Like the boy that shares its name, the Harry Potter series stumbled from the gate, saddled not entirely unexpectedly with inexperience and immaturity. But then, as with the boy, something truly wonderful—even magical—happened. It grew into something to be immensely, colossally, button-poppingly proud of. Unlike nearly every adaptation Hollywood produces, the Harry Potter films, taken [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Film Reviews'
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
July 18th, 2011 · No Comments · Film Reviews
Tags:Adrian Rawlins·Afshan Azard·Alan Rickman·Alfie Enoch·Anna Shaffer·Arthur Bowen·Benedict Clarke·Bonnie Wright·Chris Rankin·Ciaran Hinds·Clemence Poesy·Daniel Radcliffe·Dave Legeno·David Bradley·David Thewlis·David Yates·Domhnall Gleeson·Ellie Darcey-Alden·Emma Thompson·Emma Watson·Evanna Lynch·Freddie Stroma·Gary Oldman·George Harris·Georgina Leonidas·Geraldine Somerville·Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2·Hebe Beardsall·Helen McCrory·Helena Bonham Carter·Isabella Laughland·James Phelps·Jason Isaacs·Jessie Cave·Jim broadbent·John Hurt·Julie Walters·Katie Leung·Kelly Macdonald·Maggie Smith·Mark Williams·Matthew Lewis·Michael Gambon·Miriam Margolyes·Natalia Tena·Oliver Phelps·Ralph Fiennes·Robbie Coltrane·rupert Grint·Tom Felton·Warwick Davis
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
July 1st, 2011 · 6 Comments · Film Reviews
It is no secret that I disliked the first two Transformers films. In fact, I employ no hyperbole whatsoever in admitting that I, for lack of a more expressive word, utterly loathed them. There are those who claim Transformers: Dark of the Moon is light years better than its predecessors. Do not believe their rancid [...]
Tags:Alan Tudyk·Frances McDormand·John Malkovich·John Turturro·Josh Duhamel·Ken Jeong·Kevin Dunn·Michael Bay·Patrick Dempsey·Peter Cullen·Rosie Huntington-Whitley·Shia LaBeouf·Transformers: Dark of the Moon·Tyrese Gibson
Larry Crowne
July 1st, 2011 · 1 Comment · Film Reviews
Several years ago, one of my dearest friends starred in a national CitiCard commercial in which a woman Feng shuis her house (the ancient Chinese system of aesthetics that teaches that greater spiritual energy can be derived from a proper orientation of your material belongings) but discovers that what she really needed to do was [...]
Tags:Bryan Cranston·Cedric the Entertainer·Claudia Stedelin·Dale Dye·Enuku Okuma·George Takei·Grace Gummer·Gugu Mbatha-Raw·Holmes Osborne·Ian Gomez·Julia Cho·Julia Roberts·Larry Crowne·Malcolm Barrett·Maria Canals-Barrera·Pam Grier·Peter Scolari·Rami Malek·Randall Park·Rita Wilson·Rob Riggle·Sarah Levy·Taraji P. Henson·Tom Hanks·Wilmer Valderrama
Cars 2
June 24th, 2011 · No Comments · Film Reviews
It was bound to happen. No one can keep a winning streak like that going forever. A 25-year perfect game isn’t exactly shabby. In fact, it just might be unprecedented. There is no other creative entity in Hollywood with as unblemished and sterling a record as Pixar. This makes the stumble that is Cars 2 [...]
Tags:Bonnie Hunt·Brad Lewis·Brent Musburger·Bruce Campbell·Cars 2·Cheech Marin·Darrell Waltrip·David Hobbs·Eddie Izzard·Edie McClurg·Emily Mortimer·Franco Nero·Jason Isaacs·Jeff Garlin·Jeff Gordon·Jenifer Lewis·Joe Mantegna·John Lasseter·John Ratzenberger·John Turturro·Katherine Helmond·Larry the Cable Guy·Lloyd Sherr·Michael Caine·Michel Michelis·Owen Wilson·Patrick Walker·Paul Dooley·Peter Jacobson·Richard Kind·Thomas Krestchmann·Tony Shalhoub·Vanessa Redgrave
The Green Lantern
June 17th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Film Reviews
When I was young, I accidentally punched a hole in the side of our garage wall with a wayward snow shovel. Terrified at the implications once my mother returned from work, I did the only thing I could think of: I taped a piece of notebook paper across the sizable gouge and painted over the [...]
