THE DICTATOR (2012)
Sacha Baron Cohen being escorted off the red carpet Sacha Baron Cohen‘s latest movie made national headlines even before it came to the big screen when the star appeared at the Oscars wearing his...
View ArticleMEN IN BLACK III (2012)
A longtime fan of Will Smith and the MEN IN BLACK movies, I was so thrilled to hear about this third installment to the saga! In this MIB adventure, Agent J (Smith) must travel back in time to stop...
View ArticleTHE MUPPETS (2011)
The first musical number in THE MUPPETS (2011) immediately put me in mind of the old Busby Berkeley movies of yore, and you can hardly imagine my glee at the cameo appearance of Mickey Rooney, who...
View ArticleSNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (2012)
Revisionist fairly tales seem to be all the rage these days, what with popular TV series “Once Upon a Time” and the recent cinematic flop MIRROR MIRROR. After the insipid disappointment that was MIRROR...
View ArticleMONSIEUR LAZHAR (2011)
When my friend was away in France teaching English for a year, she emailed me with some titles of must-see French movies. One of them was MONSIEUR LAZHAR (2011), which is in fact French-Canadian. This...
View ArticleTHE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETY (2010): A Secret Worth Knowing
THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETY (Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2010): Based on “The Borrowers” stories by Mary Norton, this film is about a family of tiny people who live in the floorboards of a large house. When...
View ArticleCate Blanchett as Kate Hepburn in THE AVIATOR (2004)
In 2004 Martin Scorsese directed Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes in THE AVIATOR. Cate Blanchett co-starred as Katharine Hepburn, Howard Hughes‘ long-term girlfriend in the 1930s. In this post, I...
View ArticleLES MISERABLES (2012): Less Miserable Than Expected
Director Tom Hooper adopted a huge legacy when he agreed to make yet another version of Victor Hugo’s classic French tale. There are two French film versions of the story: the epic Raymond Bernard...
View ArticleTHE HOBBIT (2012): An Unexpected Pleasure
If truth be told, I wasn’t expecting much when I phoned up my friend and asked her if she wanted to go see THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY with me. I was more interested in chatting to her over...
View ArticleLIFE OF PI (2012) – Not “Life of Inept Bearded Author”
Ang Lee’s LIFE OF PI is a masterpiece of directing, cinematography, and visual effects. It rightly deserved all four of the Oscars it came away with a couple weeks ago. The story is inspirational,...
View ArticleOZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL Womanising Coward
Oscar (James Franco) is a magician struggling to find love and earn a living in Kansas with the travelling carnival. When Oz climbs into a hot air balloon in order to escape the fury of a romantic...
View ArticleTHE GREAT GATSBY (Well, almost…)
Not to sound like a literary snob or anything, but The Great Gatsby is truly one of my favorite books. There’s something so sexy about those huge swinging flapper-era parties and the cool mystery of...
View ArticleBringing THE HEAT (2013) with Bullock and McCarthy
Women are being funny again, how about that! The premise of THE HEAT is simple, and very familiar: two mismatched cops are forced to work together against their will, and in the process of fighting the...
View ArticleThe Lone Ranger: Then and Now
“Hi-Yo Silver — A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo Silver … the Lone Ranger! With his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of...
View ArticleKeep Calm and CARRIE (2013) On
Do not keep calm. In no way whatsoever is this a film about which one can remain calm. Freak out. Immediately. There’s so much blood! I haven’t seen this much blood since SWEENEY TODD (2007). Without...
View ArticleWords and Humanity in THE BOOK THIEF (2013)
“I see their ugliness and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both.” This line, read by the narrator Death, is meant to refer to mankind generally. But for Brian Percival’s THE BOOK...
View ArticleReading FROZEN (2013) as a Feminist
FROZEN (2013) is a great example of how Disney can unfold non-traditional plot lines without antagonizing traditionalists. The story is loosely, and I do mean loosely, based on Hans Christian...
View ArticleSteve McQueen’s historical masterpiece 12 YEARS A SLAVE (2013)
2013 proves to be a fairly competitive year for the Academy Awards, with big names and titles vying for the top spots. British director Steve McQueen‘s film 12 YEARS A SLAVE about the real life...
View ArticleOscar Nominated Live Action Shorts: The LAMB Devours the Oscars 2014
Until a couple years ago, I more or less ignored the Academy Award nominations in the short film categories. But every year watching the Oscars, I’d be intrigued by the snippets they’d show of the...
View ArticleMALEFICENT (2014) Is More Magnificent than Imagined
When I first saw the teaser for Robert Stromberg’s MALEFICENT (2014), I’ll admit I did a bit of an eye-roll. It’s just that I’ve never really jumped on the Angelina Jolie bandwagon. She’s never made...
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