Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the third entry in director Michael Bay’s trio of colossal, rock ‘em-sock ‘em-blast ‘em action epics about giant shape-changing robots, is much like its predecessors: long, loud and ludicrous. Critics faintly praised it as being a slightly better experience than the first two flicks, but honestly, I don’t know how [...]
Read MoreThor is a big movie, not just in that it cost $150 million to make, but because it’s very theatrical. The dialogue, setting, acting and plot all seem on the level of a Shakespearean drama. So it’s fitting, and fortunate, that it was directed by Kenneth Branagh, who, with a great assist from Chris Hemsworth [...]
Read More*The following is a transcript of a conversation between two guys who have just seen the Norwegian fantasy film Troll Hunter. It was obtained via subcutaneous audio implants that were surreptitiously injected into the guys’ necks via movie-studio-hired snipers as the guys were walking out of a theater.*
Read MorePaul Bettany must have liked playing a gun-toting archangel in last year’s Legion, because he reunites with that film’s director to again play a guy who kicks butt while serving God in Priest, a slick supernatural action flick that looks great but lacks personality.
Read MorePaul follows in the tradition of the great Galaxy Quest as a film that begins–and ends–at a sci-fi convention, offers its geekiest sci-fi nerds a chance to be part of a real sci-fi adventure, and even features a certain iconic sci-fi personality whose name would qualify as a spoiler. I certainly expect fans of the [...]
Read MoreThere was originally a much longer intro to this review about the duality of humor and drama and how it can be seen in a director’s work. At the end of the day, I don’t really think Your Highness needs such heady discourse.
Read MoreMoon director Duncan Jones successfully segues into more ambitious sci-fi storytelling with Source Code, his slick, twisty sophomore effort that infuses a mind-bending premise with surprising emotional warmth courtesy of a cast featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan.
Read MoreSucker Punch exists solely to serve as a flimsy excuse for its own existence. I’ll elaborate. The overarching “plot” of the film is really very dull and kind of unsavory (think of Pasolini‘s Salo toned down to a PG-13 rating), but it does offer a framework to string along four spectacular, absurd, fetishistic action set [...]
Read MoreIn light of the deep and timeless philosophical questions explored in the film The Adjustment Bureau starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, I have chosen this week to eschew my usual review and instead present a Socratic-style dialogue. Specifically, as an imagined conversation between one of the film’s producers and a representative of the RIM [...]
Read MoreBlack Hawk Down meets Independence Day in Battle: Los Angeles, an entertainingly gung-ho alien-invasion epic starring Aaron Eckhart and Michelle Rodriguez that practically doubles as a military recruitment film.
Read More Aaron Eckhart, action, Battle: Los Angeles, blu-ray, David, DVD, Michelle Rodriguez, Sci-Fi