Flimsy follow-up coasts in to finish line


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After last year’s Toy Story 3 was critically acclaimed, loved by fans and the first animated film to make over a billion dollars, it would have been a great feat for Pixar to outdo itself this year. With Cars 2, however, it seems like the film studio didn’t even try. At first, the thought of […]

Dark of the Moon transforms a successful franchise


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Transformers: Dark of the Moon opens with a space battle worthy of Star Wars that introduces legendary Autobot warrior Sentinel Prime (Leonard Nimoy), who crashlands on the Earth’s moon in the midst of the 1960s space race between America and Russia, before promptly jumping to the present to find the Autobots working with mankind to […]

Adapted comic book flick has the ring, but no power


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With the summer releases of Thor and X-Men: First Class behind us and Captain America, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Cowboys & Aliens on the way, 2011 looks to offer the perfect summer for comic book movies. Green Lantern should fit right in, but instead it fails miserably both on its own merits and […]

New origin story places mutants in center of history


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There are bound to be fans of the X-Men saga who will be pleased with last weekend’s long-awaited prequel, X-Men: First Class. Although the film does breathe some new life into the sagging franchise, it’s emphatically not the fantastic film it could have been, and it most likely won’t age particularly well. Unimaginative dialogue, a […]

Filmmaking juggernauts team up for 1970s thriller


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J.J. Abrams keeps on coming back to a box he received in his childhood. As a boy, Abrams was given a ‘mystery box’ — unknown items inside a box labeled only with a question mark. Abrams, now nearly 45, has never opened it, but has said the box’s tug on his imagination greatly influences his […]

Follow-up a hollow echo of original film


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With a movie like The Hangover, any follow up would feel forced. The original was so twisted, so hilarious and so extremely out there that putting the four leads through the same situation would raise questions. But director Todd Phillips, who co-wrote the sequel, managed to prevent things from being completely repetitive. The result is […]

Tides sets up possibility of franchise built around Depp


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What is a film franchise to do when what was originally supposed to be a supporting character completely hijacks the series? In the case of Pirates of the Caribbean, the answer was to ditch the intended leads and start another set of films showcasing the breakout character, here, Johnny Depp’s mercurial Captain Jack Sparrow. Pirates […]

Money, passion square off in Allen’s latest


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It’s fairly common to hear someone say, “I wish I could have lived in the 1950s” or “I wonder what it was like to be a flapper in the 1920s.”  What’s not as common is the realization of that curiosity, something Woody Allen delightfully brings to the screen in his newest film, Midnight In Paris. […]

Wedding-themed comedy starring two SNL veterans takes the cake


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It’s been called “The Hangover for girls,” but that falsely supposes two things. Primarily, it insinuates that female audiences are somehow incapable of fully enjoying or appreciating Todd Phillips’ 2009 morning-after comedy about a trio of friends trying to piece together the events of the previous night’s drunken bender of a bachelor party. But secondly, […]

That’s What I Am more than just a coming-of-age tale


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Were kids just as mean 50 years ago as they were today?  The quote “It has often been said that children are cruel” is displayed at the beginning of That’s What I Am, a remarkable, uplifting exploration of a boy’s journey to manhood amongst the discrimination and trials of a 1960s middle-school. Written and directed […]