Not quite as bad as I’d expected, with some impressive if ridiculously over-the-top end-of-the-world special effects, which are almost as over-the-top as Nicolas Cage, who somehow miraculously manages not to be in it. (John Cusack stars.) But man is it … Continue reading
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) I’d rate this the best film yet from Dreamworks Animation (probably best known for the Shrek series). Based loosely on a children’s book by Cressida Cowell, it’s the story of an adolescent boy named … Continue reading
George Clooney’s job is to fly around the country firing people to save their bosses the discomfort. When an enthusiastic, fresh-out-of-college new hire (the very cute Anna Kendrick) convinces the boss they could save money by firing people in webcam … Continue reading
As a title card at the start of the film says, “More of this is true than you would believe.” Indeed, back in the late 1970s and the early 1980s an eccentric Army lieutenant colonel convinced his superiors to let … Continue reading
This stop-motion film based on a children’s book by Roald Dahl shows what happens with the title character (voiced by George Clooney), a bit bored by his new career as a newspaper columnist, decides for old time’s sake to return … Continue reading
Last November 2001: A Space Odyssey was re-released theatrically in the United Kingdom, and in this clip stars Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood (who played astronauts David Bowman and Frank Poole in the 1968 film) talk about the film’s importance: … Continue reading
This sequel is clearly aimed at kids and even sillier than the original (reviewed elsewhere on this blog) and without the previous film’s novelty and much of its charm, and it makes even less sense. There are two saving graces. … Continue reading
This sequel to The DaVinci Code (actually based on an earlier novel) has some nice twists and turns, holds the viewer’s interest, and even has scattered comic bits, but the plot makes very little sense. Once again Tom Hanks has … Continue reading
I never watched Firefly when the series originally aired, mainly because the whole idea of mixing spaceships and Westerns struck me as dumb. But later having discovered that the same writer-producer’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer was considerably better than I’d … Continue reading
The story covers a period of nearly three decades in the life of real-life New York mobster Henry Hill (played by Ray Liotta), and the soundtrack features popular songs partly as a hint to the audience about when the events … Continue reading