An “Inception” review.
It was the posters that did it.
With Dark Knight standing alone in the list of Christopher Nolan films I like, I effortlessly waded through months and months of anticipation and speculation over his next film prior to release. If the internet is anything to go by, the guy clearly has a huge following but I did no more than skip on to the next headline whenever his name showed up alongside anything that wasn't "Batman 3" or "Dark Knight sequel" on blogs and news sites. All it took was for me to see one of the Inception posters and it was done, I went from "zero interest" to "must see" overnight. Talk about the power of good marketing. Naturally, the largely positive word of mouth and critical reception helped also.
Perhaps the most interesting thing the film has spawned are the countless articles pertaining to the various interpretations of the film. These can be very interesting at times but I'm quietly going to sidestep all of that. This is a straight up review of what I liked and didn't like about Inception.
Read more...Are these the Cap and Thor movie designs?
These have been floating around for a couple of days via Collider and AICN and they look pretty legit.
I question certain things about these movies, from how successfully they'll integrate the mystical aspects of Thor into the more realistic superhero world found in the films to Chris Evans as Cap to just plain quality (out all of the "Avengers build-up" films released so far, only the first Iron Man was actually a good movie) but seeing these awesome designs goes a long way towards instilling faith in me.
Still way more excited about the upcoming Green Lantern movie though.
Larger versions of the costumes below.
Read more...An “Iron Man 2″ review.
Jon Favreau's Iron Man was a surprise to many people. In spite of a rather shoddy third act, it was a funny, exciting and extremely enjoyable film backed by some smart and inspired production choices. No more than two years later and Favreau and crew are back with a sequel. Iron Man 2 packs higher expectations due to its predecessor's success but lacks some of the positive, pre-release word of mouth that the first film seemed to drown in (the dismissal of Terrence Howard was upsetting to say the least). Nonetheless, I hightailed it to the theater a few nights ago to catch the film.
So, how was it?
Short answer? It was pretty good.
Long answer below.
Read more...A “Kick-Ass” review.
I'm a pretty big fan of Mark Millar's writing but, for some reason, I haven't gotten around to reading his and John Romita Jr.'s Kick-Ass yet. I prefer my superhero stories to be epic and over the top and the idea of a "real world" superhero doesn't really appeal to me, I suppose. But word of mouth about the comic's film adaptation has been very positive and it seems like director Matthew Vaughn was trying to stay true to the source material from what I had seen in the trailers so my curiosity was piqued.
There are spoilers ahead but I promise to not end this review by using this movie's title to describe itself.
Read more...Really excited about the upcoming “Alien” prequel.
From Ridley Scott via MTV:
It's set in 2085, about 30 years before Sigourney [Weaver's character Ellen Ripley]. It's fundamentally about going out to find out 'Who the hell was that Space Jockey?' The guy who was sitting in the chair in the alien vehicle — there was a giant fellow sitting in a seat on what looked to be either a piece of technology or an astronomer's chair.
Ridley Scott on board as director, possible involvement by H.R. Giger and the reveal of arguably the biggest mystery in the Alien franchise.
It's hard for me to convey just how fucking excited I am about this movie.
Can't wait.
An “Alice in Wonderland” review.
To be fair, I think it's worth mentioning before I begin that I have never read Lewis Carroll's novel and that I have only vague memories of Disney's animated film from 1951. Still, I was interested in seeing this newest rendition of Alice in Wonderland mostly because of Tim Burton who, in spite of over a decade of mostly mediocre films, has a take on visuals that is unmistakably unique and quite fetching. More than any of the films he's made in the last few years, I think Alice in Wonderland lends itself for Tim Burton to have a great level of self-indulgence and I was curious to see how that would turn out.
Read more...Pixar’s UP nominated for Best Picture.
It seems at times like the Academy created the Best Animated Feature Film category just to relegate animation to its own little corner of the Oscars and collectively forget about it so it's refreshing to see UP running for Best Picture this year. I saw UP like five times and it truly is an amazing film and more than worthy of being called best film of the year. Whether UP could've broken into Best Picture with only five nominated films in the category as opposed to the ten we're having this year is up for debate but stilll.
It was a pleasant surprise to see District 9 running for Best Picture also.
An “Avatar” review.
Well over a decade in the making, Avatar is James Cameron's first feature film since Titanic back in 1997. In my mind, Cameron's Terminator 2 is the best action movie ever made so this movie had some pretty big shoes to fill. I tried to stay away from details of the movie for as long as I could but some things are inevitably bound to slip by and what I heard about Avatar was a little mixed to say the least. "Dances with Smurfs" and "Star Wars for a new generation" sit at opposite ends of the spectrum in this regard.
I saw Avatar last night and below are my thoughts on it.
Read more...A “The Princess and the Frog” review.
The Princess and the Frog is Disney's first traditionally animated feature film since 2004 and, for that reason alone, I've been keeping a close eye on it through its development ups and downs. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, this movie has big shoes to fill as it attempts to resuscitate a dying breed of animation: the traditionally animated Disney musical. Though in more than capable hands, I was wary when going into the theater as I wasn't sure what to expect and I didn't know if Walt Disney Pictures still had it in them.
More after the break.
Read more...A “9″ review.
"9" was probably, along with Pixar's "Up," my most anticipated movie this year. Its trailer came out of nowhere and, bad music choices in it aside, I simply loved it. It was clear in its setting and design sensibilities that it wasn't your average animated movie and that it was striving to be something different. I soon learned that the movie was based on one of director Shane Acker's own animated shorts (also titled "9" and embedded at the end of this post) but I refused to watch it in fear of ruining any plot elements.
I went to see it the day it was released and here's what I thought.
Read more...Galleries
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