Videos and DVDs are in italics. Films I saw for the first time have an asterisk (*) next to them. Not counting extras and promo items. Jan 1 — The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Jan 2 — The Hot Chick * Jan 2 — Pinocchio [2002, dubbed version] * Jan 3 — The Reluctant Dragon * Jan 5 — Claire’s Knee * Jan 5 — The Woman Next Door * Jan 5 — The Best of the... Read more
Adaptation is about a screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman who is struggling to adapt a book on orchids by a writer for the New Yorker named Susan Orlean. As it happens, the film itself is written by a screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman — whose previous forays into the bizarre and self-referential include the little-seen Human Nature and the inspired, if over-rated, Being John Malkovich — and parts of this new film are based on a book on orchids by a real-life... Read more
Just came home from seeing this one. I don’t have to review this film for any secular media, and I’m afraid there’s no great thematic depth to it that warrants any coverage in the religious media, AFAIAC. So instead of writing a “review”, I’m just going to post a few random thoughts. (more…) Read more
I recently made mp3s of a few James Horner tunes so people could compare and contrast his soundtracks to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Aliens (1986) — they’re very similar. As a result, I have had the ‘Genesis Countdown’ tune running through my head a fair bit lately, and today, during a moment of boredom, I found myself thinking about the climax to this film, and what makes it so interesting and distinctive. There is a... Read more
Harry Potter and his friends may soar through the air on broomsticks and dangle from flying cars in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the latest chapter in J.K. Rowling’s ongoing saga about a young orphan at a boarding school for witches and wizards, but the film never takes flight the way it ought to. Despite the abundance of special effects that flood nearly every frame, director Chris Columbus and screenwriter Steve Kloves have their feet planted firmly on... Read more
HARRY POTTER and his friends may soar through the air on broomsticks and dangle from flying cars in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the latest chapter in J.K. Rowling’s ongoing saga about a young orphan and his classmates at a boarding school for witches and wizards, but the film itself never takes flight the way it ought to. Despite the wealth of special effects that fill nearly every frame of this film, director Chris Columbus and screenwriter Steve... Read more
Wendy Crewson may not be a household name, but you’ve probably seen one of her movies. Over the past two decades, the Hamilton-born actress — who grew up in Winnipeg, Montreal, and points in-between — has played the supportive wife opposite Sam Neill (Bicentennial Man), Judge Reinhold (The Santa Clause), Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Sixth Day) and Harrison Ford (Air Force One). She also had a hilarious turn as a sexually frustrated woman who finds unexpected ecstasy through her lesbian daughter’s... Read more
SIGNS IS a daring bait-and-switch, in which director M. Night Shyamalan seems to promise his audience a movie about aliens and gives us a movie about God, instead. The film, which stars Mel Gibson as an Episcopal priest who has lost his faith following the tragic death of his wife, is about the need to believe that there is someone out there watching over us, and not just some empty meaningless void, and the film cannily plays with — and... Read more
It’s been eight years since Harrison Ford last played Jack Ryan, but the spirit of Tom Clancy haunts him still. His most successful role since then was that of the kick-ass plane-defending president in Air Force One. In his latest film, K-19: The Widowmaker — which marks a return to form after the disappointments of What Lies Beneath, Random Hearts and Six Days Seven Nights — he plays a Russian submarine commander, who takes the Soviet navy’s newest flagship on... Read more
Steven Spielberg hasn’t got Stanley Kubrick out of his system yet. In some respects, Minority Report is the sort of futuristic sci-fi chase movie that makes popcorn vendors smile. It’s also the sort of spectacular summer flick you expect a crowd-pleaser like Spielberg to excel at. But it also reflects the bleak, dystopic vision of things to come that made A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Spielberg’s realization of a project Kubrick spent years developing, so chilling and unfamiliar. Minority Report also stars... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In