Way back in China’s history judges were the investigators of the day and during the Tang Dynasty there lived a noteworthy magistrate by the name of Di Renji. In the 1940’s an international author wrote a series of mystery novels loosely based on the judge now re-christened Judge Dee. Today we have a new film based on […]
In what seems to amount to a rare situation this year I managed to catch two films this holiday weekend. I’ve had countless barriers this year to catching more films but the most striking one has been that I just haven’t felt very interested in much of what’s been put forth so far and with […]
A pure sense of hope against a world filled with callous motivations.
While on an industry event of my own I managed to find the time to check out Liam Neeson‘s newest film, Unknown. Neeson’s character is (ironically) on a trip with his wife as a guest speaker at an industry event in Berlin. After an accident he wakes up several days later in the hospital and, upon leaving, […]
I was looking for something a with a bit of a driving pulse and that brings me to Red. It boasts a cadre of capable stars in Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman. The opening credits included a logo for DC Comics suggesting this story is taken from an existing comic but if so I wasn’t aware of it […]
So, in what will amount to much surprise for my friend Luke, this weekend I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. What surprised me most about my participation is that the film stars Michael Cera. I’ve had a long-running grudge against the actor from his earliest roles, as he seems to always play the same […]
During the first 15 minutes or so of Inception I was completely lost. The film bounced around like a super-ball in a metal box. Finally, as it starts to unfold you begin to figure out what’s going on. The bottom line is that the story involves a leap of faith that I simply didn’t buy […]
This week I was a bit nonplussed to see Robin Hood. The reviews were lukewarm and it just all seemed to be getting very little buzz. Thankfully the movie deserves a better fate than that. The first thing to know is that the previews are entirely misleading. If you’re expecting a re-telling of the classic 1938 Errol […]
Last week I caught Iron Man 2 and it was so good that I couldn’t find the words to describe my feelings. Actually, it was just so boring that I couldn’t bring myself to bother. I loved the first Iron Man. I liked it so much that I had a hard time keeping it out […]
A young viking befriends an injured dragon to the dismay of most of his village in How to Train Your Dragon. Animated films are often a challenge for many adults — especially those without children. Some are clearly meant for a younger audience, while others offer a much wider appeal. When I saw the previews for this […]
I have to be honest and say that everything I saw about Avatar before it came out made me think it’d be a complete letdown if not a total disaster. The only hope I had was that it was being handled by James Cameron. Cameron has been through such concerns before. People may not recall, […]
This week found me checking out the new Bruce Willis movie Surrogates. The movie starts with a rather compelling concept of humans living life through the use of hyper-realistic robots. Of course in this world no one’s surrogate is overweight, old or even has a wrinkle. The surrogates all have great hair, perfect skin, perfect […]