Category: Reviews

“WALL-E”: a brief review (w/spoilers)

“WALL-E”: a brief review (w/spoilers)

| July 2, 2008 | Reply

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 […]

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

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

| June 13, 2008 | 1 Reply

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 — […]

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

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

| May 28, 2008 | 2 Replies

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. […]

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“The Andromeda Strain” (pt. 1): a brief review (w/spoilers)

“The Andromeda Strain” (pt. 1): a brief review (w/spoilers)

| May 26, 2008 | 1 Reply

OK, Sandra and I just finished watching the first two hours of A&E’s mini-series, “The Andromeda Strain”, based on the Michael Crichton novel. Sandra, about 45 minutes into tonight’s showing, turned to me and said, “This is like a SciFi Channel movie, but made with better actors.” What makes that really funny is that she […]

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“Sweeney Todd”: a brief review

“Sweeney Todd”: a brief review

| April 2, 2008 | Reply

I missed seeing Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” while it was in theaters. It was not for a lack of desire; it’s just that I don’t like going to the movies by myself, especially if my wife isn’t out of town — and she just wasn’t that interested in seeing […]

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“Shutter”: a brief review (with spoilers)

“Shutter”: a brief review (with spoilers)

| March 22, 2008 | Reply

“Shutter”, which just opened on Friday, is an Americanized remake of a Thai horror film named “Shutter” (or whatever the equivalent is in Thai). It (the remake) stars Joshua Jackson (“Ben Shaw”) and Rachel Taylor (“Jane Shaw”) as a newlywed couple that moves from New York to Japan so that Ben can take a job […]

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“I Am Legend” redux

“I Am Legend” redux

| January 21, 2008 | Reply

Having seen and reviewed “I Am Legend” (2007) last month, and having re-read the original novella by Richard Matheson, I thought I’d watch the two earlier movies based on that same novella: “The Last Man on Earth” (1964) with Vincent Price, and “The Omega Man” (1971) with Charlton Heston. I now have a much, much […]

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“Cloverfield”: A brief review (w/spoilers at the end)

“Cloverfield”: A brief review (w/spoilers at the end)

| January 15, 2008 | Reply

[Thanks to the incoming links, particularly from io9 and Ace of Spades HQ, two of my favorite blogs; as the saying goes, feel free to look around (and to hit the tipjar over in the right column). Also, the first section of this review is spoiler-free; all the spoilers are in a white-text section at […]

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“I Am Legend” — a brief review (with spoilers)

“I Am Legend” — a brief review (with spoilers)

| December 15, 2007 | Reply

The first three-fourths of “I Am Legend” (starring Will Smith and Abbey the Wonder Dog) is haunting, effective, and heart-wrenching. I have traveled to New York City a lot over the years on business — in fact, I was there just this week — and the film does a great job of showing an abandoned, […]

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Beowulf (2007) — a brief review

Beowulf (2007) — a brief review

| November 30, 2007 | Reply

My daughter Salem and I went to see “Beowulf” last night for her 22nd birthday. I sent an e-mail about it to an acquaintance, and he turned around and asked me if this meant that I thought (a) that “Beowulf” was a good movie and (b) that the motion capture technology used works. I spent […]

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