Reviews
My sweet wife Sandra is not a particular fan of SF films (though she’ll certainly watch or go see them with me), nor of war movies. Yet after we saw this movie today, she talked about how engrossed she was during the entire film. (I’ll note that she went with me to see “Skyline” last [...]
Continue reading about “Battle Los Angeles”: a brief review (w/spoilers)
I didn’t have plans to go see “The Book of Eli”, even though the trailer made it look like “Fallout 3: The Movie” (I happen to be a big fan of “Fallout 3“). But then I read some early reviews that indicated that “Eli” might indeed be worth seeing, so my sweet wife Sandra and [...]
Continue reading about “The Book of Eli”: a brief review (w/spoilers)
I saw “Avatar” (in 3-D) yesterday afternoon and saw “Sherlock Holmes” this afternoon. I’ll be going back to see “Sherlock Holmes” again, probably within a week; “Avatar” will have to wait for DVD, if then. “Avatar” is worth seeing once on the large screen, in 3-D, just for the sheer visual spectacle and technical brilliance. [...]
Continue reading about “Sherlock Holmes” / “Avatar”: a brief review
The original “Star Trek” series started on NBC the same month I started my freshman year at Grossmont High. It ran two and a half seasons before dying, but eventually spawned a long list of movies and four successive TV series (ST: The Next Generation, ST: Deep Space Nine, ST: Voyager, and Enterprise) — not [...]
Continue reading about “Star Trek” (2009): a brief review (w/spoilers)
“Mr. Rearden,” said Francisco, his voice solemnly calm, “if you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling, but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater [...]
Continue reading about Atlas Shrugged: a brief review w/spoilers
This remains my favorite Christmas movie (yes, even over “A Christmas Story”). It is a musical version of Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol”, starring Albert Finney in the title role. I am not alone in my praise for this movie; note that of the 406(!) customer reviews for it at Amazon, 366 (90%) give it 5 [...]
Continue reading about Christmas recommendation: “Scrooge” (1970)
[UPDATED 2134 MDT: Uh, corrected David Zucker's last name. Thanks, Kevin!] [UPDATED 1604 MDT: Got an Ace-o-lanche going on, with other links coming in -- welcome all! Also made a few minor edits.] The Devil, the proud spirit, cannot endure to be mocked. – Sir Thomas More I went into “An American Carol” with guarded [...]
Continue reading about “An American Carol”: a brief review w/spoilers
Actually, it’s hard to write much of a review without giving away key plot points, so this first part will be brief (and spoilers listed below). Truly an outstanding film. Not perfect (see the spoilers section), but every bit as tense, intelligent, and morally complex as the crime dramas that regularly get Oscar nominations. Put [...]
Continue reading about “The Dark Knight”: a brief review (w/spoilers)
You could probably devise an interesting psychological profiling test around a person’s favorite Pixar film; mine happens to be “The Incredibles”, so make of that what you will. What is telling is that Pixar has yet to make either a bad or an unsuccessful movie, a pretty stunning achievement given the river of diluted sludge [...]
Continue reading about “WALL-E”: a brief review (w/spoilers)
Oh, for things that might have been. I saw “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” on opening day, and — for all the grumblings that I’ve seen in other reviews — I actually liked it. Shia LaBeouf wasn’t as bad as I feared, and it was a joy seeing Karen Allen — [...]
Continue reading about “Indiana Jones and the City of Gods”: a brief review (w/spoilers)