Tags:Angela Bassett·Blake Lively·Clancy Brown·Dylan James·Gattlin Griffith·Geoffrey Rush·Jay O. Sanders·Jon Tenney·mark strong·Martin Campbell·Michael Clarke Duncan·Mike Doyle·Peter Sarsgaard·Ryan Reynolds·Taika Waititi·Temuera Morrison·The Green Lantern·Tim Robbins
Super 8
June 10th, 2011 · 7 Comments · Film Reviews
Nostalgia is defined as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.” One thing that is abundantly clear while watching Super 8 is that writer/director J.J. Abrams’ nostalgia for his early teenaged years—an era defined by the films of Steven Spielberg (also a producer [...]
Tags:AJ Michalka·Britt Flatmo·Bruce Greenwood·Dale Dickey·Dan Castellaneta·David Gallagher·Elle Fanning·Gabriel Basso·Glynn Turman·J.J. Abrams·Jack Axelrod·Jade Griffiths·Jessica Tuck·Joel Courtney·Joel McKinnon Miller·Kyle Chandler·Noah Emmerich·Richard T. Jones·Riley Griffiths·Ron Eldard·Ryan Lee·Super 8·Zach Mills
X-Men: First Class
June 3rd, 2011 · No Comments · Film Reviews
In a summer unfortunately glutted with superhero movies, every one an origins story, X-Men: First Class not only eclipses its competition, but also each of its franchise predecessors. Psychologically complex, thematically rich and emotionally layered, this is the best, smartest and classiest of the X-Men series by leagues. This is a comic book movie that [...]
Tags:Álex González·Beth Goddard·Bill Milner·Caleb Landry Jones·Corey Johnson·Edi Gathegi·Glenn Morshower·James McAvoy·James Remar·January Jones·Jason Flemyng·Jennifer Lawrence·Kevin Bacon·Laurence Belcher·Lucas Till·Matt Craven·Matthew Vaughn·Michael Fassbender·Morgan Lily·Nicholas Hoult·Oliver Platt·Ray Wise·Rose Byrne·X-Men: First Class·Zoe Kravitz
The Tree of Life
May 27th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Film Reviews
Author’s Note: The following is less a standard film review and more a lengthy, deeply personal and impressionistic filmic examination.
When NASA launched the Voyager space probes in 1977, they housed golden records containing a variety of sounds—natural, animal, linguistic, musical—as well as photographs and scientific and mathematical schematics. Voyager’s contents were intended to be a [...]
Tags:Brad Pitt·Fiona Shaw·Hunter McCracken·Jessica Chastain·Laramie Eppler·Sean Penn·Terrence Malick·The Tree of Life·Tye Sheridan
Kung Fu Panda 2
May 26th, 2011 · No Comments · Film Reviews
Kung Fu Panda 2 is disappointing only because it is not the original Kung Fu Panda, a rare animated action-packed adventure that managed to delight adult filmgoers as well as kids not by injecting sophisticated humor but by making a story of a fat Panda bear incontestably exciting. The second entry in the trilogy (this [...]
Tags:Angelina Jolie·David Cross·Dennis Haysbert·Dustin Hoffman·Gary Oldman·Jack Black·Jackie Chan·James Hong·Jean-Claude Van Damme·Jennifer Yuh Nelson·Kung Fu Panda 2·Lucy Liu·Michelle Yeoh·Seth Rogen·Victor Garber
The Hangover: Part II
May 26th, 2011 · No Comments · Film Reviews
To dispense with a lengthy plot synopsis for The Hangover: Part II would be a profound waste of the time it would take me to write it and you to read it. The Hangover: Part II is the exact same movie as its predecessor down to nearly every single narrative beat. While there’s certainly something [...]
Tags:Bradley Cooper·Bryan Callen·Ed Helms·Gillian Vigman·Jamie Chung·Jeffrey Tambor·Justin Bartha·Ken Jeong·Mason Lee·Mike Tyson·Nick Cassavetes·Nirut Sirichanya·Paul Giamatti·Sasha Barrese·Sondra Currie·The Hangover: Part II·Todd Phillips·Yasmin Lee·Zach Galifianakis





