuttering science geek and, as a magic dragon… Read More »
INCEPTION
Christopher Nolan spent eight years perfecting the script for INCEPTION, the first script of his that hes directed since is stunning, time-bending debut, FOLLOWING. The result is a complex meditation on the interplay between the conscious mind and the layers below it, and the insidious tendency they have to pull the strings of perception on… Read More »
NANNY MCHPHEE RETURNS
Its as though Emma Thompson had a backlog of story ideas and wanted to use them all at once with NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS. The less than magical sequel to her enchanting NANNY MCPHEE is at once a story of British stiff upper lips during the Blitz, a bizarrely cartoonish tale of a gambler without the… Read More »