In director Tim Burton’s marvelous version of Alice in Wonderland, 6-year-old and very sleep-deprived Alice has continuing strange dreams of a white rabbit (Michael Sheen), a giant rabbit hole, a mad tea party, and plants and animals that can talk. About 13 years later, a less than enthusiastic Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is being forced to [...]
Read More adventure, Alan Rickman, Alice In Wonderland, Anne Hathaway, blu-ray, Crispin Glover, DVD, family, Fantasy, Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Michael Sheen, PG-, Robin, Tim Burton, VivianDwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson mocked his massive self to decent effect in 2008’s The Game Plan, and does so again in The Tooth Fairy, a similarly innocuous but amusing piece of family fluff that nonetheless suffers whenever the big guy isn’t dressed in tights and sporting wings.
Read MoreCalling this follow-up to the 2007 box-office hit a “squeakquel” is bad enough, but it also begs to be the answer to a question on Jeopardy, as in, “What 88-minute movie about a trio of talking rodents has more subplots than Spider-Man 3?”
Read More Alvin & the Chipmunks, animation, Betty Thomas, blu-ray, comedy, David, David Cross, DVD, family, Jesse McCartney, Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, PG-, Wendie Malick, Zachary LeviI can still recall the resonant voice of Roald Dahl reading aloud his classic children’s book “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” on my oft-played book-on-tape version (yes, I was a cassette-tape-listening child of the 80’s). Since I, at one point, pretty much knew the book by heart, I had to fight hard to avoid stringent comparison [...]
Read More adventure, Alex, animation, Bill Murray, blu-ray, comedy, DVD, family, Fantastic Mr. Fox, George Clooney, Jason Schwartzman, Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, PG-, Roald Dahl, Wes AndersonDisney makes a much-heralded return to its 2D hand-drawn animation roots with The Princess and the Frog. The return to a medium considered dead (at least in the eyes of dimwitted studio execs) is historic enough. But it also marks the debut of Disney’s first black princess, Tiana. The setting for the story, New Orleans [...]
Read More animation, blu-ray, Disney, DVD, family, Fantasy, G, Musical, romance, The Princess and the Frog, willAfter his turn in the delightfully dark World’s Greatest Dad, it’s a little disappointing to see Robin Williams go back to starring in a broad Hollywood comedy. Yet without him, or co-star John Travolta, the lazy and predictable Old Dogs would have little going for it. The nearly 60-year-old stars play single childhood buddies and [...]
Read More blu-ray, Bryan Adams, comedy, David, DVD, family, John Travolta, Justin Long, Kelly Preston, Lori Loughlin, Matt Dillon, Old Dogs, PG-, Robin Williams, Seth Green, Walt BeckerAnybody reading this who knows the name Hayao Miyazaki probably won’t need any convincing from me to check out his latest film Ponyo. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Japanese master animator, he is widely and ever-increasingly recognized as one of the greatest filmmakers working today, and you owe it to yourself [...]
Read More adventure, animation, blu-ray, Cate Blanchett, DVD, family, Fantasy, G, Hayao Miyazaki, Joe Hisaishi, Liam Neeson, Matt Damon, Ponyo, Tina Fey, willI don’t know if anyone was exactly hungering for a film version of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, but this one from directors Chris Miller (Shrek the Third) and Phil Lord is a well-rendered and fairly entertaining CGI effort that might literally make you hungry.
Read More Andy Samberg, animation, Anna Faris, Bill Hader, Bruce Campbell, Chris Miller, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, David, DVD, family, James Caan, Neil Patrick Harris, PG-, Phil LordEven before I took my three younger nephews (ages 4, 6, and 7) to see this somewhat frantic, effects-filled kid flick about super spy guinea pigs, they were quoting one-liners from its trailers. Especially funny to them was the sight and sound of one of the rodents farting inside a tricked-out, super-fast hamster ball.
Read More action, adventure, Bill Nighy, DVD, family, Fantasy, Hoyt Yeatman, Jon Favreau, Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz, PG-, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Tracy Jordan, Will Arnett, Zach GalifianakisWhen the eminent Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron was brought on to direct the third (and still best) Harry Potter movie, The Prisoner of Azkaban, he proved that the franchise would be strongest when it departed from a rote retelling of J.K. Rowling‘s books and charted its own identity and style. As the books progressed, each [...]
Read More action, adventure, blu-ray, Daniel Radcliffe, David Yates, DVD, family, Fantasy, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Jim Broadbent, Michael Gambon, PG-, Steve Kloves, will