Saturday, December 29, 2012
Director Quentin Tarantino pays tribute to the Spaghetti Western, and it's shoot 'em up, rootin' tootin' fun !
It's funny, offbeat, and brutal. Based in the American South during the times of slavery, Jamie Foxx straps on a six-shooter or two, some cowboys boots and hat in "Django Unchained." Foxx's Django character is taken by a bounty hunter, portrayed by Christoph Waltz. First they set out to get a few outlaws. Then they set their sites on getting Django's wife, Broomhilda, played by Kerry Washington. But wrangling her tough guy owner, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, isn't so easy. As to be expected the movie has great dialogue, is funny and fine performances are turned in by all. Samuel L. Jackson, who plays a minor role, is a big standout, in my opinion. The film never loses site of the horrors of slavery and even though it uses the "n-word" a …
Saturday, November 3, 2012
The bad guy in an old video game is about to become the good guy in a new movie. It's a wreck the whole family should enjoy.
The bad guy in a low-resolution '80s video game is a reluctant villain who tears down buildings with his sledgehammer fists. He's ready for a change in today's high-resolution world in "Wreck-It Ralph," in 3D. To break out of his bad-guy image Ralph travels to grand game central, where there is access to every video game in the world. If he can win a few levels, who knows, he may become that good guy he has always wanted to be. The clever writing and character development is met with a solid voice-over cast which includes John C. Reilly as Ralph, Sarah Silverman as the voice of Vanellope and Jane Lynch as Sgt. Calhoun. There are dozens of retro games for the grown-ups and a solid storyline for the kids. As in the tradition of "Toy Story," …
Saturday, October 27, 2012
This week's review is like getting six movies for the price of one. It's nearly a three-hour mind-bender they may just leave you scratching your head.
Six major plot lines taking place over 500 years – featuring the same actors playing multiple roles – is what you get with "Cloud Atlas." All of the stories are crosscut together, jumping back and forth from one another across different time periods ranging from a 19th century South Pacific sea voyage to the distant post-apocalyptic future where humanity lives on the very brink of extinction. The cast includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Susan Sarandon, Hugo Weaving and Hugh Grant. They do their best to tell the secrets of the universe and the human heart while leaving you, well, confused. "Cloud Atlas" is simply too long and too scatterbrained. The central message is that we are all connected from womb to tomb and our lives are …
Saturday, October 20, 2012
If you enjoy watching characters sleep while their furniture moves around them, I have just the movie.
A Nevada family plays host to a very odd 6-year-old neighbor boy whose unseen mother has suddenly been hospitalized in "Paranormal Activity 4." A group of young unknown actors jump into the Paranormal Activity formula without a hitch. The long stretches of green night-cam footage manage to creep you out as you try to figure out if you just saw movement in the corner. And when something eventually flies across the screen, no matter how much you try to anticipate it, you jump. A neighborhood witches' coven plays into the proceedings, adding to the drama. In the end, as expected, all you really get is a whole bunch of jolts and scares. If you have seen any of the previous films, it's more of the same. This time around I was more tricked than…
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Six Americans are rescued from Iran in 1980 (true story), and now the real-life drama is a movie, and a good one at that!
On Nov. 4, 1979, a large group of Iranians stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But six Americans did escape. The story about how those six made it out is the set-up for the film "Argo." The six find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. That's when CIA operative Tony Mendez comes in. He's played by Ben Affleck, who also directs the film. He cooks up a plan to fly in alone and fly out with the six, all of them posing as a film crew scouting locations for a faux "Star Wars" knockoff titled "Argo." It's a crazy scheme to get hostages out by fronting a fake movie, but it works…and, at times, it's very funny. There are some great supporting roles for Bryan Cranston, the CIA boss; Alan Arkin, the fake movie …
Saturday, October 6, 2012
It's funny, adventurous, creepy, and even sentimental and with it being in black and white AND 3D, I think it's going to be a hit.
It's part Frankentstein, part Lassie but somehow director Tim Burton makes it work in this stop-motion animation simply called "Frankenweenie." It's the story of a young boy (Frankenstein) who uses all of his talents to bring back his beloved dead dog. There are a lot of references to old horror movies all wrapped up in a heartwarming boy-and-his-dog film the whole family should enjoy. Several celebrities lend their voices to this film that should appeal most to mom and dad. Fans of Boris Karloff will also enjoy this. It's strange in a Tim Burton kind of way but, in my opinion, some of his best work in a long, long time. The characters are all pretty amusing and Victor Frankenstein is a suitable hero for this family-friendly horror film …
Saturday, September 29, 2012
A new animation about vampires is a twisted version of "Twilight," with a whole bunch of fart jokes. The good news is it doesn't stink.
Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy...they all come out in this 3D animation where monsters who have to get away from humans and the horrors of modern life head to Hotel Transylvania. Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) is the head of the house at Hotel Transylvania. And when his daughter Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez) longs for the human world, problems arise, causing quite a scare for the hotel guests. There are more than a dozen celebrity voiceover characters here which does add to the mainly slapstick animation consisting of supernatural chase scenes and jokes involving excrement, ectoplasmic goo, rear ends and breaking wind. The film is a perfectly Halloween-themed movie for kids, but leaves very little for the adults. It's a fun film but …
