bfwebster on January 16th, 2010

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)

bfwebster on December 25th, 2009

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. But the [...]

Continue reading about “Sherlock Holmes” / “Avatar”: a brief review

bfwebster on May 8th, 2009

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)

bfwebster on April 17th, 2009

“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

bfwebster on December 6th, 2008

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)

bfwebster on October 3rd, 2008

[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 expectations. While David Zucker [...]

Continue reading about “An American Carol”: a brief review w/spoilers

bfwebster on July 18th, 2008

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 another [...]

Continue reading about “The Dark Knight”: a brief review (w/spoilers)

bfwebster on July 2nd, 2008

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 — the [...]

Continue reading about “Indiana Jones and the City of Gods”: a brief review (w/spoilers)

bfwebster on May 28th, 2008

OK, I wrote an initial review after watching Part 1 of A&E’s miniseries, “The Andromeda Strain”. It was goofy and heavy-handed in its political agenda, but was still a bit fun, and I was waiting to see how Part 2 went.
So now I’ve watched Part 2, which (IMHO) descended from goofiness into full-blown stupidity. It’s [...]

Continue reading about “The Andromeda Strain”: a brief review (w/spoilers)